The Lord be with you. Thank you so much. It's a gift to be with you on this fifth Sunday in the season of Lent. All week long, I've been humming a tune as this sermon has been stewing. The ensemble's gonna lead part of it. You can join in singing it if you'd like. It's kind of like a walk-up song if I were a baseball player. See if you find yourselves humming that later this week. Jesus was at the table. Judas was there. Peter was there. They get up, they walk through the city streets of Jerusalem, down across the Kidron Valley, up into the Mount of Olives. Judas. Judas isn't there now. He's Jesus notices. He sees the sword in Peter's side. You'll read that in as the days of the week unfold. The Pharisees are frantic. Caiaphas is accusing. Pilate will be sentencing. Jesus is dying. And he prays. Jesus prays. Not not not to call it a prayer might might reduce it. At least if you think of prayer the way I do, like let's close our eyes and bow our heads and fold our hands and pray real quick a minute. This is more like an opening, like a rending, like a like a running. He runs to the Father. This is the prayer. He looked up to heaven and he said, Father. The hour has come. Glorify your Son. So that the Son may glorify you. Since you've given authority to him over all people, to give eternal life to those whom you've given him. And this is eternal life. That they may know you. The one true God and Jesus Christ, whom you've sent. I glorified you on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. Now glorify me in your own presence with the glory I had in your presence before the world existed. I've made your name known to all whom you've given me from the world. They're yours. And you've given them to me. And they've kept your word. Now they know that everything you've given me is from you, because the words you gave me, I've given to them. And they received them and know in truth that I am from you. And believe that you sent me. I'm asking on their behalf. I'm not asking on behalf of the world. I'm asking on behalf of those whom you've given me. They're yours. All mine are yours. And yours are mine. I'm glorified in them. I'm no longer in the world, but they're in the world. I'm coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you've given me, that they may be one. As we are one. While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you gave me. I guarded them, and none of them were lost except the one destined to be lost. So that the scriptures might be fulfilled. I'm coming to you. And I've spoken these things in the world that they may have my joy made complete in themselves. I gave them your words, and the world hated them because they do not belong to the world. Just as I do not belong to the world. I'm not asking you to take them out of the world. I'm asking you to protect them from the evil one. They don't belong to the world. Just as I don't belong to the world, sanctify them in truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I've sent them into the world. For their sake, I sanctified myself so that they also may be sanctified in truth. I'm asking not only on behalf of these, but on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may be one. As you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, may they be in us, so that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory you gave me, I've given to them, that they may be one. I in them and you in me. May they be completely one, so that the world may know that you sent me and have loved them with the love with which you loved me. Father, I'm asking that those whom you gave to be with me will be where I am to see my glory. The glory you gave me because you loved me before the foundations of the world. Righteous, Father, the world doesn't know you. But I know you. And these believe that you sent me. I've made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you loved me may be in them as I am in them. This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God. It's John 17, if you were wondering, it's called the high priestly prayer. Judas is betraying and Peter is denying, and Caiaphas is accusing, and Pilate is sentencing, and the Pharisees are frantic, and Jesus is dying. And he prays. Isn't that wild? Jesus prays. It's not, I mean, I don't know what your prayer life is like. It wasn't really so much like, all right, everybody, let's let's gather around and pray. It's like, here I am. Here it's the white, it's a winding prayer. It's kind of hard to follow. Anybody find it hard to follow? He just runs to the Father. He looked up to heaven and he said, Father, think about it. The one who made the world, he was with God before the foundations of the world. That's what he prayed. He was with the Father way before it all existed. He spoke life into being, worlds into existence, sun into shining and moon into glowing. That one praise. He looked up to heaven and he said, Father. I was hoping the word was going to be Abba. You know that word, that the sort of Hebrew word that connotes intimacy and connection. It'd be like saying, Daddy. You know? It wasn't. I was hoping. The word is poter. Which if you're, I did a, I wasn't, I'm not a quitter. Quitters don't quit. No, wait. Wait. I didn't quit. What I'm trying to say is I didn't quit. So I kept