Two men were talking together. The first challenged the other, “If you are so religious, let’s hear you quote the Lord’s Prayer. I bet you $10.00 you can’t.”
The second responded, “Now I lay my down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep. And If I die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take.” The first pulled out his wallet and fished out a ten dollar bill, muttering, “I didn’t think you could do it!” (Source Unknown)
Prayer is vital to our life with Christ, but we can often get caught up in learned prayers, or even mis-named prayers, not trusting the heart-felt prayers that are more like a conversation with God. Our gospel lesson today is Jesus praying for the disciples sitting at table with him. Then by extension Jesus is praying for us. Jesus is praying like a mother who has adopted these children. They belonged to God, but God gave them to Jesus to care for, to teach, to nurture. Chapter 17 starts, “Jesus looks up to heaven and said, Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that your Son may glorify you…” We pick it up at verse 20 as Jesus continues to pray.
20 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.
25 “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
Growing up did you hear stories of distant relatives that you heard so often you felt like you knew them even without ever meeting them? Stories of going off to war, of the crazy uncle, stories of how your grandparents fell in love. We can certainly have a sense of people through the stories told about them. Maybe you feel like you know your uncle Joe, because your dad spoke so fondly of him. During his time on earth, Jesus is telling his disciples stories about God, his Father, in the hopes that they will know him. “God so loved the world…” (3:16).
“I am the living bread that came down from heaven” (6:51).
“My teaching is not mine but his who sent me” (7:16). Jesus is connecting himself to God and in so doing helping us to understand who God, our heavenly Father, is. In his final prayer, offered right before he is betrayed, Jesus is lifting two things: Unity and Love.
Jesus is declaring we are to be one just like Jesus and God are one. Did you see how he made that case? He is praying for his disciples and for the ones who will follow Jesus because of the disciple’s teachings. That means you and me. Jesus prayed for you personally and for me personally.
Consider that for a moment. Jesus prayed for you. Would you rather have Jesus teaching or Jesus’ praying? Given the power of prayer I think I want Jesus praying. We are here today because his disciples shared the faith and generation after generation faith in Jesus Christ has been passed down, discovered, inspired and believed. The purpose of all of that is so that we can be united in Christ, we can find our place in God, and thereby God can be glorified through us and our unity.
Not only are we to be united in Christ in faith we are to be united with humanity and the call of God to welcome all people into God’s glory. Paul showed forth his unity when he was liberated from jail after praying and singing hymns to God. God did not just free Paul and Silas, no every person in that prison was freed. Everyone of them stayed, so that the guard could find his way to God, and believe.
This liberating moment calls us to see our unity within a larger social context.
One commentator wrote, “While prayer and worship can lead to the loosening of shackles that are physically visible, what happens when we remain bound in ways that are not readily apparent?
What if the prison break story isn’t about Paul and Silas (although we do like a hero(s))?
What if the prison break is teaching us that liberation is a communal act?
Recall that everyone’s chains were broken, not a select few.
As civil rights leader Fannie Lou Hamer declared: “Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.”
Our collective liberation requires that we first acknowledge our connectedness” (Jennifer Kaalund, Working Preacher). At my preaching conference on Moral Imagination dynamic speakers challenged our preaching as proclamation transformed into real action. One such preacher, Rev. Dr. William Barber II, is grounded in civil rights and calling us to a moral movement. Within our divisive country he sees our unity threatened by our complacency to God’s word.
“When we push the least of these to the margin and push the powerful and wealthy to the center of public policy, we are violating our deepest moral principles from our sacred texts” (Forward Together, p. 26). Nobody’s free until everybody’s free.
Henry Thoreau in Civil Disobedience said; “The only thing I repent of is my good behavior in the face of injustice.” Jesus is calling us to unity and we are charged to honor our connectedness to humanity, to all of humanity-
not just those who look like me,
who worship like me,
who speak like me.
Jesus did not die so that we could feel comfortable. Jesus died so that we could be united with God in the unity and love of faith.
In our gospel passage, love is a three-way thing. God loved Jesus before the foundation of the world (v. 24). Before the wind of God hovered over the deep.
Before there was light.
Before there were creatures, animals or humans. God loved Jesus.
Eternal and abiding love is the cornerstone to how God loves, first his son and then us.
Constant, unconditional love is God’s great gift to us. Jesus helps us understand, feel, know God’s love by telling the stories of God, like telling the stories of uncle Joe.
For us to even glimpse the amazing love God gives we have to have a glimpse of who our beloved Creator is and the sacrifice God made so that we could live in communion with God.
That sacrifice is the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, and God’s abiding love that raised him from the dead and joined us in that life-giving relationship.
Our beloved Savior is praying his final prayer to God, sharing the love that has graced him since before the foundation of the world and sharing that love with us.
Listen again to Jesus’ prayer. “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them like stories of uncle Joe, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (v. 26).
First, we are loved like Jesus is loved and then we get this abiding unity in Christ.
Think of a time when you felt completely and utterly loved? Loved to your core, loved more than you deserved, loved in truth. The touchstone moment for me came in my twenties when I knew in my heart of hearts that I was loved by God, loved by my boyfriend and I loved myself all at the same precious moment. It was earth shattering. I remember thinking, “I could die right now because if feel so content, so loved.” That is the love God has for you. Now we might feel self-acceptance at one moment of accomplishment, and we have felt the love of a partner, and we have known God’s love. But having all of them happen at the same time, that is transformational. That is why Jesus is bringing the idea of oneness with God and Jesus together with unity with our community and tied that all together with love.
Communion is the apex of unity and love where we experience our physical and spiritual connection with God through Christ, our unity with the divine, and the immense love God has for us in the care, feeding and mercy so freely given.!!!
We become one with Jesus at table just like Jesus is one with God.
We taste God’s love for us in the sweet sustenance we find in the breaking of the bread and are reminded that even we, as broken people, have a place with our God.
Because God does not see you as the world see you, tired and weary and broken, rather God sees you in the light of God’s love and the healing presence of Jesus Christ.
Come to Christ’s table to be loved and united with our heavenly Father and to share in the love we share in Christ’s name. Let us come to the table, let us taste God’s love.
