Easter 7A
May 24, 2020
John 17:1-11
INTRODUCTION
This is the final Sunday of the Easter season, a season which lasts as long as Jesus walked the earth after his resurrection, plus the 10 days between his ascension into heaven and the coming of the Holy Spirit – fifty days total. So, at this point in the biblical narrative, we find ourselves in the 10 days between, this liminal time between when Jesus has left the disciples (again) and the arrival of this great gift he has assured them is coming “in just a few days.” I think remembering the context of this “in-between” place can help us to hear today’s readings.
First, we will hear the story of Jesus’ ascension into heaven as told in Acts. Ascension Day is 40 days after Easter, so, always a Thursday, but the lectionary gives us a taste of the story today, too. The Acts version of this story (compared to the version in Luke) tells us about what the disciples did while they waited for the Holy Spirit that Jesus had promised them just before he ascended into heaven. Our second reading from 1st Peter will speak to the suffering that is all too real – often, but perhaps especially during this liminal waiting time the disciples are feeling.
And then in our Gospel reading, we hear the end of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse on Maundy Thursday: the High Priestly Prayer. This is a remarkable moment in which the disciples – and we, by extension – get to eavesdrop on an intimate moment between Jesus and his Father. And he uses this moment to pray for us! So enter into that prayer with him. Enter also into the anxiety of the disciples during this in-between time (that shouldn’t be too far a stretch for us). And of course, enter into the love Jesus has for us. Let’s listen.
[READ]
Grace to you and peace from God our Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.
What a gift John’s Gospel gives us in recording Jesus’ prayer on that last night of his life. How remarkable that we would get to eavesdrop and hear how Jesus prays, and what he and his Father talk about, and what is his dearest hope for us! In those moments when I may feel like prayer is difficult or the words don’t come, it brings me such comfort to know that Jesus prayed for me, for us, that night. What a beautiful thought!
Jesus’ prayer, known as the High Priestly Prayer, that he prays on the eve of his death, set me down the path this week of thinking about prayer. But as lovely as I find this sharing of an intimate and prayerful moment with Jesus, I admit I was struggling to find an entry-point for preaching – I wanted just to savor Jesus’ prayer, not preach about it. Instead, where I found a way into thinking about prayer was in our reading from Acts, this retelling of Jesus’ Ascension. Jesus, having just spent 40 post-resurrection days with the disciples, has just told them, “Something big is coming, and it’s happening in Jerusalem, so don’t leave! Wait here for the Holy Spirit.” And then he ascends, leaving the disciples in this in-between space – Jesus has gone (again), and something that they don’t quite understand is coming, they don’t know when.
So I just want to stop here and point out how much I resonate with this, most of all that instruction to “wait,” and in particular to wait for something that, I don’t really know what it is or what it will look like. After more than two months, we are all chomping at the bit to get out and do something. Go out to dinner, go to the playground or the beach, see our friends, go to worship with other people. But of course, we have to wait. Wait until it is safe. Wait until there is a vaccine or treatment or both. Wait until the data are clear and the testing and treatment are adequate and effective. Wait.
So we, with the disciples, are waiting – both narratively, as we join them in this liminal space of waiting for the Spirit, and literally, as we wait for our lives to return to some semblance of “normal.” Now, I’m sure you are doing all varieties of things with your quarantine time (your quaran-time?), depending on your current life situation – maybe you’re walking, reading, doing house projects, perhaps working in the wee hours of the morning or late at night (Me! Me!). But I wonder how many have taken up what the disciples did. Luke tells us that the disciples, certain women, and Jesus’ brothers went to the upper room, and “were constantly devoting themselves to prayer.”
Now, my guess is that most if not all of you have prayed in some way, for something. Likely we’ve all prayed for an end to this mess, and for the doctors and nurses and scientists working to treat or prevent this disease. We’ve prayed for our own sick loved ones, and for those who have lost someone. Those are all important prayers – please keep them coming!
But I’ve been thinking about some of the other gifts of prayer in this time when we are waiting and watching. This past week we shared with you our council’s recommendation that we wait (there’s that word again!) to return to in-person worship until it is safe to worship once again in a way closer to that which is so fulfilling for us – hopefully with singing and communion and communal prayer and fellowship. And in the meantime, we will continue with our online service, sending the bulletin each week to members without internet access, emailing it to everyone else, and working to include more people in that service. I believe this is a faithful direction in this time when we want above all to love our neighbor by keeping them safe from the virus (I just read an article last night that said that worshiping in an enclosed space is one of the highest risk things you can do right now). Today after worship we’ll have the chance to hear some of your thoughts about it. I hope you join the conversation.
But even though I believe it to be faithful and prudent, my heart also aches, because it is really hard to be one body united in Christ, to feel a sense that “we may be one,” as Jesus prays, when we may go months without seeing each other! Not to mention, the things that Christians have done for centuries to live out and celebrate our oneness are not possible right now – like partaking of the one bread and one cup at communion, and being baptized into the one Body of Christ, and lifting our voices as one in prayer and praise, and drinking together from the one coffee pot! (Okay, maybe we haven’t done that last one for centuries, but you get the idea!). So what does it look like to be one when we are not even able to be together?
This is where prayer comes in. I came across this wonderful quote from one United Methodist theologian: She writes, “No matter how remote two persons may be from each other, there is a sense in which they ‘meet’ in God… When I pray for another person’s well-being, I make myself relevant to [their] condition. It means that as God weaves together the circumstances of that [person]…, my praying offers new stuff for the weaving.” In other words, when we pray for another, we invest something of ourselves in the condition of that person, and God uses that investment to weave us and our lives together. We become spiritually entwined with that person. We enter into a relationship with that person, even if we never have and never will speak. When Jesus prays that we might all be one, he is praying that we will all be entwined with one other – and this happens when we pray for one another.
Prayer, then, becomes a valuable tool for living out our oneness in this time of being apart. So keep up those prayers for those on the front lines of this pandemic. But consider adding some specific prayers for members of our congregation and our community. Work through the directory and pray for the well-being of a few members each day or week (even if you don’t know them), that they would have the strength and the patience to get through another day, and that they would see glimpses of God’s love, light, and life during their day. Maybe even call them, or send them a note, and tell them you’re praying for them. I suspect we will find, in “constantly devoting [ourselves] to prayer” for each other in this way, that once we are together again, our oneness will become more apparent than it ever has before!
This time of being apart is difficult and trying, no doubt. But I do trust in the power of the Holy Spirit Jesus promised to his disciples before his ascension, and which he promises still to us today. I trust that this Spirit can bind us together even when we’re far apart. I trust that this Spirit can bring about what Jesus prayed that night, “that we would be one,” as Jesus and the Father are one – that is, that we would be brought into that loving and life-giving relationship of the trinitarian God who made us and loves us and strengthens and guides us. I trust that by the power of this Holy Spirit, our waiting will come to an end, and that in the meantime, even with our building closed, we can still be the Church, serving one another and the world, that we can still read and hear the Word proclaimed, that we can still pray, and love, and give, and serve, and be God’s presence in the world. For a God who can defeat death and bring about new life, all of this, and so much more, is possible.
Let us pray… Uniting God, we long to be together and experience our oneness in you in the physical ways we are used to. Yet we know that your power overcomes any distance. Bind us together in prayer. Remind us that we are one in you, no matter where we are. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.
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