Guided in Prayer
Our scripture today takes place during Holy Week. Jesus has ridden into Jerusalem on a donkey. He spends time trying to explain to his disciples and others that he is going to die. People don’t want to believe. I wouldn’t have wanted to believe it. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and predicted his betrayal and Peter’s denial. Jesus continued teaching. Then Jesus began to pray. Today we are going to look at how this scripture teaches us to be guided in prayer. John 17:6-19
Pastor: 6“I have revealed youto those whom you gave meout of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word.
People: 7Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you.
Pastor:8For I gave them the words you gave meand they accepted them.
People: They knew with certainty that I came from you,and they believed that you sent me.
Bruce Feiler wrote an article in the New York Times called, “The Stories That Bind Us”. He hit a breaking point. His parents were aging and he and his wife were straining with their children. One night all the tensions boiled over. At dinner, Bruce noticed his nephew texting on his phone. He knew he shouldn’t say anything, but he couldn’t help himself and asked him to stop. His sister snapped at him to not discipline her child. Bruce’s dad pointed out that his girls were the ones balancing spoons on their noses. His mom said none of the grandchildren had manners. Within minutes, everyone had fled to separate corners. Bruce’s dad said, “Our family’s falling apart.”
Bruce began to wonder, “What is the secret sauce that holds a family together? What are the ingredients that make some families effective, resilient, happy? What he found was the single most important thing you can do for your family is to develop a strong family narrative. In others, share family stories so that family members know who they are and that they belong.
Jesus knew that his family of followers was about to fall apart. One would betray him, one would deny him and many would desert him. He knew they needed guidance. Guidance begins with prayer. Jesus’ prayer begins by letting his followers and all of us know who we are, where we come from and to whom we belong. Jesus prayed, “They belonged to you, and you gave them to me. They have obeyed your word,7and now they know that everything you gave me comes from you.” We are guided by prayer to know that we belong to Jesus Christ. Everything on this earth comes from God. And as one of the people shared at the Sr. Center Bible Study this week, “We know everything that comes from God is good.” We come from God, therefore we know that we are good. We often don’t do good things, but we are still good because we came from and belong to God.
Pastor:9I pray for them.I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me,for they are yours.
People: 10All I have is yours, and all you have is mine.And glory has come to me through them.
Pastor: 11I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world,and I am coming to you.
People: Holy Father, protect them by the power ofyour name, the name you gave me, so that they may be oneas we are one.
Being guided in prayer begins with praying. Jesus said, “I pray for them.” When we pray, Jesus guides us and guides our thoughts. As we celebrate Mother’s Day we celebrate moms and dads, aunts and uncles, grandmoms and grandpas and everybody who pray for their families and who teach others to pray. How many of you had the experience of someone teaching you to pray?
Danny Merrell shares some funny prayers of children.
- Dear God, my Mom tells me that you have a reason for everything on Earth, I guess broccoli is one of your mysteries.
- Please make my parents understand that if I don’t eat salad, I do better at school.
- Please forgive me for hiding my sister’s favorite doll…and please don’t tell her where it is.
- Dear God, I need you to make my mom not allergic to cats. I really want a cat and I really don’t want to ask my mom to move out.
- Dear God, when will my sister stop being annoying, I’m down to my last patience.
- Dear God, I promise to never say those words again, at least until my next shots.
- Dear God, please don’t let it rain on Saturday, the first ball I hit will be for you.
- Dear God, I hope my dog is with you in Heaven, please take care of him…sorry if he chews on your sandals.
Being guided in prayer means praying for unity. It means working together, finding common ground, and not letting differences divide us. Jesus prayed, “That they may all be one.” If we in the church and in our homes can’t find ways to get along how can we show the world what oneness in Christ looks like? The world already knows what division looks like.
Lisa Jacobson shares some little things that can help bring peace into your home. Speak kindly.It’s amazing how a little kindness goes a long way to setting the tone for the home. Gather regularly.For meals. For prayer. To simply hang out with each other.Laugh a lot. Be ready to have a good time with one another. Work cheerfully.It seems there’s always a job to be done. So why not make the most of it?Give generously.Forgive quickly.Hug freely.Pray frequently. Ask God to bring peace into your home. Lift up the needs of the day. Seek Jesus for wisdom when you’re stumped (or even when you’re not). Cheer loudly. Offer your enthusiastic support. And Love genuinely.Jesus guides us through prayer to come together with our differences to become one body. To do that, we must love genuinely.
