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June 4, 2000
When we read the "Great Prayer" of Jesus recorded in the Gospel of John, and a portion of which has been read today as our Gospel, we get a feeling of uneasiness at first, for we are listening in on one of the most intimate moments recorded about Jesus in the scriptures.
Indeed for any among us can there be any more intimate communication than that between a petitioner and his or her God?
When we stand in prayer before the awesome presence of God, we are reminded that nothing can be hidden from the knowledge of God. The psalmist at Psalm 139 read today captured that sense of total nakedness before the Almighty.
When we pray, if we are sincere, there can be no unknown places within us where we can hide our secret thoughts. God knows, as the ancient confession states, all the "devices and desires" of our hearts.
The moment of Jesus' intimate petitions before God occurs in John's gospel at the end of Jesus' final instructions to his disciples. He had broken bread with them and washed their feet. He had warned them of the trials and denials to come. Then he reassured them with words about the places he would prepare for them in his Father's house, the Advocate whom he would send to stand by them, and the unworldly peace they would experience, and he commanded them to honor his work by loving one another. After all of this discourse Jesus proceeds to pray fervently and intimately with His Heavenly Father. Somehow the writer of the fourth gospel becomes privy to this prayer as the other three gospel writers do not although they reveal some other intimate prayers of Jesus in the garden of Gethsame.
John gives us a glimpse of the innermost thoughts of Jesus near the close of his earthly life. But unlike the prayers in Gethsame which are focused on Jesus and God, the prayers in John focus exclusively upon Jesus' disciples. Rather than pray for the cup of suffering to be lifted from him, Jesus prays for the protection of those he will leave behind.
Prayer on behalf of others, the kind of intercessory prayer shown by Jesus in this text, has sustained the Christian community throughout its history. Through the ages and today Christian monks, mystics, and laity devote endless hours praying for others.
But nearly every Christian sometime prays for someone else and is assured that someone else is praying for him and her. Though we may keep these promises of prayers with varying degrees of diligence, we do keep them in hope, sometimes in desperation, but most often because everyone of us can have the experience of being buoyed up by the prayers of others, can have the assurance that even in dark times we are surrounded by a cloud of witnesses praying for us before the throne of God. Sometimes we could not keep going except for the special peace that comes when we know others are praying for us.
Well, if we can be sustained by the prayers of the community of faith, imagine how much more we can be encouraged when we live in the knowledge that Jesus himself prays for our safekeeping? That is precisely what Jesus promised his followers.
We need Jesus' prayers for our safekeeping. We are not at risk as were his first disciples when he sent them into the world, which would persecute them. But we are in a world in which multiple influences and forces would like nothing better than to tear down our faith, seduce into worldly ways and life styles, and encourage us to turn out backs through indifference or outright rejection of the light of Jesus.
Jesus prayed as much for unity among his followers as anything else and the threat of disunity still hangs heavy upon Christians and the Church. We are not one as Jesus hoped though we are becoming one in his prayers for us.
Our unity is beset with apathy, idolatry, and a false sense of rightness and righteousness among Christians of various persuasions, theological convictions, and institutional loyalties.
And while we comfortable Christians in Hong Kong are not likely to undergo any existential suffering for our faith, not far from our shores Christians do suffer for their faith in Burma, in Indochina, in Mainland China, in Pakistan, and in Indonesia. Only last week several dozen Christians were murdered when their church was burned down in Indonesia.
This is Asia Sunday, an annual focus on the Church in our region, and our special prayers in a few moments will go in support of Indonesian Christians.
Just as we take hope when we experience duress and know others pray for us, our brothers and sisters in Indonesia take courage to know that many Christians near them are remembering them.
And though we are aware of the challenges of disunity and intolerance which undermine the Church of Christ, we are more aware as we move toward next Pentecost Sunday that Jesus keeps praying for his followers and keep lifting to the throne of Almighty Wisdom and Grace the needs of his church on earth.
God will not abandon us while we live in this world, because Jesus believed we were worthy of his petitions. If God in Jesus Christ is for us, who, then, can be against us. Thanks be to God.
Pastor Gene Preston
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The Rev. Gene R.Preston14th Floor, Blk 36, Lower Baguio Villa Tel : 25516161 Fax: 25512114E-mail : gpreston@netvigator.com |
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