Date:
May 16, 2010, Seventh Sunday of Easter
Author: The Rev. Dr. James D. Kegel
GRACE TO YOU AND PEACE FROM GOD OUR FATHER AND THE LORD AND SAVIOR JESUS CHRIST, AMEN.
I try to call the Circle of Prayer people on Friday afternoons. Some of you have received those telephone calls or at least the message that you and your family will be prayed for at worship on Sunday. When we first started doing this, I made sure that people knew it was by alphabet, seven groups each week, so that over the course of months, every member will be prayed for in church. It is our hope that people will take their bulletins home and also pray for these people during the week. I am trying to recall how we started the Circle of Prayer. I think Pastor Barth did this at staff meetings and somehow we ended up doing praying for members at worship. Most of the time people say “thank you for the prayers;” every once in a while, some may share a special concern. It is important that we pray for one another, that we lift each other up. We are not alone in our joys and sorrows. We are part of a community of faith, we are brothers and sisters of one another in Christ, we are part of the household of God.
Today’s Gospel from John is part of Jesus’ High Priestly prayer. It is a beautiful prayer offered by Jesus before his betrayal and death that his disciples might one with each other as he and the Father are one, that his followers might be victorious in the face of earthly enemies and demonic powers, that that those who bear Jesus’ Name might so persevere that they would see the heavenly glory to come. Some scholars see this prayer as one which recognizes the great loss taken in following Jesus as well as the great gain received. John sometimes uses the term, the Jews, although his community may very well have been Jewish. What distinguished rabbinic Judaism from nascent Christianity was simply one’s relationship to Jesus. John’s Gospel is clear: he proclaims the message that Jesus and the Father are one; Jesus is the Son of God. Jesus is true God who has come into the world to be the light and life of believers. In deciding to believe in Jesus as God’s only Son and Lord, the first Christians were put out of the synagogues. They lost community and connections. The believers were giving up so much to follow this Jesus that the Gospel writer wanted to remind them of what they were gaining. If they loved Jesus, then Jesus would love them. If they believed in Jesus, then Jesus would protect them from the evil one. If they were faithful, they would be victorious and see Christ in his heavenly glory. The book is written, “so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that through believing, you may have life in his name.” The message is so clear, “God so loved the world that he gave His only Son that whoever believes in him should be not perish but have everlasting life.”
In our Circle of Prayer we pray for each other. It is a privilege to pray, to bring not only our own needs to God but also those of our friends and family. It is an honor to be able not just to ask for things we need but to praise God who gives to all generously and richly. God promises to hear us. John writes, “And this is the confidence we have in him that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have obtained the requests made known of him.” God hears us and gives us what we need. But more than that, Jesus prays for us, “I ask not only on behalf of these my disciples, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word.” Jesus is praying for us, He is praying that we may be one with each other and with him. He is praying that we may be strong even as we face the turbulence of life. He is praying that we be faithful until we join him in heavenly glory. Jesus prayed, “Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you have loved me before the foundation of the world.”
I love the idea of a Circle of Prayer, that we are a praying, caring, celebrating and challenging community of faith. But sometimes we close the circle. We may love one another as Christ first loved us, but that is not what the world sees. Edward Markham the poet wrote, Outwitted: “He drew a circle that shut me out—Heretic, a rebel, a thing to flout. But Love and I had the wit to win: We drew a circle that took him!” Once at a coffee hour, some people were telling me about the most impressive sermon they had ever heard. The pastor was coming to the end of the sermon and asked eight or so people to come forward. Then the pastor asked them to mime the Christian Gospel. After some thought they formed a circle, arms around each other facing one another much as in a football huddle. “That,” the pastor abruptly declared, “is the problem with the church. We Christians like to look at each other while showing our backsides to the world. Amen.” That sermon was pointed. What the world sees in Christians may not be what we want to show. We hope others see the love we have for God, for each other and for the world. We want others to make the comment of us that people made of the early Christians, “See how they love one another.” The Circle of work and service and prayer should be expanded to include even those who do not know God or love the Lord Jesus.
This past week I had two e-mails come from friends. One is a Christian, a minister, who is facing a decision. I had e-mailed him to ask when he was going to Seattle for an interview—I said, I’d pray for him. He e-mailed be back and gave the date but asked that I pray him at other times too. “Will do,” I wrote back. I had another friend who is not a Christian write me that he needed to “sort things out.” Well, I will pray for him about that too. It is a privilege to be able to pray for men and women who are seeking jobs, having difficulty in relationships, wondering where they are being led. It is a privilege to pray about those things that seem too big to do anything about—war and peace, poverty and homelessness, hunger; to pray for those looking for God even if they do not know they are looking. The Circle of Prayer can include people near and far, those who love Jesus and those who haven’t found God’s peace yet.
I do not know how many of you were here in worship on Good Friday at noon. One of the most moving parts of that service for me is the Bidding Prayer. Christians through the centuries have prayed for unity with Christ and with other Christians, prayed for those who do not share our faith in Christ or believe in God. There is a special bid for the Jewish people first to hear the word of God. The prayer encompasses those in our community in need of healing and comfort and the whole of God’s creation. The Bidding Prayer reminds us that God so loved the cosmos that God sent his only Son; in different words it recalls the prayer of Jesus who prayed not just for his followers of then but also the countless thousands and millions yet unborn who would be Jesus’ disciples, even for you and me. The Circle of Prayer excludes no one.
One of the hardest mysteries is why some people believe and others do not. If God so loved the world, why do so many not acknowledge it? Why do we love the darkness rather than the light; why do we join ourselves to sin and separate ourselves from God’s love? If John’s Gospel is written against the situation of Christians being excluded from the synagogues because of their confession, then we must recognize the hard words that while God loved the whole creation, it is those who believe in Jesus as Savior and Son of God who are saved. As Jesus says in John’s Gospel, “This is indeed the will of my Father that all who see the Son and believe in him may have eternal life; and I will raise them up at the last day.” And again, “Whoever believes in the Son has eternal life; whoever disobeys the Son will not see life, but must endure God’s wrath.” It is our mission to bring the good news of God’s love in Christ to friends and neighbors, community and the whole world. It is Christian unity that will convince others of the love of God; it is the unity of Father and Son that is the basis for our unity. We find our oneness in Christ, not like-mindedness in politics or ideology or class or color. Jesus’ prayed. “As you Father are in me, and I am in you, may they also be one in us.” The Circle of Prayer is a unity of Father and Son and you and me. Amen
Sermon Archive