Pastor: 12While I was with them, I protected them and kept them safe bythat name you gave me.
People: None has been lostexcept the one doomed to destructionso that Scripture would be fulfilled.
Jesus protects us. Yet, we experience pain and sickness. Jesus is with us, looking out for us picking us up, offering us comfort, and helping us. Parents protect and look out for their children and yet we still fall, get made fun of, and get sick. When bad things happen we say, “Where was God?” There all also those times… For me it was the time the light turned green and it was early morning. I wasn’t reacting to fast. I looked before making the turn and saw a car driving right by me. My heart stopped. If I hadn’t looked I would have been smashed. The lady driving the car turned and looked at me with a look of horror. She realized that she had just ran a red light and would have ran into me. How many of you have had those, “Thank you Jesus” moments?
Alex Bronson reminds us that when it comes their kids’ safety, every mom is a super mom. He says, “A mother’s love is like no other. And that’s not just one of those things people say. It’s fact.” When an apartment fire put Christina Simoes and her 18-month-old baby in between a rock and a hard place on the third story, the mother didthe only thingshe could to do to save her child and wrapped her in her arms and jumped. Simoes severely injured her back—her son Camron only had a few scratches—and doctors were unsure if she would walk again. She took her first steps a few months later.
Mom Mindy Tran proved that there is more than one way to stop a car when her vehicle, which she thought to be in park, started rolling toward a busy street with her twin girls in the back seat. She instinctivelythrew herself beneath the tires, thus slowing the vehicle and giving nearby neighbors enough time to run over and help stop the runaway car. We all try to do whatever we can to protect those we love. Jesus guides us in prayer to pray for his protection in all that we do. Jesus will protect and give us the strength to deal with the things that come our way.
Pastor: 13“I am coming to you now,but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joywithin them.
People: 14I have given them your word and the world has hated them,for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.
Pastor: 15My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.
People:16They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.
Pastor:17Sanctify them bythe truth; your word is truth.
People: 18As you sent me into the world,I have sent them into the world.
Pastor: 19For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified.
Jesus was offering his followers guidance in his prayer. Jesus wanted them to know without a shadow of a doubt during the difficult times ahead that he was the Son of God. Jesus prayed that the disciples would desire to remain close to God so that they would be guided in their prayers. Mother Theresa was a saint not just for the work that she did among the poor, but also because she was guided in prayer.
Father Langford, the cofounder of the Missionary of Charity priests in Mexico City shared this story in a radio interview. One day in the mother house in Calcutta there were about 300 new sisters. One of the new sisters working in the kitchen came up to Mother Teresa and said, “We’ve planned poorly; we have no flour to back these chipaties for lunch.” Chipaties are little flour and water pancakes. The situation looked bleak—three hundred plus mouths are coming to be fed in about an hour and a half and there’s nothing to cook with. There’s no food.
Father Langford said, “What I would expect Mother Teresa to dowas that she would pick up the telephone and call some of her benefactors and mobilize them to find some way to feed her daughters. Instead, she said, ‘Sister, you’re in charge of the kitchen this week? Well then, go into the chapel and tell Jesus we have no food. That’s settled. Now let’s move on. What’s next?’”
Ten minutes later there was a ring at the door and Mother Teresa was called downstairs. A man she had never seen before was standing there with a clipboard. He said, “Mother Teresa, we were just informed that the teachers at the city schools are going on strike. Classes have been dismissed and we have 7,000 lunches we don’t know what to do with. Can you help us use them?” God provided for the needs of his children.Mother Teresa’s sanctity was built on a very simple foundation of deep faith and trust in God. Mother Teresa turned to God in prayer, not only in need, but also to rest in the arms of the Father—body and spirit. That is how Mother Teresa lived each day of her life.
Today we celebrate mothers, parents, families and mentors and all who are praying for us. We celebrate the joys we know as Jesus is guiding us through our prayers. Just as we rest safely in the arms of family, we can rest safely in the arms of Jesus Christ who is praying for us and guiding us in pray.