Sermon for 5/17/26
Sermon 5-17-26 John 17:1-11 7th Sunday of Easter
Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi. That's a Latin phrase that was coined sometime in the 5th-century by a layman called Prosper of Aquitaine about 425 AD, maybe. Maybe not. It means “how people pray shapes and determines what they believe”.
We just read a pretty good example of prayer in our gospel lesson.
A few Sundays ago our Gospel readings began a section of John's Gospel at chapter fourteen. Chapters fourteen through seventeen are what is called Jesus' Farewell Address. I mentioned that last week. Today we have the first one-third of chapter seventeen.
This chapter, the whole of seventeen, is called The High Priestly Prayer. Its had that name since the sixteenth century. At the end of this prayer, the beginning of chapter eighteen, Jesus leaves the upper room where they've had their Seder Meal, the last supper. He goes across the Kidron valley where there was a garden. You know that story.
The Sunday Lectionary is a three year cyclical book, that big red one there. We are currently in Year A. We won't get to read the middle and last one-third of this chapter until the seventh Sunday of Easter next year, year B and the year after that, year C. Please be patient.
Jesus ends his farewell address with a final prayer, a benediction. Throughout the New Testament His habit was to go off alone to pray to God. Not here, not this time. Jesus looked up to heaven with His closest disciples sitting there listening, and prays to God.
There are two types of prayers, religious and non-religious. Both types of prayers are by a person who is not in control of a situation to a person who is in control of a situation. And both types of prayers can be sub-divided into seven categories, we will go into those some other time.
What we need to focus on here is that Jesus is praying to God, a religious prayer, and God is in complete control. Prayer is a form of communication and its purpose is to get results. Jesus is asking God to do something, a few things actually, and He wants the disciples to hear all this. It's like Jesus is saying, “Watch this, this is how you do it. I'll explain as I go along”. And He does.
“The hour has come”, it is time for the human Jesus to die. Not just any death. Nothing as simple as lying down for a nap and never opening up your eyes. It had to be a huge Cecil B. DeMille production number. A cast of thousands, lights, camera, action! All the big players of the time. It had to be on Fox News, Facebook, Twitter, X, coffee shop gossip. Everyone had to know.
And it had to be hideous. Then you ask yourself why. I'm glad you asked that question. It was for the glory.
Jesus uses the word “glorify” twice in the first sentence of this reading. It's a verb. He's asking God to glorify Him so He can in turn glorify God. One of my Greek New Testaments uses the term “splendor”. It translates as: “give splendor of you the son, that the son might give splendor you”.
The core cultural value of all Mediterranean people, then and today, was and is honor. I've mentioned that before. Honor is a claim to worth and, that word and is important here. And, a pubic acknowledgment of that claim.
The vast majority of the people Jesus dealt with in that small area of the world lived a hand to mouth existence. Their social ladder only had two steps, the bottom one was crowded.
They couldn't use their houses, jobs or bank accounts to jockey for social positions in town. Their social need was to be recognized as honorable people. That was enough. Jesus is about to kill two stones with one bird here and He wants to make darn sure the disciples know for certain what He is doing. That is why He is praying to God, out loud, in front of them.
He is about to establish beyond a shadow of a doubt that there is one God and that God and Jesus are one. He is also saying if you place your order now, you get an extra bonus gift as well, at no charge, eternal life. Jesus explains: “And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God”.
This part of Jesus' prayer is important, it's instrumental. He has done everything a good son is supposed to do. He has obeyed His Father every step of the way. He does not intend to stop now. How Jesus prays shows us what He believes.
He believes that these eleven men, Judas has left already, these eleven men, truly and finally know Jesus has come from God. They may not quite have a handle on the dying and being raised from the dead thing yet, but they do believe Jesus was sent by God to be with them.
Keep in mind, Jesus never prays for Himself. If you only look at the surface it might seem like He is, but Jesus is asking God to glorify Him only so He can glorify God for the benefit of mankind and especially these fellows witnessing the prayer.
Then Jesus changes gears. He prays for these disciples. They are mere mortals, just like us, and they are being tasked with a job that God's own self has begun. They are being left alone in the world. Sheep surrounded by wolves. They need protection. They need to think as one, act as one.
They will have to take what Jesus has been teaching them for the last three years and use that knowledge for the benefit of the rest of the world, to the end of time.
A tall order to say the least.
Jesus is serious as a heart attack here. He knows these disciples are going to have a rough row to hoe. In His request to God He uses the term “Holy Father”. This is the only time in the New Testament Jesus uses this adjective to qualify God's name.
“Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one”.
Lex Orandi, Lex Credendi. How people pray shapes and determines what they believe. This is how Jesus prayed. He wasn't praying for Himself, He was praying for others. I think this is the way we pray as we read from the Book of Common Prayer here. I think, I hope.
Amen.
