God Wants to Move In: A Homily for the Seventh Sunday of Easter

 

“I made your name known to them, and I will make it know, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them”  (Jn 17.21).

 

Last month I came across a commencement speech that was widely quoted in the media; it delivered lastmonth by Jay Powell to graduates of his alma mater, Princeton University.  Jay Powell is the Chair of the US Federal Reserve and may be one of the few adults keeping the US together.   It was a really good speech, and had a lot to say about the importance of personal integrity.  It also included an anecdote that made me think of how we sometimes think of prayer, the subject of my homily today.

Powell told the story of how, when he was a very junior partner at a prestigious law firm, he decided to make an impression on the senior partner, a VIP who had been a US Senator.   As Powell described it, he worked up the nerve to climb the stairs to the corner audience, had a very brief meeting, and left thinking, “well at least I tried”, but he made an impression and that helped his career.

I think many of us find it difficult to pray because we think of God like the senior partner in Powell’s story.    We think that we have to address God like some august personage, “Excuse me sir, sorry to trouble you, but f you don’t mind, could you please help with….”

What if there was another way of thinking about prayer, as something that didn’t look like a formal audience, but rather something that looked  like an intimate conversation with a loved one or dear friend.?  That’s the kind of prayer we hear in today’s gospel, from John 17, when Jesus prays to his father for his friends.

So a little background:  Today’s gospel reading from John 17 takes us back to territory we last visited on Maundy Thursday during Holy Week.   It’s the night of Jesus’ arrest, his last moments with his disciples.

Unlike in the Synoptic Gospels John has no account of the last supper.  Instead, after Jesus washes his friends’ feet, he has a long conversation (Jn 13-17) where he says that he must soon leave them (a dual reference to his death but also to his ascension which the church remembered this last Friday).   He also promises them that he will not leave them alone, which reminds us that next Sunday is Pentecost, the gift of the Holy Spirit.

The remarkable thing about Jn 17 is that by this point Jesus is not talking to the disciples.   He is talking to his Father, and he is praying for the disciples – and for us.  Jesus’ words, “I ask”, are the words of prayer.    So the disciples are actually overhearing Jesus pray for them, which is something we only see in John’s account of Jesus’ arrest. 

When you are going through a difficult time, does it make a difference knowing that others, people of deep faith, are praying for you?   Everyone I’ve put this question to has said absolutely, yet it does.    I wonder what that experience was like for you if the person praying for was with you, sitting with you, so you could hear their words, their tone of voice?   When people have been with me and prayed for me, at first I found it a little awkward, but I quickly came to appreciate how intimate and caring it can be to know that someone values you enough to speak to God on your behalf!

I think the same thing is true of today’s gospel, where the disciples learn that God the Son cares enough about them to speak to God the Father on their behalf.   In the Synoptic Gospels, the night of his arrest, Jesus prayer in the Garden of Gethsemane but we don’t hear his words, except for his prayer that he might be spared the cross unless it was his Father’s will (Mt 26.39).

John however lets us hear everything that Jesus prays, so what does he pray for?   Despite the convoluted language, the prayer is quite simple.  Jesus prays that his friends, including us, know the same love that exists between Jesus and his Father.   He prays that his friends may be drawn together by this love, so close that they become one, as Jesus and the father are one, and that this love might fill the lives and hearts of his friends.   At least, that’s what I make of it (I dreaded translating passages from John in my seminary Greek classes, but here I think I get the gist of it).

It's an astonishing moment when you think about it.  The disciples are overhearing a conversation of the Holy Trinity, Jesus speaking to God the Father on their behalf, asking for their welfare and the welfare of all who believe after them (as I said, us).   As one commentator has noted, it is a  wonder that the Father and the Son spend their time discussing the likes of us and our little community of faith”, but that shows the love and concern that God has for us, that God wants to draw us into the relationship of the Trinity, “so that the love which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (Jn 17.26).

If you only take away one thing from this homily, may it be this, that God loves you so much that God wants to include you in the love and relationship that exists within the three persons of God the Trinity:  Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.   Last Sunday in her very fine homily, our curate Rev. Amy spoke about how we can know Jesus better if we focus more on him and less on ourselves.  

Amy’s words made me think of decluttering a house, emptying the attic and basement of useless things that just take up space.  If we think of the soul as a house, the clutter we need to remove could be our sense of self-importance, our grievances, our feelings of entitlement – all need to go to make room for God.  And the good news is that God can’t wait to fill up that space, can’t wait to move into your soul, “so that the love which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them” (Jn 17.26).

So how do we pray for this occupancy to happen?  How do we pray for God to fill the space, the emptiness, within us?  Or, if you are with someone and you feel moved to pray for them in your presence, how do you pray that you might find words to fill that moment that might initially seem awkward?   If you can’t think of any words, you can’t go wrong with the prayer from our second reading today, the prayer that ends the Book of Revelation, “come Lord Jesus” (Rev 22.20).  Start with that prayer, and the Holy Spirit will fill in the space.

May God give us all the grace and confidence to pray, and the soul friends to pray with us and for us.