7 Easter Yr B May 16 2021

7 Easter Yr B May 16 2021

Acts 1:15-17, 21-26, 1 John 5:9-13, John 17:6-19, Psalm 1

 

We shift just a little bit in John’s gospel today as we prepare for the Day of Pentecost, the coming of the Holy Spirit. Our Sunday readings have guided us as we have seen Jesus after death and resurrection. We heard the story of Ascension this past Thursday, and we will hear the story of the one who continues to abide with the disciples, the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, soon to come. Today we find ourselves with the disciples overhearing Jesus’ prayer to the father. Jesus has said what he needs to say throughout the farewell discourse, he has told all of his stories, and given all of his instructions, and has no more words left, just prayer. 

 

It is very special for us to overhear this prayer with the disciples. It is a prayer filled with joy and courage. In it Jesus prays for himself in what he knows are to be the last hours of his life. Jesus prays for the disciples who remain in the world while he has to go, and Jesus prays for future believers. Jesus gives us a picture that is not necessarily victorious, but instead a picture of love’s persistence and survival.  

 

In this prayer we learn about eternal life. Jesus prays for eternal life for all who have been given to him. It is right here that we know what eternal life is, the eternal life that John keeps writing about, and Jesus keeps talking about, “this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” You see, eternal life is not about a reward at death, eternal life is about the relationship that God in Jesus yearns to have with each of us. Eternal life is about being in relationship with God who creates us, Jesus who walks with us and shows us the way of love, and Spirit who sustains, protects, and guides us. And yet we know that relationships are never fully expressed. If there is a relationship at all it is always growing, always seeking its fullness and completion. So, both of these are true. Eternal life is being in relationship with the God whose dream for us is love, now and yet to be. In this we have a glimpse of the glory that is, and the glory that will be. 

 

In this prayer Jesus prays that the disciples may be as closely related to God as he is, so they can be one heart and mind as they are one heart and mind. We have heard John over and over with the images that connect us to God, the vine and the branches, that God abides in us and we in God, and that culminates in this prayer, this prayer of unity with God. Jesus prays that the intimacy of his relationship with God is the same for us. 

 

Jesus entrusts the disciples and us to God’s care, God’s protection, and the joy of God’s embrace. Jesus asks that the disciples will not be left alone, and that you and I are not left alone. 

 

And lastly, Jesus prays for those who will believe because of the disciples, that is you and me as well. And Jesus prays a prayer of protection for all of us as we live in the world among all of the world’s chaos and challenge. Jesus prays that that the love with which the father loves him, may be in us. 

 

It’s enough to just overhear Jesus’ prayer. It is powerful, and wonderful. I am so moved that Jesus includes us in this prayer, we are those who believe because of the disciples, we are those who believe because of the witness to the way of love through the centuries. 

 

But I also think there is something more for us in Jesus’ prayer, and that is this. Like Jesus, when all the words are used up, when it seems we have no words left to say what we mean, we pray. That’s what Jesus has done here, used up all his words in instructing the disciples, and now he comes to this point of knowing what is to come, and he falls on his knees to pray. In this prayer, he doesn’t pray to be relieved of the death he is to die, he prays that he may be fully at one with his creator. He prays for those he leaves behind. And he prays for those who will come after him to spread the word of love, he prays for us to touch the world with love. And this is how we shall pray. 

 

Sometimes it seems so difficult to pray. Maybe because we think we have to do it in a particular way, or with a particular set of words, or about particular things. Sometimes it feels like we just can’t pray, when life has gotten the better of us, when the world just seems too painful, when it feels like we’ve lost all faith. 

 

It seems to me that Jesus was in that very same place, trying to teach his friends and followers some very important principles of life and they were incredibly slow to get any of it. Or knowing that pain and tragedy was inevitable. This is the point. Prayer isn’t about having it all together, prayer isn’t about saying the right words, prayer is about the relationship. Prayer is about opening ourselves up to the one who loves us no matter how stupid, or slow, or tired, or wonderful, we feel. Whether we can or can’t pray, whether we try to pray and fall asleep, whether we don’t have words or we have too many words, I believe God just wants us to communicate. 

 

And sometimes, when prayer seems absolutely impossible, we borrow from others. That’s right. We rely on others. That’s what being in this community of faith is all about. We pray for each other. Prayer puts us into relationship with each other. That very last part of Jesus’ prayer, as translated by Eugene Peterson in the message goes like this. 

“But I have known you, and these disciples know
That you sent me on this mission.
I have made your very being known to them—
Who you are and what you do—
And continue to make it known,
So that your love for me
Might be in them
Exactly as I am in them.”

 

Prayer makes God’s very being known to us, prayer makes us known to each other and the world. And that is knowing in the biblical sense. Intimate, relational, loving. Amen.