“Jesus Prays For Us”

John 17:15-20

Grace and peace to you from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ. Amen.

Let us make no mistake about it; the Christian church is in the midst of a great revitalization. It has always been the people who are willing to probe the depths that have revitalized the church. We must go deeper if we would see this church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America become revitalized. That is to say, we must come into full bloom in terms of our faith in Jesus the Christ. Jesus prays that our lives would be nothing more and nothing less than in full bloom. The living Triune God within us is enough extraordinary grace to make your life and my life bloom, if we will just slow down, listen up and commit ourselves to a spiritual journey.

The coming age about which Karl Rahner wrote more than twenty years ago has already descended upon us, and as we continue forward in this new century this new age is continuing to cascade down over us, wave after great wave. They are revitalizing waves that are rolling over the churches of this world. Believe it and do not be afraid. God is with us! We can walk forward day by day in great confidence because this is the promise of our God, whose promises can be trusted! He holds each of us by the right hand and walks with us in all of our journeys.

If we are to perceive the reality of things as we continue forward in this new age we must begin to “see” the world in which we live through eyes that bring reality to the heart, not just recording it in the head but carrying it deep into the heart. We must see as God “sees.” At our core God’s very nature is in us. To taste and see that the Lord is sweet, not by intellectual pursuits but by an indescribable connecting with God at a deeper level within our own being, this is our call.

1 John chapter 3, verse 9 confirms this for we read there: “Whoever is a child of God . . . God’s very nature is in him.” This is what it means to be Children of God – to have an indescribable knowledge of God that goes above and beyond knowing with the mind.

The decision to commit oneself to the spiritual journey cannot be likened to the decision to pursue an “interest” such as philosophy, astronomy, science, the arts, or for that matter, basketball. For the decision to commit oneself to the spiritual journey is a response to a silent, deeply inward call to set out on a lifelong and arduous journey of interior transformation in search of God to one day “find” God and “see” God in the depth of one’s own being.

God loves us before we love him. Though we are unlovable and disobedient, Christ loves us as we are. However, love will not allow us to be disobedient; and if love disappears, it can easily be seen in our rebellious behavior.

The deeper life is the experience of God in a gifted intuition, a gentle love found in a penetrating, though obscure, knowledge of God. It is most simply stated by St. Paul in his letter to the Ephesians, chapter 1 verse 4: “Before the world was created, he chose us, chose us in Christ . . . to live through love in his presence.”

Why do I bring these ideas before you today? Because it is my sincere belief that God through Christ in the Holy Spirit is saying loudly and clearly to each of his children in this new age in which we live but specifically to us, His children at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Wyoming, Minnesota: “Be still and know that I am God.” God is saying: “Come unto me in a deeply personal way and I will free you.” Beyond the meditation of ideas, thoughts, words and concepts, we are called to taste and see that the Lord is sweet.

This is not to say that you will be blissed out all of the time. The experience of living in His presence is too deep for that. One still feels pain and anguish and knows sorrow, but all of that comes with an underlying peace and confidence in Christ.

It is the gifted peace of Christ, a peace that the superficial and transient pursuits and pleasures of the world cannot give; no matter how much we immerse ourselves in them. Many of us have known God in the darkness of our lives because as His children we live with and within an unspectacular and homely awareness that God simply is. He is with us! And He will never leave us. Gradually, over time, we become the person(s) for whom Christ once prayed and continues to pray – people who are in the world but not of it.

Just as you and I pray for our friends, Jesus prays for us still today and everyday as we read in the 17th chapter of John’s Gospel, verses 15-20: “Father, I am not asking you to remove them from the world but to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world. Consecrate them in truth: your word is truth. . . I pray not only for these but for those also who through their words will believe in Me.”

My sisters and brothers Christ is counting on you, it is through your words and through the way that you live out your daily lives that others who do not yet know Jesus will believe in Him. Christ is calling you to a deeper communion with him so that your words may be received as His truth.

In order to answer this unwavering call, let us take these coming Lenten Days as a time to focus our lives in prayer, when we step back from the usual fast-paced ways and live quietly, joyfully and restfully in Jesus’ presence, with our families and friends remembering that He calls us friends when we do what he commands – love one another as He loves us. And let us come together each Wednesday noon, and/or evening as works best for you; as well as Sunday morning, to praise God for His mercies, which are new every day, to pray for those in need of help and to thank Him for the very gift of life.

Amen. So let it be.