“I’ll Pray for You. Love, Jesus”

“I’ll Pray for You. Love, Jesus”

Good Shepherd Lutheran Church (North Quincy, Massachusetts)

Year B, The Seventh Sunday of Easter, John 17:6-19

Sam

Melton, MDiv ‘19

As some of you may know, this year I have spent my Tuesdays at the women’s prison in Framingham, where I spend a few hours tutoring GED and high school equivalency classes. There are dozens of tutors that come throughout the week, all of us that have strengths in certain subjects. Many of us are students, but there are teachers, doctors, lawyers, of all ages and backgrounds that sit in this same classroom working with students every week. Throughout the school year, I have been lucky enough to spend most of this time with the same group of students, one of which I have gotten to know quite well throughout the months.

She is the type of student that puts a smile on your face the moment you see her; she is bubbly, always smiling, and the first to crack a joke. For example, over Christmas break I learned from her that she works with two tutors named Sam throughout the week and we are apparently nicknamed “Science-Sam” and “Preacher-Sam.” I’m sure you can’t figure out which one I am.

Nonetheless, when she learned of my area of study and plans to be a Pastor, our study sessions suddenly found a way to turn from math and reading, to questions about the Bible and deep wonderings about faith. She often struggles with understanding how God can forgive her of her crime, questions her deep hurt, and the pain she has caused others. I am grateful that she has allowed me to share her story with you today.

As you might expect, spending any amount of time in a prison will have this way of making you feel isolated. You are disconnected from family and friends, any comfort of life you once knew is obsolete, and the feeling of being forgotten creeps up often. And so although this student is always smiling, she isn’t immune to these feelings either.

This past Tuesday, while we were waiting for the officers to call movement, something like a ten minute passing period between classes that you may have experienced in high school, I mentioned that I had read a story in the Bible that had reminded me of her and I thought she would enjoy reading it this week. Her smile washed away quickly from her face and I was certain I had just misstepped in some way. Unsure of what I had said wrong, she replied quietly, “you thought of me?” I looked at her perplexed in my own ways and I am sure stumbled out something like “of course I thought about you, I think about y’all all the time.” As her eyes became watery, she began talking about how she didn’t understand why any of us would ever think of her once we had left. We talked about how there are so many people praying for her and thinking about her all the time, that there are dozens of volunteers that spend time brushing up on their high school math and science so they can come spend time with her each week. She later shared with me that she had never thought anyone prayed for her, the thought simply never crossed her mind. Her reaction stands as this example of realizing the power that is found in knowing someone cares for you, that someone actually cares for you by wrapping you in prayer.

Though I am in no way like Jesus and definitely not making such a comparison- In our Gospel reading from today we actually hear a pretty similar story. The prayer we hear from Jesus in John is often titled “Jesus’ Intercessory Prayer,” or labeled something like “Jesus Prays for His Disciples” in your Bible. It is exactly what it sounds like- Jesus has completed his work, he has performed his miracles, and he knows his death is coming. It seems the last thing he has left to do is pray for those he cares for so deeply, both the disciples and the future church. This is Jesus’ prayer for his beloved, for you and I and the women in my classes at Framingham.

I wonder if we let this truly sink in, if we may really grasp how powerful it is to have someone personally praying for you? To name you, to say that I am thinking of you, and praying for you is a powerful thing. The powerful piece of this prayer for Jesus isn’t that he simply prays, but that his prayers are coupled with radical actions that actually show that deep love and care for others.

Directly after Jesus offers this intercessory prayer, the Gospel of John continues with the telling of Judas’ arrest. Though Jesus knows this betrayal is coming, he continues to pray for the disciples and Judas himself. What a powerful account of the role of prayer in the life of Jesus and the disciples. We have the chance to see a truly protective Jesus in this passage, a Jesus that really cares for his flock, that loves them even in the midst of their mistakes. He authentically loves them and though his entire life shows this, this prayer ensures that we know he continues to care for us even after his death. He wants us to know that we are God’s family, his kinship.

Now, it probably isn’t the most radical thing to be said from the pulpit; prayer is important and Jesus prays and cares for you too! But, as we see from John, prayer itself can be such a radical form of love. Jesus’ prayer is this radical act of defiance towards those who hope to kill him. It’s so radical because it names his followers as special, setting apart from others. He recognizes that they are his, wants to be absolutely certain that there is no doubt that they belong to God, but not in a self-righteous way, in a way that makes sure they know that he calls them beloved.

If we remember the student I shared about earlier, we can see the way in which wrapping someone in care through prayer can be a powerful act. This realization that there are people caring for us so that we are certain that we belong to the family of God.

