“BE THE ANSWER TO JESUS’ PRAYER”

Rev. James Singleton

5/16/10
JOHN 17:20-26 

Our passage of Scripture today is Jesus’ great prayer for the Church and what his hope is for we who are his followers. So what exactly is Jesus praying for us?

When Jesus looks into the future and sees those of us who will call ourselves Christians, his one great hope for us is that we will all be ONE. He prays for our unity. Talk about a prayer that has not been answered! If ever there was a divided people it is church people.

We can’t agree on how to take communion or even what it means. We can’t agree on how to baptize or at what age. We can’t agree on how to interpret the Bible or how to apply it our every day living. We can’t agree on the role women should play in the church or whether homosexuals should be accepted. The church is sadly fragmented among hundreds, perhaps thousands, of Christian denominations and sects worldwide. It seems that the prayer Jesus offered up 2000 years ago has gone unanswered. 

Then again, maybe it hasn’t gone as unanswered as at first it appears. While I don’t envision the day anytime soon when all churches will sit down and come to an agreement on all of their differences, I do see that Jesus’ prayer is answered at the local level. While we usually think about prayer being one way—us praying to Jesus and he answering our prayers, today I want us to reverse that and think about how we, here at First Christian Church, are and can be the answer to Jesus’ prayer.

Jesus’ prayer reveals to us that we who are members of this church are intimately a part of each other’s lives. He prays that we be one because he knows how easy it is for us to lose that sense of unity. He knows how readily we can be torn apart from each other over a multitude of issues.

Churches are notorious for forming cliques of like minded and like acting people who set themselves against those who are not of the same mind and who do not act the same way. We all like to associate ourselves with people who are like us, and church is no different.

Poet Katy Grow writes:

I wait behind the library desk, / Patiently checking out books, / Usually strange books: / Who would want to read that? /I wait, hoping that, someday, /Someone will put on the desk the very stack of books/ I myself would choose. /I wait for that kindred spirit, /That person just like me…/I seek a community of clones. /How often have I looked for a church, a job, an organization /Filled with people just like me? /Wake me up, Lord /Let me be willing to find community with those whose /books may even be written in a different language.

The Church is a community of people who, under other circumstances, probably would not have come together. In fact, writes Parker Palmer, “we might define true community as that place where the person you least want to live with always lives.”

Jesus knew that the Church would be comprised of people very different from one another. Our religious views and political beliefs are different. We come down on different sides of the fence on any given social issue. Our personalities sometimes clash. We grow jealous of one another, impatient with one another, disappointed in one another.

We can become angry when someone does something we don’t like or fails to do something our way. We sometimes even fear one another—especially the stranger. We come together saddled down with our burdens and we don’t want to hear about any one else’s troubles.

Jesus knew what our tendency would be. It would be to drift apart and cease caring about one another.

Two sisters spent the day fighting. That evening, they prepared for bed, still mad at each other. As usual, they knelt by the sides of their beds for night prayers. “Dear God,” the eight-year-old began, “Bless Daddy and Mommy, bless our cat and dog.” Then she stopped.

The mother gently prompted her. “Didn’t you forget somebody?” The older girl glared across the bed at her six-year-old sister and said, “And, oh yes, dear God, bless my ex-sister.”

She may fight with her sister. She may want to remove her sister from the family, but her sister is forever her sister. There is a bond between us that forever makes Jesus’ disciples one family. That bond is Jesus Christ himself.

No matter what differences we may have, we have between us one Lord, one Savior, one Salvation, one Hope, and one Love. Jesus’ prayer is that we might never forget that what binds us together is greater than anything that threatens to tear us apart.

Jesus prays that we never cease praying for each other’s welfare, that we never cease getting involved in each other’s lives, weeping when others weep, rejoicing when others rejoice.

He prays that we be a church that is warm and accepting because there is nothing worse than attending a church where no one speaks to you and no one cares you are there.

