Last week we considered that, while it can be a huge challenge to love each other in the same manner that Jesus loved us, abiding in that love is truly the secret to living a life filled with joy. This week we find a change in tempo as Jesus has finished the farewell discourse (common in ancient custom at the end of a great persons life) and moves into a time of prayer. In reading these verses, we cannot help feeling as though we are being allowed to listen in on a pastoral moment between Jesus and his disciples. Further, by extension, we cannot help but consider how this prayer must have been heard by those in John's community, as well as what message it conveys to us today. For the protection from the world needed by those first century Christians, though not exactly the same, does share much of the same core. For in our lifetime, as in theirs, we are all temped to turn ourselves over to all that the world offers to loosen our connection to the Spirit.

So join us this weekend, and together we can look at how Jesus' message can help us to avoid the trap that is selfishness, and turn ourselves over to selflessness. For though his message was spoken almost 2,000 years ago, was it ever more apparent that viewing possessions as paramount can only lead to a tragic state, where "too much is never enough".