Finding Faith ... in Jesus's prayer for our protection

EDITOR'S NOTE: In October 2017 I began a new venture as a synodically authorized minister at Faith Lutheran Church in Wolverton, Minn. The ride over the past 3 1/2 years has been an amazing journey of learning, growing and a deepening of my theological mind. This sermon took place on May 16, the seventh Sunday in Easter. This was the sixth in-person/livestreamed service in more than a year after our church was shuttered because of the COVID pandemic. The first in-person/livestreamed service was on Good Friday, but there was no sermon.

This week's preaching text: John 17:6-9

6 “I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; 8 for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. 9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. 10 All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 11 And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one. 12 While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled. 13 But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. 14 I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 15 I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. 16 They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. 17 Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. 18 As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Message:

This morning I am looking specifically at you graduates of 2021 because when you woke up this morning little did you know that coming here today you would be tasked with likely the greatest challenge of the rest of your lives.

And that is, from here on forward: How do I go into this great, big world and live out a life of faith? ... Because, as our gospel tells us today, and shows us in a myriad ways, the world can be a dangerous place for one of faith. After all, why else in this prayer from Jesus today would he beseech his Father to protect his apostles. In this particular part of the prayer, he is praying specifically for his apostles:

"Holy father protect them in your name that you have given me so that they may be one as we are one protection."

The three of you that stood up here with me today might be thinking to yourselves what do I need protection from? ... I'm young and strong and healthy. I wouldn't want to tangle with any of you! ... What do I need protection from?

Well, before I answer that, I think it's important that we back up a little bit and talk about today's gospel. You may not know this from reading just today's gospel by itself, because it's a piece of a larger segment of scripture, but this gospel today is a part of a very long prayer by Jesus that appears in the Gospel of John. And it's a unique segment of scripture.

If you look at all of John Chapter 17 in its entirety, verses 1 through 25, it's one long prayer from Jesus to his Father. It's often called the high priestly prayer, and it is broken into three segments. ... The beginning segment, which we do not see in today's gospel. We would have actually had it last year during this same period of Easter. And in that segment, Jesus is praying for himself. ... In the middle part of this prayer is the gospel which we see today, and it's Jesus praying for his immediate disciples, his apostles that are surrounding him that day. ... And then finally the end piece of that prayer, which we will hear next year in our lectionary about this time of Easter, is a prayer for all future believers, which Faith Family becomes us.

So, OK, but what is it about this prayer that is so important, you three graduates might be asking? Well, because it's taking place on the night of Jesus's arrest. It's easy to forget that when we take these bits of scripture in isolation. But, we know in the scripture today that Jesus is praying. But what we don't know from just today's gospel is that immediately after this prayer Jesus will be arrested. And we all know the rest of the Easter story.

So in the case of this gospel, Jesus is making this one, last attempt at helping his disciples understand what it is they are about to face as followers of Christ in this world. ... Interestingly, of all four gospels, only here in John does Jesus share this moment right before his arrest with the disciples. It's unique to John. In the other synoptic gospels, Jesus either goes off in prayer himself or the disciples fall asleep. But in this gospel of John, as Jesus prays to his Father, in this moment of testing that we can can't hardly imagine, he shares this moment fully in front of all of his disciples, the apostles.

Think about that for a minute because that is unique to this particular gospel, and there must be a reason in this gospel that Jesus wants to share that moment with his disciples. Jesus is praying right prior to his pending arrest, his pending torture, and his imminent death. Right there before the apostles' very eyes; they get to witness it.

And, in that moment, the point Jesus is trying to drive home as he asks his Father to protect his apostles, both those apostles that are standing in front of him in that moment and all of his future disciples on down through the church to us, he's asking for protection for us. ... Beseeching God because he knows that the world will do its best to separate us from our faith. The world will do its best to separate us from Jesus ... and from God. Jesus, through this very dire prayer to his Father, is teaching us how to engage in a world that is not kind to faith.

Because after all what do we do with faith in this world? ... well, the Easter story tells us what the world does to those of faith. ... We arrest them, and we mock them, and we torture them, and ultimately we hang faith on a cross to die!

2021 faith graduates ... today you are specifically being challenged to figure out Jesus's message in the gospel: How do i live out a faith in a world that is so cruel to faith? ... In a world that punishes faith ... especially in young people? ... That is why Jesus is praying for your protection in today's gospel.

Remember we asked ourselves that question a little while ago? What do I need protection from? ... I'm young, and I'm strong, and I'm healthy!

The answer is Jesus is still praying for your protection, as he did for the disciples in that moment, because we can't live a life of faith apart from the world. There's just no getting away from that. ... We are part of this larger world that doesn't always respect faith. So, just exactly as followers of Christ, how do you live that out surrounded by forces that on a daily basis try to separate us from Jesus? And try to separate you from your God?

In a few short weeks, possibly months, each of you will be leaving the relative comforts of your homes for college, or for other adventures. And once you get out there into that great, big, unkind world, there will be a lot of distractions trying to replace your faith. There will be countless other priorities that will vie for your time. There will be forces out of your control telling you that faith is silly, that faith is pointless ... that faith is a waste of time.

Instead, those same processes will tell you that what's most important is "get what you can while getting this good" and "money and power and fame, that is where it's at." ... So, in the coming months and years ahead in your young adult life, amidst that cacophony of voices in this very busy world that tries to tell you what is most important, I pray that you find room in your mind, in your heart, for today's very simple message: Your relationship with Jesus, your relationship with God, is how his light gets into this world!

You no longer will have your parents looking over your shoulder in that moment of decision. You won't face the pressure of a church family expecting your presence here every Sunday. ... But yet you still will face those moments of indecision, and moments of anguish, and moments when your fate is tested to its foundations. ... And 2021 graduates, that is when I pray that you will remember this morning's message: You are one with Christ. You are one with God. ... You are how the Holy Spirit's light shines in this world.

And Jesus Christ, in his prayer to us today, in his prayer for the disciples, is praying for your protection and your salvation, asking for God to look over you and protect you from a world that is none too kind to faith ... and that is enough.

And that is the Good News for this Sunday morning, May 16, Senior Sunday here at Faith Lutheran, and the seventh Sunday of Easter. ... Amen.