| John 17:6-19 "On A Wing And A Prayer" |
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| Written by Rev. Don Lee | |
| Saturday, 27 May 2006 | |
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I was sitting at the intersection of Rosemead and Old Denton, waiting for the light to change when I noticed an elderly woman slowly making her way through the intersection, pushing a walker and clenching a CVS Pharmacy bag. She apparently she lived across the street from the Pharmacy and had decided she could manage crossing the street to pick up her medications. And I’m sure she felt a certain level of personal gratification arriving at the pharmacy a little tired but no worse the wear. And now she was only a few hundred feet from home. I was beginning to wonder if she was going to make it across before the light changed and I suspect she must have shared that anxiety because there was sudden change in her movement and then she collapsed in the intersection. Several of us jumped from our cars to help. I was the first to reach her. She lay on her side like a crumpled marionette. “Maim, are you okay?” The only response was crying. To this day I will never forget the mournfulness of her weeping. Her whole body was shaking. I asked her several questions, none of which she answered. Finally, she sat up. Her knees were scrapped, her nose bloodied, and her spirit bruised by the fall, but otherwise she seemed okay. When it was safe, we got her to the curb. Another driver retrieved a first aid kit from her car and began to bandage her. I keep thinking of that line from the movie SeaBiscuit. “You don’t throw a whole life away just because it’s banged up a little.” When it was clear that this woman was okay and in good hands, I slipped back into my car to clear the intersection and headed to work but my heart was back there in that intersection with that bruised, broken-spirited woman. Have you ever felt abandoned by God? I believe this woman did. As she lay there, humiliated she probably even prayed, “God, where are you…? Why have you abandoned me? I never thought things would end up like this.” And then suddenly, out of nowhere, God came running; knelt down, spoke kindly, bandaged her wounds, guarded her from oncoming traffic, gently picked her up and brought her to a place of safety and said to her, “Its okay now…you’re safe. We all fall down from time to time and need help getting up. Remember, you are never alone.” Our reading comes from the Gospel of John, Chapter 17, verses 6-19. Please stand for the reading of the Gospel. 6 ‘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. 7Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8for 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. 9I 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. 10All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11And 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. 12While 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. 13But 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. 14I 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. 15I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. 16They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth. Prayer: Holy One, protect us from evil and sanctify us in your truth, as Jesus prayed. Amen. This scripture is a portion of a longer prayer known as the High Priestly Prayer. In you want to place it in the Gospel narrative, it’s just prior to Judas’ betrayal. At least one commentator claims, “It captures the key themes of Jesus’ message and ministry…” Jesus is praying for his Disciples. His prayer? God, threÑw (tay-reh'-o) protect them (literally, keep them safe), that they will be hagiadzo (hag-ee-ad'-zo ), sanctified…“set aside for accomplishing God’s work in the world,” in the truth of God’s word. And what is the truth of God’s word? That God’s love for the world is revealed through the death of Jesus and that all who believe in him will have eternal life in his name. Not many of Jesus’ prayers are actually recorded in the Gospels, of those most are only a sentence or two, the Lord’s prayer being one of two glaring exceptions, (the other being today’s prayer from the Gospel of John). In the High Priestly Prayer Jesus prays for himself, then for his disciples, and then finally, for all who believe in him. What I want to focus on today is the intercessory nature of Jesus’ prayer for his Disciples. Vs. 11, Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. The as-yet “unnamed threat” is to the Disciples’ unity. And so Jesus prays that God would keep them safe from that which would undermine that unity. The future of the church and its apostolic witness depends on this. Only unity will lead them to Pentecost, the birth of the church! Verse 15 finally names the source of that threat… The Evil One. 15I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to PROTECT THEM from the evil one. Ironically Jesus does not pray for God to keep the Disciples safe from the Romans or the Chief Priest or the Pharisees; those who ultimately would be responsible for his crucifixion. Jesus cites only one enemy, the Evil one. Classic orthodox Christianity understands the Evil One to be Satan, but Jesus doesn’t spend a lot of time in the Gospels talking about the Evil One somewhere out there in the world. Jesus spends a lot more time talking about our