John 17:6-19
This prayer ends a long list of things for the disciples to learn. See John is different from the other gospels because of this final discourse: instructions first for the disciples and then ending with this prayer. This prayer isn't just for the disciples then, it is for us now as well. This is our ending to the Easter season this week and we are prayed for. How are we prayed for.
First that we may be protected. Protected from this world because this world is not the one we should be striving for. This world is our life on earth and we need to do the things Jesus taught and did in John's gospel: feed one another, celebrate life (the wedding at Cana), talk with outcasts from the religious society, and those who are curious (like Nicodemus, or Zacchaeus up the tree, or the woman at the well). These finding of the pearls of greatest price are kingdom happenings. They give us a glimpse of not earth, but of the kind of world God sees. Like paying it forward or really seeing a homeless person or really working for justice and equity. These give us glimpses of something better this world can become if only we work at it in our spaces.
Second that we may be united. Now unity is a weird thing. Everyone thinks unity means uniformity, that we all believe the same, all have to adhere to the same way and this is not true unity. Unity is a state of being, which includes all the beings united under it. They may have different ideas but they are unified in who they believe in, for example Jesus. The other definition is of an artist. "The state of forming a pleasing whole." (Oxford Dictionary) Think of the this whole though, it has different colors, different shades, different angles, different perspectives all to make a beautiful picture, sculpture, or creation. Now these differences don't war within the picture to proclaim their importance and only their importance, no the differences actually enhance the whole. This is what Jesus is praying for and for years and generations we have misinterpreted this to mean we all have to agree, or believe the same thing, or worship in the same way. This is not what it means.
What if we started seeing the rest of the body of Christ as one pleasing whole. The differences enhance us all when we embrace them. Some use liturgy, some don't. Some roll in the isle, some don't. Some lift their hands in praise and some don't. What would this more full representation of church look like if we stopped saying your so different you're out and opened up and embraced the differences which fit into say these four different representations of Jesus we have. See the four gospels don't agree on the essence of who Jesus is and why he came. They give us four different Jesus: Matthew is Jesus as the best Rabbi, Mark is Jesus as a human, Luke is Jesus as the lover of the marginalized, and John gives us Superhero Jesus. These are four different looks at Jesus, but they came to us in one bound book. Always they have been a set. The contradictions have never taken away from the story they have always united people to find where they fit in these stories. So we have a lot to learn about unity.
Lastly, these all flow from the place of love. From the script of our being chosen by Jesus as disciples. This is what we read last week, we were chosen. We are prayed over because Jesus could see we needed these words to know we have been God's all along. Jesus showed us the Father and we are united with Jesus in this love. The dance of the trinity. Comforter, Peace bringer, God with us we haven't ever been left alone to figure it out. We are loved as we are, and this prayer weaves this love all around us. It is our web of protection, our shelter in the storm, and no it doesn't save us from pain or trouble, but reminds us we are held in the Almighty hands of love which created us and this world.
So let us take comfort in knowing we were prayed for and are held in these loving hands. Each step we take, even in the hardships we are prayed over for protection from losing faith. We are prayed for to try and see that difference enhances us instead of detracts from us. We are prayed over by the love of the ages who died for us and held us in the knowing hands that God's love is not easy, but well worth the struggle.
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