This Sunday we’ll be exploring prayer, namely Jesus’ prayer in John chapter 17. This comes from the farewell discourse in John’s Gospel – Jesus’ last teaching and prayer with his disciples.
Read the Gospel lesson for Sunday – John 17:6-21a
6 “I have revealed youto those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power ofyour name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe bythat name you gave me. None has been lostexcept the one doomed to destructionso that Scripture would be fulfilled.
13 “I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them. 14 I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. 15 My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. 17 Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. 19 For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one,Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.
This is a powerful prayer that Jesus uttered to the Father, and this is not a private prayer, but one uttered in the presence of the disciples. This is not the agonizing garden prayer that we read about in the Gospels, but this is a prayer for the future, a prayer for Jesus’ friends and followers upon his departure.
David Lose, a teaching professor at Luther Seminary, wrote a blogpost this week about prayer with this passage in mind. He writes,
“frankly, I don’t understand prayer. I know I’m supposed to do it. And I do. But that doesn’t mean I understand it. I don’t understand, for instance, how it works. I’m not always sure what I’m supposed to do, either. And I definitely can’t quite figure out the part about “answered” prayer.
Maybe you’ve felt that way, too. Maybe there’s a lot about prayer that you don’t understand, but you still do it. And maybe that’s okay. Maybe prayer is too big to simply understand, too important for us to be able to define simply or once and for all. Maybe at its heart, prayer is a mystery.
Mystery, not simply an unknown, like a puzzle. Puzzles, and many other kinds of other unknowns, beg to be solved, to be figured out. But mystery is bigger than that. It’s not that mystery is completely unknown, but that it’s ultimately elusive – you can know some things about mystery, but you can’t finally pin it down. In fact, “knowing” doesn’t seem like quite the right category when you’re talking about mystery. Because mystery defies knowing. But mystery also and simultaneously invites experiencing.
Think of the most important relationships in your life. A child or sibling, partner or spouse, best friend or close colleague – you know some things, even a lot of things, about this person. Yet who that person really is remains something of a mystery – there is still more to know, more to discover. But beyond what you know and don’t know there’s still an actual person right there, a person you can experience, love and be loved by. You don’t need to know everything about the person to experience him or her. In fact, when you think about it, you realize this not-knowing-but-still-experiencing is part of the delight of mystery. There is always more to experience, more to learn, more to be surprised by.
And maybe prayer is like that. In fact, I’m pretty sure prayer is like that.(http://www.davidlose.net/2012/05/prayer-mystery/)
Prayer: Jesus, as we pray to you, we know that you too have experienced pain and grief, joy and excitement, and all the marks of the human life. In that shared experience you came to show us the way to life, and the way to live. We acknowledge that we do not always look to you and we do not always follow your example of sacrificial love and active involvement in the unredeemed cosmos. May we be moved by your compassion long ago, and on your continued compassion that is communicated to us thorugh your ongoing support of us in the Holy Spirit. As you pray for us, may we pray to you in the hope that we will one day have all those mysteries of your divine love revealed in glory. All praise to you our wondrous God! Amen
familybibletime 