human capacity for sin. It is the presence of evil within he concludes that leads to the evil without…The kingdom of God thus comes by conquering the evil within which leads to the transformation of the kingdom of this world. From the inside-out. The Law and the Prophets of the OT, on the other hand, approached it from the outside-in, believing that an outwardly acting religious community would convert the inner life. Thus the laws enforced religious acts of piety and ritualized sacrifice. They would soon discover that in fact, this often led to religiosity that was only skin-deep. And so the Prophets eventually conclude, “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and a contrite heart, O God...” Psalm 51:17 “Deliver us from evil….” It’s the prayer for protection Jesus taught his Disciples to pray. There is something very primal about this prayer for protection. Something within us human beings that acknowledges that we have needs beyond our ability to meet them, and seeks for help from a “higher power.” For many, prayer itself provides a place of safety, comfort, rest and reassurance… I can’t count how many times so one has asked me to pray for them, only to have them respond to my prayer with, “Thank you, I feel so much better now…” For me, prayer helps me put things in perspective. It reminds me that just as God has gotten me through some tough times before, God will get them through this. There’s something distinctly Christian about the prayer for protection: It works from the belief that God is at work in the world, especially through those open to the Divine (still, small) Voice within. It doesn’t deny that at times bad things happen to good people, but neither does it surrender all things to fate. Someone I know prayed for protection many times was my grandfather, Kimbo Komatsu. Grandpa Kim served in the American Armed forces during WWII. A member of MIS, or Military Intelligence Service, his understanding of Japanese language and custom made him and other Nisei invaluable to the war effort. Speaking of the contribution of MIS to the war effort, former Secretary of State, General Colin Powell has said, “They saved countless lives and shortened the war in the Pacific, perhaps by as much as two years.” Grandpa Kim’s company was stationed in the Philippines. Their assignment? To do enemy transmission intercepts and translate captured documents. But it is also said that MIS was used to infiltrate enemy lines, interrogate captured prisoners and assist in cave flushing. Grandpa Kim prayed for protection, just as I’m sure many of his fellow servicemen did. I believe he also knew that the ones he called enemy were also praying; praying to their god, in some cases Buddha; in some, the God of the Christian faith. Just as I know that my grandmother interned with her children at Heart Mountain, Wyoming prayed for protection, as did her captors, the American soldiers assigned to guard the internees. With all this prayer going up for protection, don’t you wonder how God keeps it all straight? Who is enemy? Who is friend? Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son has given me a better understanding of how God makes sense of the prayers of both enemy and friend. Jesus’ parable revealed a parent’s love both for the wayward child (who treats his father as if dead) and the obedient child, who despite doing what’s expect of him, has run away from home in his heart. So it is with all the Children of God! God runs to meet them where they are! My grandfather died, a war hero, of cancer in a Veterans hospital in 1979, while I was in college. Grandpa Kim was laid to rest in a flag-draped coffin with military honors. I’ve always regretted that I didn’t get the chance to visit my grandfather in the hospital as he lay dying; to tell him how proud I was of him, that I didn’t want him to leave, how he will always be my hero, and that I can feel God’s love for him in me! So it is with a certain sense of “oughtness” that I celebrate this Memorial Day, knowing my daughter, and the other members of the youth choir will be ministering to the patients of the Veterans hospital in Mt. Vernon, Missouri. I am so proud of our youth and I can think of no better way for them to honor these men and women for their service then to re-present the God who loves all children of God and to bring a message of hope to them that in the end God’s love conquers all. When ours soldiers grow weary of fighting; when nations lay in rubble; and the child cries out of hunger, fear or grief, God comes running; kneels down, speaks kindly, guards us; gently picks us up and brings us to place of safety and says, “Its okay now, you’re safe. We all fall down from time to time, and need help getting up. Remember, you are never alone.” From the inside-out, God works in my heart and yours to transform the kingdom of this world, until that day when all of God’s children lay down their weapons to be the family we are. In the words of that great African-American Spiritual: I’m gonna lay down my burdens… down by the riverside. Down by the riverside… Down by the riverside… I’m gonna lay down my burdens, down by the riverside. Gonna study war no more…. I ain’t gonna study war no more. I ain’t gonna study war no more. I ain’t gonna study war no more. I ain’t gonna study war no more. |
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