He prays that we remember the church is not about issues or buildings or entertainment—the church is about relationships. It is about our relationship with God and how God’s love calls us into a relationship with each other.

Jesus goes so far as to compare our relationship in the church with the relationship that he has with the Father. “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

So, how do we, here at First Christian Church, become an answer to Jesus’ prayer? Let me give you some examples.

Each time an Elder reaches out to a shut-in by spending time and sharing the Lord’s Supper so that shut-in does not feel separated and excluded from the rest of us, Jesus’ prayer is answered.

Each time the prayer chain is activated and you find yourself praying for someone you do not even know, but you stop what you are doing and raise that individual up before the throne of God’s mercy the same as if you were praying for your own family member—you become an answer to Jesus’ prayer.

Each time you reconcile with a church member with whom you have had a falling out; each time you forgive someone for hurtful words or rude actions; each time you are forgiven for something you wish you could take back and a healing takes place in a relationship—Jesus’ prayer is answered.

Each time we do not allow disagreements in theology or politics to keep us from worshipping together and ministering together—we become the answer to Jesus’ prayer.

Each time someone at the Welcome Center makes a first time visitor feel like they have just come home rather than feel like a stranger in a strange land—Jesus’ prayer is answered.

Each time our Official Board wrestles with an issue that not everyone sees eye to eye on, but accepts as a whole the final vote rather than cause dissension, Jesus’ prayer is answered. 

During Youth Sunday one of our high school youth, Lexi Linger, spoke about how she felt ostracized at school where she was the victim of rumors and singled out for ridicule. But then she came here where other youth embraced her and accepted her.

She thanked this congregation for loving her no matter what and for taking her in as one of our own. And as she cried her tears of gratitude for the embrace the people of this congregation gave to her, when others had rejected her, Jesus’ prayer was answered.

It is significant that Jesus does not lecture us to be one, but rather prays for us to be one. Prayer must play a central role in our oneness. Without prayer we fail to connect with each other on the most intimate levels.

When you pray for someone, something happens to that person, to you, and to the relationship between you. To pray for someone is to be drawn toward that person. It is impossible to remain separated from someone you pray for.

So Jesus designed his Lord’s Prayer so that when we pray it, as we do each Sunday, we are not praying for ourselves alone, but always for each other.

“OUR Father…give US this day OUR daily bread…forgive US OUR sins…as WE forgive those who sin against US…lead US not into temptation…deliver US from evil.” The church that prays together—stays together. We are ONE in the Spirit; we are ONE in the Lord.

I have always remembered a story our own Sandy Hensal told me when she was working for the IRS and had to move to the state of Delaware. She went to eat one evening at a local Sizzler Steakhouse. She was sitting alone and the couple at the next table asked her a strange question: “Doesn’t anyone love you?” they asked. Taken aback, Sandy replied, “Yes, but they’re all in Ohio.”

Others joined the couple from a local Baptist Church. Tables were pushed together and the couple came over and pushed Sandy’s table together with theirs. They asked all about her and in the prayer for the meal, they gave thanks for her and for the opportunity to share a meal with her and prayed for God’s blessings to be upon her. Sandy said she felt like she had been to church and communion at the Sizzler. They welcomed the stranger and Jesus’ prayer was answered.

Never be afraid to reach out to the stranger sitting next to you. Pull them up to the common table. Let them know someone here loves him or her because we are all brothers and sisters in Christ.

Pray for the ones you wish were your ex-brother and ex-sister because you are still one with them. Remember, what unites us is deeper than what divides us.

Care about those who are hurting. Share the load with those who are overburdened. Let us never tire of finding ways to connect with each other so that we live as one body here on the corner of High and Boyer.

We may not be able to unify the Church throughout the world, but we can all do our part in making certain that this church is One family where the love we receive from Jesus Christ is offered to each other. When we do that, we become the answer to Jesus’ prayer.

AMEN.