As a church, we of course know this. We offer prayers every week for our leaders, for the marginalized and vulnerable, for the Earth, and the church. This year, I have been in awe of the way in which this community takes prayer seriously. Many of you have told me about your prayer routines, your journaling, or emails are all clear signs that you know this. You pray for communities, you pray about important decisions, and truly ask for God’s guidance. It has been one of the greatest joys of my life to learn from you this year, to learn how prayer can be so transformational in the life of a community.

For myself, I often proclaim that I am quite bad at prayer, which I know is not the type of thing a pastor is supposed to say, so maybe don’t tell my candidacy committee this- but, I do know that there are so many of us here that take prayer seriously, regardless of how we engage with it ourselves. Author and Episcopal Priest, Barbara Brown Taylor also speaks about this. In her recent book she says, “I am a failure at prayer. When people ask me about prayer...My mind starts scrambling for ways to hide my problem. I start talking about other things I do that I hope will make me sound like a godly person. I try to say admiring things about prayer so there can be no doubt about how important I think it is. I ask the other person to tell me about her prayer life, hoping she will not notice that I have changed the subject.”

This passage is always comforting for me. For those of us that may not have a strict prayer routine or simply feel ‘bad’ at it, there is hope in knowing that we are not alone. That even priests and monks and chaplains and pastors struggle with prayer. Perhaps this is why we find Jesus’ prayer for us so moving. He is able to pray and demonstrate prayer to the disciples and yet we later read that even they struggle with gracefully receiving it. They end up asking so many questions about prayer that I have begun to think that they too believed they were bad at it.

It seems that this isn’t an uncommon problem. Another author, Anne Lamott also writes about her struggles with prayer and helps us to realize the many forms that prayer takes on. I like her little formula for prayer that is simply titled, “Help, Thanks, Wow,” three words that help her better understand prayer. It is exactly what it sounds like. She goes on to write about how prayer can take these three forms for her: asking for help, giving thanksgiving, and simply standing in awe. What I love most about her work is that she reminds us that prayer can take place in a passing thought too. That thinking about someone for a moment or standing in awe of beauty or thanksgiving is also prayer.

These all seem like something I can do, but the longer I think about them and attempt to work with them, the more I struggle with that first one- asking for help. This seems like the hardest one to do for some reason and I suspect that it is for most.

We are so used to praying for others, I don’t think that we often stop and ask others to pray for us personally. I wonder if the Gospel writer John is hoping that we will ask “What do I need Jesus to pray about for me?” This seems a bit harder to consider, but I wonder what prayers we might ask for from Jesus himself? Even more, who else in our life calls us beloved, naming us as someone to care for? What prayers do we wish they were offering up for us? What do we wish that our spouses, or parents, or kids were praying for us?

I wonder if we would we ask Jesus to prayer for our health, or our relationships, or our work? Perhaps we would ask our parents to pray for us as we work through a particularly difficult time, such as medical problems, family struggles, financial concerns and worry, or concerns for our kids? What a powerful act of radical love and acceptance it can be to know that there are others wrapping you in a blanket of prayer.

As I have been wrapping up my semester and school year, I have had the wonderful opportunity to reflect on my time with you this year both in class and with Pastor Alissa. My time here has easily been the highlight of my seminary experience and I will be forever grateful for the time I have been lucky enough to spend with you.

You may have read Pastor Alissa’s article in the Shepherd Staff last month and might recall her speaking about our supervision and reflection sessions every week. She wrote about this question that has grown into something of a ritual for us, starting off every supervision by asking the question, “Where do you see the Spirit moving this week?” Though I know I laugh everytime, truthfully, it has come to be one of my favorite questions. This is perhaps because every week I think our answers could easily fall into any of those three areas of prayer that Anne Lamott speaks of. So many weeks, we answer that question by being thankful for this place, we have asked for help and had hard conversations a time or two, and nearly every time, we end up in awe of the work that God is up to. This time has become a sacred space for us, one where I often come away realizing those prayers I thought about in passing all week.

As I move forward in my own ministry, know that there is nothing more powerful than knowing that this congregation is praying for me along the way. It is this constant reminder that I am loved by God and part of her family and I hope that you also know that myself and so many leaders are praying for you as well.

As we end today, I hope that you will join me in thinking about what it is that you wish others would pray for you.

Hopefully you each received a piece of fabric when you came in this morning, but if not, I’ll bring some around. I invite you to write those prayers that you are in need of this morning on that fabric, feel free to take as many as you would like. To help you think about what to write, I wonder What is it that you want Jesus to pray for you? Or what is the prayer that you wish or hope that your mother or father is praying? They can be as specific or general as you like, whatever it is that need today.

As we think about these together, during our hymn, I invite you to bring those up to the altar and as they all join together, I hope that they act as a reminder that you are a part of this beautiful quilt that makes up God’s family.

Amen.