SCRIPTURE and MESSAGE John 17:1-11

Jesus had a thing about prayer. He did it with friends and family, strangers and enemies. And so toward the end of his ministry, he knew that he didn’t have much time left.  But he wanted to emphasize the importance of prayer and the power of praying together as family and friends.  Jesus looked around at all of his friends. They were all together again. But Jesus knew that soon he would not be with them. Jesus knew he would go to be with God. He knew that he needed to pray for them and to teach them to pray.  As Jesus looked at his friends, Jesus said each friend's name to himself and then, raising his eyes in prayer, he said:

Father, it's time.
Display the bright splendor of your Son
So the Son in turn may show your bright splendor.
You put him in charge of everything human
So he might give real and eternal life to all in his charge.
And this is the real and eternal life:
That they know you,
The one and only true God,
And Jesus Christ, whom you sent.
I glorified you on earth
By completing down to the last detail
What you assigned me to do.
And now, Father, glorify me with your very own splendor,
The very splendor I had in your presence
Before there was a world.

I spelled out your character in detail
To the men and women you gave me.
They were yours in the first place;
Then you gave them to me,
And they have now done what you said.
They know now, beyond the shadow of a doubt,
That everything you gave me is firsthand from you,
For the message you gave me, I gave them;
And they took it, and were convinced
That I came from you.
They believed that you sent me.
I pray for them.
I'm not praying for the God-rejecting world
But for those you gave me,
For they are yours by right.
Everything mine is yours, and yours mine,
And my life is on display in them.
For I'm no longer going to be visible in the world;
They'll continue in the world
While I return to you.
Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life
That you conferred as a gift through me,
So they can be one heart and mind
As we are one heart and mind.
As long as I was with them, I guarded them
In the pursuit of the life you gave through me;
I even posted a night watch.
And not one of them got away,
Except for the rebel bent on destruction
(the exception that proved the rule…

These were Jesus’ words, his prayer for his dearest friends and followers.  Jesus loved his friends so much and so he prayed for them and with them. Jesus knew that his friends were anxious about what would happen to him and what would happen to them when he was gone. Together, Jesus and his friends had talked about how they might go on living in God’s way. And one way to do this was with prayer.  Jesus showed us how to pray together and invites each of us to be woven together as a community of prayer.  Jesus’ Apostles sat wondering, in unity; praying. What is your prayer as a disciple? What is your prayer today? God is listening.  Amen