Acts 1:15-17, 21-26; John 17:6-19
This is a rough world. And as Christians we are thrown into it with an expectation that we are to make it a different place. The fact that Jesus prays for us suddenly means something. The reality of our prayers for each other take on a new light. A Lutheran Seminary professor’s son was killed in a violent way. He found it impossible to pray and went about his teaching and his work feeling empty and without anything to give. Sharing his pain with a colleague, he revealed his inability to pray. His friend told him, “We will pray for you until you can pray for yourself again.” As his healing took place, he was eventually able to pray again.
Those of us who are parents remember the prayers we murmured when we sent our children off to school that first day. It was a prayer for safety in a rough world. We continue to say those prayers as they enter each new stage of life, ready to stride into the unknown. We find ourselves praying anew at this time of graduation, and every time a new seemingly perilous journey begins. We pray for safety of life but also safety of spirit in a world we know can be rough and unforgiving.
In today’s gospel Jesus knows he is about to leave his disciples and they are being sent out into the world to be his disciples. Jesus prays for them, asking for protection; asking that God would “sanctify” them, make them holy. With that prayer comes all the wonder of Jesus praying for us. This is the Son of God, this is the one who came to save the world, including us. This is the one who died for us, and he is praying for you and me. Praying for our safety, praying for our holiness. This is the one who has power over evil and death itself, this is the one praying for us. Jesus is the one who sends us out to carry on that which was important to him, the release of captives, to bind up the sick, to pray for those in need.
Jesus also prayed, “Sanctify them in truth; your word is truth.” Sanctify means to “make holy.” Holy = being set aside for a special purpose. Holy things usually look the same as regular things. Holy communion looks like regular bread and regular wine. Elliot’s holy baptism looks like regular water. Holy people look like regular people. But communion isn’t ordinary, baptism isn’t ordinary, and we aren’t ordinary people. We are sanctified, made holy, special, set apart, given a holy purpose in the world.
What if we took seriously that Jesus was praying for our holiness? What if we prayed this for each other? How would it change the way we lived together as congregation? How would it affect our concept of our congregational mission? Our participation in that mission? Our gifts and talents as part of LCM’s holiness?
As we send off our graduates into a rough world, they need to know that Jesus, and this whole congregational community, are praying for them. They are special, they are holy, they are set apart for God’s purposes in the world.
Remember that Jesus is praying for us. Jesus wants us to live as children of God and promises to give us the strength to face whatever comes. Remember to pray for those around you, and those far away. Pray that we will be protected in our faith and that we will “sanctified.” Remember that we are to be salt and light to a bland and dark world. Remember that Jesus is praying for us and that all the power of God is with us. Remember that there is nothing that has power beyond the power of God. Remember that we are set apart by God. Remember we have a mission, a purpose in the world. Remember that although we may look ordinary, Jesus says we are not. Remember that through him, we live a new life, and the world can hope in something life-giving.