"Father, Keep Them Safe: Jesus Prays for You" - John 17: 11-19

Grace to you and peace from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.

Last Friday evening, my family had a prayer request from a friend back in the Houston area. If you had watched any of the news last weekend, you might guess why. Southeast Texas had gotten 8, 10 inches of rain already and more was coming hard and fast. Waters were rising. Rivers, creeks, lakes and reservoirs were already full and overflowing. [As a point of reference, Lake Livingston, northeast of Houston, was releasing water from its floodgates at a rate of 125,000 cubic feet per second (fun fact – that would fill three and a half of our sanctuaries every second). During Harvey, it was only releasing 110,000 cf/sec.] She said the water was over the road into her neighborhood. Flood estimation maps were showing their house would be close, very close, to taking in water. The family was moving valuables upstairs, preparing for the worst. She was scared. Her message said something like, “Normally, flood alerts don’t bother me, but this one… We sure could use some prayers, please.”  My reply was four, simple words: Lord, keep them safe. Through the weekend, the refrain was repeated over and over, “Lord, keep them safe.” I’m happy to tell you that by Monday, the worst had passed, and they were out of danger. Their home was safe. They were safe.*

How often do we pray for others in their time of need? We say it often: I’ll pray for you. We say it to people who are sick, hurting, broken-hearted, laid-off, struggling, and afraid. It’s what God’s people do, caring for other parts of the body of Christ, carrying their needs and petitions to the Lord on their behalf. And, when someone tells us that they are praying for us, we take comfort in those words because it means we are not alone in our struggles. Unlike Job, whose friends stood from afar and lectured him on what he did or failed to do to receive what they perceived to be God’s wrath, we can be comforted by brothers and sisters in Christ who stand alongside us in our time of need and implore the Lord for His grace, mercy and compassion.

The world doesn’t get this. “I’ll pray for you” is nothing more than mere words, a sanctified way of escape without having to do anything. Politicians try to ride the fence with the nebulous, “thoughts and prayers,” when something bad happens, and in turn, that has become a punchline for late-night TV hosts. When a tragedy happens, they poke fun: “Uh, oh – time for thoughts and prayers, again.” I do understand their comment, because that is often nothing more than a passeé phrase, a blasé attempt to sound dignified without taking a position. 

But for us, as God’s people, when we pledge to pray for others and then offer those prayers to the Lord, however humble and imperfect they may be, we do so walking in the footsteps of Christ Himself.

Here we are, the Seventh Sunday of Easter, one foot still on Thursday’s Mount of Ascension, the other foot preparing to step into the season of Pentecost. It’s an in-between Sunday, a Sunday where we pause and consider what it is that Christ has done and continues to do for His Kingdom. Thursday, the Church marked Jesus’ physical, bodily ascension into heaven, but the Church is still waiting for the fulfillment of the Lord’s promise to send His Holy Spirit, the Comforter. So the Church waits in anticipation, filled with awe at the ascension, filled with hope (Hope!) for the Spirit’s arrival.

John 17, this morning’s Gospel reading, is an excellent choice for this in-between Sunday. Although, contextually, it happens on Maundy Thursday night, it does help us celebrate one aspect of the Ascension that we might otherwise miss. It helps us focus on prayer. Particularly, it is helpful for us because it reminds us that while Jesus’ salvific work is done in His death and resurrection, He is not ignoring us as part of His past. Rather, He continues to pray for the Church and for its protection.

When you get home this afternoon, I would encourage you to read all of John 17. If your Bible has headings in it, it will probably call this Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer” because, like the priests of the Old Testament, Jesus is praying for His people. While the Gospels often mention that Jesus goes away by Himself to pray, the words of His prayers are rarely recorded. This chapter is unique, then, because, on the night He was betrayed, St. John tells us how Jesus intercedes for His disciples, both then and now. Among many petitions, Jesus prays, “Holy Father, keep them in your name... I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them from the evil one” (17:11b, 15). What does that mean, “Keep them in your name”? It means Jesus prays to be kept safe within the Father. You may think of it this way: “Holy Father, keep them {safe] in your name... I do not ask that you take them out of the world but that you keep them [safe] from the evil one” Jesus prays for our safety.

