Jesus prayer for us

When life is hard I always turn to this prayer of Thomas Merton. Maybe it will help you today too.

 

My Lord God,
I have no idea where I am going.
I do not see the road ahead of me.
I cannot know for certain where it will end.
nor do I really know myself, and the fact that I think I am following your will does not mean that I am actually doing so.
But I believe that the desire to please you
does in fact please you.
And I hope I have that desire in all that I am doing.
I hope that I will never do anything apart from that desire.And I know that if I do this you will lead me by the right road, though I may know nothing about it. Therefore will I trust you always though I may seem to be lost and in the shadow of death.

I will not fear, for you are ever with me,
and you will never leave me to face my perils alone.

Over the past few months, some of our churches have had banners up outside them with a message consisting of two words: “Try Praying.” The idea behind the banner and the booklet people could pick up was to say actually praying isn’t as hard as you think.

 

We will have had people say to us “will you say a prayer for me on Sunday?” They want us as part of our spiritual practice to intercede for them. They think we are closer to God than they are, which of course is not true. 

 

In the Gospel passage for the seventh Sunday of Easter, the Sunday after Ascension, we again return to what is known as the farewell discourse of Jesus. Jesus is preparing his disciples that he was leaving them. Before leaving them, he wants to give them as much help as he can. The best help he give is to pray for them. 

 

What is prayer? Prayer is the exercise of drawing on the grace of God. Prayer is bringing the concerns of humanity into the infinite care of God. Prayer is to focus on God rather than our own worries. So Jesus lifts the disciples to God. 

Jesus’ prayer in John’s Gospel is a heartfelt plea that his friends will be alright. The thought of leaving them is almost too much. And so He cries out to His Father to ‘Protect them, look after them, keep them safe!’

Imagine Jesus praying that prayer over you and yours. What wonderful comfort is to be found in that thought. In Jesus, we have a friend and Saviour who ‘lives to intercede for us.’

How fabulous is it that here Jesus prays FOR his friends. This isn’t us asking for prayer, this is purely his own initiative. He so wants those he is leaving to be okay, he commends them to his Father to look after them. 

When ministers leave an appointment we are meant to read the “charter for incoming ministers” in the book of rules. It’s very interesting what you find when you arrive in a new place.

You are meant when you arrive in a new placeto be able to pick up things without any bother, one example is an up to date membership list with correct addresses. I spend ages preparing good handover notes because while I leave people in my profession, I want them to be okay after I’ve gone even if they are glad I have gone! I inherited a membership and adherents list once and I went through it with my stewards. Several people were on the list who I didn’t know. “Oh,” said one steward “she hasn’t been to church for ages!” “Um,” replied the other, “she died in 2009!” To which I said “why didn’t you remove her from the list?” To which I was told “we didn’t like to.” 

Here we have a Jesus who doesn’t simply leave, he finds leaving hard and he wants life without him physically present to go as smoothly as possible. For his friends (and we) are to carry on his work. 

The divine intention for us if we take time to receive it, Jesus’ prayer for us is to flourish, and live life in all its fullness, to know we are never abandoned. The first letter of John says this: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.”

Jesus’ call for the disciples (and us) to be safe isn’t about that happening one day. He’s wanting them (and us) to know God’s protection every day. Why? 

Well, remember this line in his prayer: “I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I am asking you to protect them from the evil one.” We celebrate the feast of Pentecost next Sunday, the day when the Holy Spirit comes on those disciples, the day the Church is born, the day the call to be in the world is understood by Jesus’ people. That call is tough and it still is and we need to be constantly reminded we don’t live in our own strength. We need to know over and over we are remembered.

In a frantic and complicated world, we need to know someone is caring enough for us to think about us. 

When we are rushing about, meeting deadlines, even preparing to leave somewhere - we don’t want to think about others but our own stress about how much there is to do. But God’s grace in Jesus isn’t like this. God is there. “Be still and know that I am God.” And then there’s Hebrews chapter 7 which says about Jesus “he is able to save completely those who come to him, because he always lives to pray for them.” 

I’ve just started reading a new book about choral evensong because there’s a lot of Anglican in me. We both love choral evensong. It says you know what - anyone coming to evensong in a cathedral or large church can be confident that they will not be quizzed about their motives and beliefs or asked to leave their contact details. We are all there to meet God, to join in the worship story of his people and to centre ourselves on his love.

We’re hopeless at just letting people be quietly immersed in prayer. 

After the benediction in our service we pounce on people we don’t know, ask their life story and pray they will fill all our vacant jobs, especially if they are under the age of sixty! 

But maybe this little gem of a book called “Lighten Our Darkness” suggests people just need to be allowed to be, and to know as Jesus says they are interceded for.  

Merton who I began with says in another piece of writing that prayer “requires us to stand in God’s presence with open hands, naked and vulnerable, proclaiming to ourselves and to others that without God we can do nothing.”

Perhaps as we ask what we use our church buildings for, as we think about our mission over the next few years, maybe having our church open for people to come and be comforted in prayer and peace is vital. The good news of knowing we are held, enfolded, encompassed, looked after, is part of what we need to offer to a hurting and confused people. Isn’t it great Jesus is concerned, even when he’s about to leave for our well-being?