Thursday of the Seventh Week of Easter
In Luke’s Gospel, the disciples ask Jesus to teach them how to pray. Thank you, disciples! I pray a lot. And I’m confident that most of the time I really don’t know what I’m doing. That’s a big reason why I admire the practice among the Amish of not praying out loud, even in church. By praying silently, they acknowledge the limits of human prayer and the temptation we humans have to call on God in public prayer for our own reasons, as if God ought to want what we want.
Jesus appreciated the sincerity of the disciples’ request. And so he gave us the gift of the “Our Father.” Every time I pray it alone or at mass, I am challenged to think about where my daily bread comes from, or how it is I have bread every day, or whether I experience God’s name as hallowed, or what God’s Kingdom is, or whether I am up to its coming. . . and on and on it goes.
The prayer that we encounter today in John’s Gospel is very different. It’s not a model. In this prayer, Jesus isn’t trying to teach us how to pray. He’s praying. He is about to enter into his passion, and he is talking to God.
And, thanks to the writer of John’s Gospel, we get to listen in. Okay. But what is it we are listening to?
To answer this question, I turned to Fr. Richard Rohr (a Franciscan priest and author of numerous books), who wrote a wonderful book on the Trinity called Divine Dance: The Trinity and Your Transformation. In that book, he talks about how the crazy idea of the Trinity—three persons in one—is central to our faith. He says that what the Trinity that is three in one is God and is relationship. God is not some single thing. Some object to be known. God is dynamic, relational, and includes difference. Difference has to be a part of the picture since If the three are identical in all ways, then they are not really three.
I think this prayer that Jesus is praying to God is very much in keeping with this point! Jesus is God and not God. If he simply is God, it would be silly for him to pray since he would just be praying to himself. And he is clearly not doing that here. He is making a plea on behalf of the disciples and all those who hear the Gospel through the disciples—that they might follow him, truly know the Father, and all be one.
So, this prayer is not a model for us to emulate. It’s a plea on our behalf. And it tells us something important about God.
One of the things that stands out for me in Jesus’ prayer for us is that he is trying to help God know us better. And that makes some sense. Jesus was God incarnate. God was not. A key difference. So, Jesus has experience that is different from the Father’s. The Father has not been incarnate as the Father.
Lots of folks these days like to imagine Jesus as some kind of super hero—flying like Superman above the fray willing things to come out just the way he wants them.
This prayer is about something else. It’s showing us that even Jesus needs God. And even God needs Jesus. They depend upon one another—to know us, to love us, to care for us.
I’m thinking that if we listen carefully to this prayer, what we learn is that God is relationship, just like Richard Rohr said. If God needs/wants/enjoys (whatever!) relationship then surely we should too. We should not imagine that we are alone or that we don’t need other people.
A phrase we often hear, and rightly so is “God is Love.” Richard Rohr agrees. And love only ever is in relationship. Via vulnerability. And conducted with grace.
While not a prayer meant to serve as a model, it definitely has much to teach us. May we endeavor to be like God—in relationship. Even with difference. Real difference.
Amen.
-Sue Trollinger