When we are trying to express ourselves to others, we often lack the words to fully flesh our emotions, our needs, our situation; or, sometimes, we are just too embarrassed to say it out loud. In surrender, we mutter, “You just wouldn’t understand.” Jesus does understand. He knows the world is filled with troubles (16:33). He knows how His creation even turns against Him, rejecting Him and His message of salvation (1:10-11). He knows satan’s roaring threats against the world, looking for unsuspecting victims (1 Pet 5:8). He knows all of this. But He also knows the power of the Father’s name against God’s enemies, so He prays “Holy Father, keep them safe.”

For us as God’s people, in the church year between Ascension and Pentecost and in life between the Ascension and Jesus’ blessed return, this is a powerful word of comfort to know that your Savior, resurrected, ascended, and victorious, is praying for you. He is praying for the Father to keep you safe in His name. He, who endured the violent punishment of our sins, who overcame the power of satan, and who threw open the gates of death; He who has power over all things, now exercises that power for us through prayer to the Father. And we, as His disciples, living under the cross and waiting in faith, do so in the comfort that Jesus is carrying us to His Father in prayer.

Here is what it looks like when life comes hard, fast, and in unpleasant ways; for people who do not know to pray for themselves; people who know to pray but do not because they are too weary; people who have given up on prayer; people who think their life situation is too small or too great for prayer. For each, Jesus sits at the Father’s side and prays “Holy Father, keep them safe.”

I offer a couple of true, specific examples on this Mother’s Day: A mother get into a terrible fight with her 18 year old. Words are said; blows are exchanged and the adult child leaves the home, promising never to return. The mom, along with her husband, are filled with grief, remorse, sorrow, and sadness, and sit in terrified silence on the couch, both with words and emotions swirling in their heads but unable to speak. Jesus knows and He offers a prayer for this young adult, the parents, and all broken families: “Holy Father, keep them safe.”*

Or, this: A mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, a faithful woman and child of God, has been in the hospital and care facilities more in the last twelve months than she was at home. Even though her mind is sharp, she’s lost track of all that’s wrong with her body. “There’s more wrong than right,” she quipped. She was tired, tired of the doctor’s visits, the hospitalizations, the fluid removal, the IVs, the medications to fight the side effects of other medications. When I visit people, I usually ask, “What do you want to pray for?” She opened her mouth to speak, closed it, opened it and closed it again and, finally sighed, “I don’t even know, anymore.” Jesus knows when the world wears down His people, when prayer seems so far from helpful, when telling someone to “just hang in there” is a terrible punchline to a joke no longer funny. Jesus is there, in that moment, with that soul and at the right hand of the Father, interceding, “Holy Father, keep her safe.”*

This isn’t the prayer for wholeness and wealth and health that we often want to pray, that everything turns out just peachy and, like a Hallmark movie, everyone goes home with all tensions resolved. What it does, though, is place us firmly in the hands of the Father, whose will is that all be saved. And, even if our prayers for safety this side of heaven are answered in a way that we did not expect or anticipate, we know that the Father hears and answers His Son’s prayers perfectly, in His own time and in His own way. He keeps us safe in the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. He keeps us safe from the eternal damnation that satan desires. He keeps us safe from that which destroys faith and turns our eyes from Jesus. He keeps us safe by the power of His Spirit that renews and strengthens us and gathers us, safely within the Church, encouraging, uplifting, and carrying one another in prayer.

And for mothers, who often don’t even know what to pray for when the emotions swirl around, threatening to overwhelm, Jesus prays for you with words, perfect words, into the Father’s ear. “Father, keep her safe. Keep her family safe. Keep them in Your name.”

And, the Father keeps His children safe into eternity, for the sake of Jesus Christ, His Son, your Savior.
Amen.

[*Note: My friend gave me permission to use the first story. The other two examples are conflations of true experiences I have witnessed in parish ministry.]