St. Paul’s Episcopal Church, Wesley Chapel, FL
Preacher: The Rev. Adrienne R. Hymes, Vicar
Seventh Sunday of Easter/Year B: John 17:6-19
May 16, 2021
In 2019, a small group of church planters entered the space in which we worship today. The space required a lot of imagination in order for us to envision a sanctuary. This space was formerly a gym, complete with rubber floors. After much prayer and negotiation, we determined that although there would need to be a large investment in order to overhaul the space, the owner of the building would greatly benefit from our presence long after we depart from this place. At the appointed future time of God’s choosing, we will indeed leave this space better than when we found it, positioning the owner of the property to greatly benefit from our good stewardship. This concept of leaving a place better than one finds it can be applied to many spaces, including workplaces, dwelling places and relationships—those spaces of the heart.
In our gospel passage in the 17th chapter of John this morning, Jesus’ prayer to God for his disciples was leading up to the culmination of Jesus’ mission on earth—to save humankind from sin and death and to restore the broken creation to wholeness with God. God sent Jesus to ultimately leave humankind better than we were before he came, and to equip us to continue his kingdom-building work until the day when Jesus will come again.
According to Jesus, eternal life is knowledge of the only true God (v.3). And, at the end of chapter 16, just before the start of our passage, Jesus’ disciples had definitively affirmed their belief that Jesus knew all things, and their knowledge that the only true God had sent him (16:30). It was Jesus’ life with his disciples that developed their knowledge of God, which would equip them up to imitate Jesus in building upon his mission of sharing the gospel message after he was no longer with them.
Jesus’ prayer of intercession was lifted to God on behalf of those whom God gave to him—the good shepherd of God’s people. As the good shepherd Jesus said protected God’s people, in God’s name, and guarded them, losing only the one destined to be lost. Jesus prayed to God, “I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do,” (17:4). In other words, Father, I have obediently completed my intended mission; I am now leaving your own, who are in this world, better than I found them.
Facing the reality that his life on earth would soon end, Jesus’ assurance that there would be no lapse in divine coverage for his sheep was this continuance of protecting and guiding the believing community through this intercessory prayer—that even in his forced physical separation from his disciples on his journey to the cross, and even in his bodily absence after his death on the cross—God’s divine protection and guarding against the evil one would already be soundly in place.
And, God’s people so need His divine protection. In our society, the slaughter of the innocents, in its many forms, including gun violence, police brutality and domestic terrorism, is often captured by the media and even on personal cellphones. Captured also, is usually, the well-rehearsed secular response, “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families.” While that may be true, secularized prayers said with no knowledge of God and with no connection to God through faith in His son, are simply heartfelt wishes full of sentiment, empty of any power against the evil in this world.
We know that all who received Jesus, and who believed in his name, he gave power to become children of God (1:12). As God’s faithful people, who are still in this world, we know that our power against evil comes from knowing our identity as God’s beloved children. Knowledge of God is power, and it is that power which is glaringly absent from society’s secular prayers, that fuels our sacred prayers.
In 1978, Episcopal priest, Urban T. Holmes’ classic book entitled, “The Priest in Community: Exploring the Roots of Ministry,” was published. Holmes described the nature of the priest as “bimodal consciousness,”—living in this earthly world and accessing the eternal realm. He said:
“Much more than a sacrificial official, the priest is a mystagogue [who]…comes out of the darkness of man’s evolutionary past, charged with the responsibility of deepening humanity’s understanding of itself by word and action, by the very nature of the priest’s presence.”[1]
It strikes me that this is what Jesus did on earth through his public ministry and through his uninterrupted divine communication with his Father through prayer. God sent Jesus into a hostile world in order to deepen humanity’s understanding of what it means to be truly human. And, by the very nature of this fully human, fully divine, great high priest’s presence, the nature of humanity was necessarily, and forever changed. By virtue of our baptism into Christ, when we pray our sacred prayers, in this earthly realm, we are taken up into God’s divine activity in the heavenly realm, and our human nature is transformed.
Every now and then I see the quote, in some form, with the message: God loves you just the way you are… and loves you too much to let you stay there.[2] Jesus is counting on us to wield the power of sacred prayer, so that hearts that do not yet know him will come to know him. He is counting on us to wield the power of sacred prayer to protect and guard those who already know him, remembering to pray for ourselves.
Today we offer sacred prayers in thanksgiving for Katherine Knippel’s ministry as our soloist. Katherine’s gift of voice has certainly contributed to this faith community’s commitment to creating sacred space filled with prayerful liturgy for all who worship with us. Katherine, there is no doubt that through your ministry, you are leaving St. Paul’s better than you found us on your first Christmas Eve mass in 2019. Know that you are being sent out into the world with our sacred prayers rooted in the One who first prayed for us all.
How comforting it is to know that Jesus, our heavenly intercessor, who prayed for his disciples’ protection and guarding in a hostile world, also prays for us as we grow into the full stature of Christ, showing up as Christ’s body to continue his kingdom-building work in a still very violent world. Children of God, on this seventh Sunday of Easter, let us commit to remain faithful and to remain prayerful, so that when we depart this life, we, like Jesus, may leave this world, and all of God’s people in it, better than we found them. Amen.
[1] Holmes III, Urban T. The Priest in Community: Exploring the Roots of Ministry (New York: The Seabury Press). 1978, p. 67.
[2] Momentum for Life: God Loves You Too Much To Let You Stay There – Salvaged Faith. Accessed Saturday, May 15, 2021.
