Easter 7B May 16, 2021

A sermon on John 17:6-19 | by the Judson F. Merrell, STS |

⁶ [Jesus prayed:] „I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.

⁷ Now they know that everything you have given me is from you;

⁸ for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.

⁹ I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.

¹⁰ All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.

¹¹ And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

¹² While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.

¹³ But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.

¹⁴ I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

¹⁵ I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.

¹⁶ They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.

¹⁷ Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.

¹⁸ As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.

¹⁹ And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

(Joh 17:6-19 NRS)

Brothers and sisters in Christ, grace and peace to you from God the Father and our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.  Amen.

What is your prayer life like?  Does it consist of a prayer in the morning when you get up? Or one at night before you go to bed?  Do you pray before meals?  Are those the only times you pray?  What do you do when you pray?  Do you bow your head, hold hands, close your eyes, kneel, sit down, or stand up?  Perhaps you say the prayer that we all say together each week, commonly called the Lord’s Prayer.  The Lord’s Prayer is one that we all know by heart.  We pray it because it is the example that Jesus gave to his disciples when asked how to pray.  But in John’s Gospel, there is no version of the Lord’s Prayer.  No one asked Jesus how to pray, and therefore Jesus does not give an answer.  According to John’s Gospel, prayer life is a little different.  None of the disciples ask how to pray, and given the prayer that Jesus prays today, it seems that prayer life is pretty complex.  Our Gospel today is part of what they call the High Priestly Prayer.  It comes at the end of the Last Supper, after Jesus has washed the disciples feet, foretold Peter’s denial and his betrayal by Judas, and promised the Holy Spirit would come.  Jesus is preparing to offer himself as a sacrifice to the world and is interceding for his disciples in the same way the High Priest intercedes for the people of Israel.  I have heard it said that this prayer is the Johannine version of the Lord’s Prayer.  There are some similarities between the two, but this version is way more in depth than the prayer that we pray.  While our lesson is not the entire High Priestly Prayer, it is the majority of it.  This section that we have as our lesson today is focused on Jesus’ prayer for his disciples.  In this prayer he asks for protection and unity as they continue his ministry in a very hostile world.

Now it can be said that this prayer is specifically about those disciples that were with Jesus at the time he prayed this prayer.  There was some civil unrest in the community, and Jesus was being blamed for it by the scribes and the elders.  But we could also look at this prayer and say it is for us, as well as for every other Christian who has ever lived.   After all, there is not really ever a time, nor has there been, where there is not some kind of civil unrest.  You just can’t make all the people happy all the time.  God has tried, by sending Jesus into the world.  But even this prayer shows that someone was lost.  Verse twelve in our Gospel is more than likely talking about Judas, and the scripture fulfillment that is mentioned is Psalm 41:9, where it is written “Even my bosom friend in whom I trusted, who ate of my bread, has lifted his heel against me.”  So despite coming into the world to save the world, not all is right and happy.  And so even though Jesus’ prayer seems to have a very positive tone to it, we hear the underlying concern in his voice.  In this prayer, Jesus is not praying for the world, but instead is praying for his disciples and those that listen to him.  This is done with 3 petitions:

In the first petition, he prays, „Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one“ (v. 11).  Every time I read this petition it seems to hit a little too close to home.  We live in a world that is constantly divided.  We worship in a church that is divided, and even here in our congregation there are things that divided us.  The disciples were not always a group that agreed on everything either.  And yet Jesus’ opening prayer petition is a call for unity.  Unity is what helps us go forward.  Unity is what helps us thrive as a congregation.  Unity is what keeps us focused on ministry.  But as sinners, there are times we reject unity and place personal interests at the forefront.  The only way we can return to unity is the body as a whole speaking to those who reject unity.  Jesus is praying for that unity, the very unity that was challenged by Thomas who did not believe Jesus had risen.In the second petition, Jesus prays, „I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one“ (v. 15).  It is no secret the world is an evil place.  Just turn on the nightly news.  I promise you will about more evil than good news.  The mission of the disciples, and now the mission of the church, is to carry on the work of Christ in the world, in the face and midst of evil.  That is not a task that unites, but a task that divides, because it is scary.  Even in this past year the church has become the “unsafe place”, turning the faithful into the fearsome.  But being here every week, shows us the Spirit is still at work.  Jesus promised the Spirit would be with the disciples, and the Spirit remains with us today.  Faith in the Spirit above fear, paranoia, and obsession has allowed the church to continue.

In the third petition Jesus prays, „Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth“ (v. 17).”  To be sanctified is to be made holy.  Jesus has already said that the disciples do not belong to the world back in verse 14.  That is because they have been made holy.  They have been sanctified, set apart for an extraordinary task of continuing Jesus’ ministry.  In our baptisms we too have been made holy, set apart for the work of the Spirit in our lives, called and claimed as God’s children, and equipped with the gifts of ministry.

These three petitions show us the truthfulness of the Word of God.  We know that God is still at work in this world, that the Spirit is alive and well protecting us from the evil one so that we can bear witness to the truth.  We know this because the church still exists.  Despite wars, famine, cruelty and all evil in the world, the church still exists.  Despite fear, paranoia, and obsession, the church still exists.  Despite unrest, disunity, and even fights in and among congregations, the church still exists.  Why?  Because God is still present.  The faithful continue to bear witness to the church…and one of the ways they do that is through prayer.  The faithful still pray, just as they have for thousands of years.  So I ask you again, what is your prayer life like?  Are there things in your life that need to be added to your prayers?  There is not a bad prayer, you all know that.  But I challenge you to take a moment next time you pray, perhaps even in silence, and pray for something different.  Pray in a way that you are not used to, and that includes petitions for things that you don’t normally think about.  Pray for peace, for strength, for unity.  And pray that God will continue to be at work in your life, in the church, and in the world, now and forever.  In the name of the Father, the +Son, and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.