Sermon Seventh Sunday of Easter

Sermon:

Text: John 17:6-19

Grace and Peace to you from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ who prays for us.

Today is the seventh and last Sunday of Easter, Pentecost is next week, so remember your Red. And at the end of the Easter season and looking back at the texts we read it strikes me that the Easter season seems sort of cyclical. We start with the texts immediately following Easter Morning. Jesus appears to the disciples, eats fish with them, walks with them on the road to Emmaus, but then it jumps in time back to before Good Friday and Easter. Jesus refers to himself as the Good Shepherd, and then we find ourselves again on Maundy Thursday night. Jesus has washed the disciples feet, commanded them to love one another, called himself the true vine, asked them to abide in one another, and in our text for today then Jesus looks up to heaven and begins to pray. He prays for unity among his followers, “That they may be one, as we are one.” And he prays for us in the world, “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. The do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.” And finishes off our passage by declaring that he will sanctify us, by sanctifying himself.

These last words of Jesus to the disciples before his death recall the final blessings and prayers of many of the great figures of the Old Testament. Moses blessing of the people entering the promised land, Jacob blessing his sons and the tribes that will come out of them, David giving his blessing to Solomon and to Israel. This prayer is a turning things over to the next group kind of prayer. And after the prayer is done we head to Good Friday and Easter once again.

I like the cyclical nature of how we read our texts, always jumping around allowing different passages connect and make sense of each other. Every year we go through Christmas, Good Friday and Easter. I like that every year we hear of Jesus as Good Shepherd, and we hear this story of Jesus praying. All intertwined and intermixed within the grand narrative of Jesus’ life, death, resurrection. Because, every year it continues, every day these stories connect to us. All of these events continue to impact us. Every day the coming of Jesus to us as a child continues to impact us. Every day Jesus’ actions in his death and resurrection give us new life. Every day Jesus searches for us as our Good Shepherd. And every day something occurs that we don’t think about enough. Every day Jesus prays for us. Every day we pray, ok, maybe every other day, ok, when we come to church every Sunday, ok, when we come to church every other week or so, we pray. But, Jesus is a bit more consistent than that. Everyday, every moment, this prayer of Jesus continues to reach us.

            And Jesus’ prayer here is not some slight prayer, asking for a nice day, or for a new car or new toy. Jesus is brutally honest; Jesus addresses the fact that we are in this world. We are in this world filled with pains and death, sorrow and loss.

            I saw a very powerful movie when I was down visiting my Sister and Brother in Law called “Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.” It follows a Mother and Son as they deal with the death of their husband/father in the World Trade Center on 9/11. The movie centers around the son on an expedition to figure out how a key he finds in his father’s closet connects him to his father. There is one scene that really stood out to me. The son is having a complete meltdown and he and his mom get into a shouting match during which the son mentions his frustration that they buried an empty coffin at the funeral, how they don’t know what really happened, falling into the denial that is so common in that situation. And in that moment, his mother realizes that comfort is not what is needed, but brutal honesty. In what is clearly difficult, she hugs her son and tells him to his face, that despite our wishes he is not coming back, he is gone and dead. We miss him and will always miss him, but he is gone.

            Jesus prays for us, when we stub our toe, and when the world comes crashing around us and we don’t know why. When our only response is “Why is this happening to me, I didn’t do anything.” Jesus prays for us.

            Take out your Taking Faith Home insert and spend a moment to think of what is troubling you. Write this thought down. Bring it home, put it on your fridge or on your kitchen table, and pray about it. And remember, that Jesus prays with you and for you.

            Jesus prays for us because Jesus knows that this journey is not easy. Being a Christian, a follower of Jesus Christ, is not easy. Jesus knows about our fears of where this world is heading, our concerns about our health, or the health of loved ones, Jesus knows of our sorrow over the death of family or friends, Jesus knows what our pains are, and Jesus prays for them. In the small moments that we pray Jesus asks us to bring our concerns to him, to put upon him our troubles and burdens. Jesus prays for us in this world, and prays that we put the troubles of this world upon him.

            This text may be similar to the good-bye prayers of Moses, Jacob, and David, but when Jesus hands things over, he knows that the Spirit will descend, he also knows that he is not truly leaving us. Jesus was sent into this world, the world that God so loves, and Jesus does not plan to abandon this world. He sends us out into it, knowing it is difficult, knowing that it may seem to crash down upon us, but Jesus prays the whole time, knowing that with that prayer we can overcome.

            The movie ends as the kid figures out his quest and he and his mom sit on his bed together and reminisce about what they miss the most, and how they can move on, still holding close to their loved ones memory.

            Through Christ’s prayer we can break through, overcoming the pains of this world, and let Christ build us back up. Jesus prays that we can find peace in a world of chaos. Jesus prays that the spirit will descend and give us strength.

Let us pray,

God of Prayer, We know that it is through you that we are able to pray. We ask you to help us to turn our burdens onto you, allowing us to set aside the issues of the world we are in, letting us look past them and allowing us to become one, as you and our Lord Jesus are one.

Lord, continue to pray for us, in all of our moments, let your comforting words be heard and felt.

Amen.