“Sent into the World” Colchester Federated Church, May 12, 2024, Seventh Sunday of Easter (John 17:6-19)

We have come to the end of this Eastertide Season, beloved congregation.  Today is the Seventh Sunday of Easter.  Next Sunday is Pentecost and Children’s Sunday, which will usher in a new liturgical season as we ease into the end of our program year and the beginning of summer worship here at Colchester Federated Church. 

Eastertide ends with Jesus praying for his disciples.  Chapter 17 of the Gospel according to John has a unique emphasis because Jesus turns to God in prayer.  Jesus speaks about the disciples and not to the disciples.  This is an important distinction to keep in mind as we hear Jesus’ words and contemplate their meaning today.  This is not a chapter of Jesus’ parables or a chapter sharing the story of a sign or miraculous healing that Jesus performs.  This is a chapter of Jesus himself at prayer in the Gospel.  “Jesus prays” is the simple heading of John 17 in the Common English Bible.[1]

So, Jesus goes to God in prayer.  Jesus prays for glorification in God’s presence and shares about his ministry in the world with God.  Then Jesus intercedes to God on his followers’ behalf.  We could label Jesus’ prayer as primarily an intercessory prayer.  Jesus is asking God for help, but not help for himself.  Jesus is interceding for his disciples right then and there.  And Jesus is interceding for his disciples who are to come (all of us!)  Jesus prays to God, “Watch over them in your name, the name you gave me, that they will be one just as we are one . . . I’m not asking that you take them out of this world but that you keep them safe from the evil one . . . as you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”[2]

We know that there are various forms of prayer in Christianity.  One way to think about the components of prayer is with the acronym ACTS and I.  It’s rather formulaic, though it can be helpful.  When Christians pray, we utter adorations.  “Loving God, you are just and compassionate.”  Sometimes we confess during our times of prayer.  “God, forgive me for the nasty comment I said when I lost my temper this week.”  Or we may offer God prayers of thanksgiving.  “Thank you, God, for helping me get through another week.”  Sometimes Christians pray supplications.  We ask God for something (hopefully with some humility).  “God, please give me the strength to take the high road.”  Other times when we pray, we ask God to help someone else.  “Loving God, please be with James, who just lost his wife and he is grieving this terrible loss.”  This is a prayer of intercession—asking God to help someone in need.  Adoration.  Confession.  Thanksgiving.  Supplication.  Intercession.  ACTS and I.[3]

Now we do not need to diagram and analyze Jesus’ prayer so specifically here in Chapter 17 of the Gospel according to John.  Though we could if we wanted to.  One of the main takeaways for all of us present here in worship and watching from home could be that Jesus interceded for those he loved.  That alone can be inspirational to the rest of us when it comes to prayer.  Jesus prayed!  Jesus gave God thanks and praise.  Jesus asked God for help.  We sometimes focus so much on Jesus’ divinity that we forget his humanity.  Jesus turned to God in prayer—let this be a comfort for the rest of us, whether things are going well or things are downright difficult.

Here’s another thing to keep in mind.  Jesus prayed for his followers right before his arrest in the Garden of Gethsemane.  That’s another amazing aspect of this Gospel story as John tells it.  “Jesus prays” is followed by “Arrest in the garden.”[4]  It seems like there could have been a whole lot more on Jesus’ mind in this moment than praying for some of the very people who are about to betray him, deny him, and desert him.  Yet that’s exactly what Jesus does.  That’s what makes this Gospel text even more moving.  Jesus prayed, “Make them holy in the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.”[5]  Jesus pauses before all that is to come to ask God to help his followers now and all who will come to know him and follow his Way in the future.  Jesus prays for future generations of believers.  Jesus prays for us. 

Jesus prays for us.

The Quaker theologian Richard J. Foster wrote a classic book on Christian spiritual practices called Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth.  Foster analyzed spiritual practices like meditation, prayer, fasting, study, solitude, service, confession, worship, guidance—ways that we put our Christian faith into action and deepen our relationship with God.  Foster reflects that to pray is to change because prayer “brings us into the deepest and highest work of the human spirit . . . prayer is the central avenue God uses to transform us.”[6]  That is a unique way to think about prayer because it’s not just for the person we are praying for (even with intercessory prayer).  Prayer transforms the one who is praying.  Prayer has a way of softening our hearts toward others. 

This could be why Jesus gave the instruction that his followers were to pray for those who persecuted them.  In Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus commanded, “You have heard it said, ‘Love your neighbor—but hate your enemy.’  But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for your persecutors.  This will prove that you are children of God.  For God makes the sun rise on bad and good alike; God’s rain falls on the just and the unjust.”[7]

This can seem like a next to impossible teaching, like Jesus set us up for failure.  Good thing there’s confession in our tradition!  But you know what?  Praying for the just and the unjust alike, praying for our persecutors even, helps the person praying to not become angry or bitter.  Because Lord knows that is not a good path to go down.  We were meant for much better lives.  Prayer changes us, and Jesus knew that because he prayed all the time.  Was this moment of prayer in the Gospel according to John a way to help Jesus keep his heart softened in the face of betrayal, denial, and desertion?  Because Jesus couldn’t risk becoming bitter as he was about to face suffering and ultimately resurrection and the ushering in of new life for us all?

If we allow ourselves to be vulnerable when we pray, if we allow ourselves to be honest and open with God and with ourselves—amazing things can happen.  We can experience depths of compassion.  Theologian Henri Nouwen once reflected, “Compassion lies at the heart of our prayer for our fellow human beings.  When I pray for the world, I become the world; when I pray for the endless needs of the millions, my soul expands and wants to embrace them all and bring them into the presence of God.  But in the midst of that experience I realize that compassion is not mine but God’s gift to me.  I cannot embrace the world, but God can.  I cannot pray, but God can pray in me. When God became as we are, that is, when God allowed all of us to enter into his [God’s] intimate life, it became possible for us to share in his [God’s] infinite compassion.”[8]  And this, my friends, is the point—prayer helps us to share in God’s infinite compassion. 

In the end, let’s not forget that Jesus prayed.  Jesus prayed for his followers then and for all of us sitting here today, who would one day come to follow him.  We are sent into the world to be the hands and feet of Christ.  And it’s not always easy out there.  Though as the Psalmist wrote, “Where could I go to get away from your spirit?  Where could I go to escape your presence?  If I went up to heaven, you would be there.  If I went down to the grave, you would be there too!  If I could fly on the wings of dawn, stopping to rest only on the far side of the ocean—even there your hand would guide me; even there your strong hand would hold me tight!”[9]  Remember and take heart that God is always with us, for we cannot go where God is not.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.

[1] John 17 in The CEB Study Bible with Apocrypha, pg. 204 NT.
[2] John 17:11, 15 and 18, CEB.
[3] “Practices in Christianity: Prayer,” BBC Bitesize, https://www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/znqck2p/revision/2
[4] Headings for John 17 and John 18 in The CEB Study Bible with Apocrypha, pg. 204 and 205 NT.
[5] John 17:17-18, CEB.
[6] Richard J. Foster, Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth, pg. 33.
[7] Matthew 5:43-45, The Inclusive Bible.
[8] Henri Nouwen, “Not Me but God,” Henri Nouwen Society, June 15, 2023, https://henrinouwen.org/meditations/not-me-but-god/
[9] Psalm 139:7-10, CEB.

Photo by Greg Rakozy on Unsplash