pressing into that word. If you're willing to use the lens of the Apostle Paul, who says in Romans 8, when we cry, Abba, Pater, so even the Greeks have this sense of intimacy. Poter, he cries. He runs to the Father. I was in a conversation with a young woman. She's a sophomore over at Western Michigan University. Her name is Anna. Her friends call her Fig. Love to hear that story. I met her last summer. I was preaching out at Camp Geneva over on the north side. Summer's coming, by the way. I was preaching over there. She was there. She heard the sermon. It must have been not a very good sermon because she came up to me afterwards and was just peppering me with questions. She grew up way outside of faith. Like so far outside of faith, she didn't really know faith. Like there was faith. She knew of religion. Her freshman year at Western, I've told you part of this story. Her freshman year at Western, she plummeted into the depths of a depression. She stopped eating. She stopped going to class. She just couldn't do it. She'd go to one class, it was like a music class. I guess that was okay for her. One of her friends in class invited in the music class invited her to join her on a Sunday morning where a group of musicians would get together and play, and she was like, probably couldn't sleep some night. So she showed up on that Sunday morning to hear the musicians play. They played for a while, then some guy stood up and talked for a while. Then the musicians played, it was church. She found herself at church. And after church, uh they had a lunch and someone gave her some food to eat and she ate it, but she hadn't eaten in so long her stomach couldn't take it. So she ran into the bathroom and she lost her lunch all over the bathroom floor. And seeing the sort of sad reality that had become her life, she sat down on the bathroom floor and she wept. After a while, some lady from the church recognized Fig wasn't there, so she went into the bathroom. This woman, she sat down next to Fig and she put her arm around her. Which is, I mean, the scene itself is worth it. Put her out and just said, Potter. You know. Well, Fig became a Christian. Uh Fig's been baptized. She emailed me uh a couple weeks ago wanting to ask more questions. She's she she wanted to ask questions about God's judgment, uh, which I'd like to answer now, finally, for all of you right here. So we got together on Zoom on Wednesday, I think it was. Wide smiled, bright-eyed fig. Uh she'd just gotten back from a spring break trip down to Tennessee. The one who couldn't go to class and couldn't eat is now on a spring break trip in Tennessee. But apparently, like the group she was with it wasn't going great. Apparently, just because you're a Christian doesn't mean everything goes great. Uh she felt ostracized and isolated, so one night she went outside in the Tennessee sky, looked up. I kid you not, this is what she said. She said she looked up and she said, Father. Potter. Eugene Peterson has this phrase in the introduction to the Psalms, this line, untutored, we tend to think that prayer is what good people do when they're doing their best. It's not. It's the means by which we get everything in our lives out in the open before God. Run to the Father. Jesus runs to the Father. I'm trying to do two things at once. I'm trying to simultaneously invite you to pray. You don't have to have all the words right. You don't have to use multi-syllable words. You don't have to have a wispy voice as if God is somehow going to hear you if you're quieter. You don't have to have all the theology correct. You don't have to recite doctrine or dogma. Just run to the Father. Open your life before the living God. Jesus prays. And amazingly, he prays for you. I ask not only on behalf of these, but on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word. Jesus Christ, the night he's betrayed, the night they kill him, Judas betraying, Peter denying, Caiaphas accusing, Pilate sentencing, Jesus prays for you. Amazing, isn't it? He doesn't ask for the weather to be a little bit nicer. He doesn't ask that the pain of the crucifixion is taken down just a few notches. He doesn't even ask that it would go away. He prays for you. He runs to the Father and he opens his life, and inside we find you. You are on his heart, is the point. This is why the Apostle Paul in Romans, what then are we to say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not withhold his own son, but gave him up for all of us, will he not also with him give us everything else? Who will bring any charge against God's elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? It is Christ. Jesus who died, yes, who was raised, who is seated at the right hand of the Father, who indeed intercedes for us. Jesus Christ prays for you. This is why Jonathan on a Sunday so often, and I can't believe you don't stand up and start shouting when he does. He says, Who's in a position to condemn? And you're supposed to stand up and shout, only Christ. And Christ died for us, Christ rose for us, Christ reigns in power for us. Christ prays for us. The most important thing you can claim about prayer is not how you pray, or what you ought to pray, or when you should pray, or how often you should pray, or how many times a day you it's that Jesus prays. He runs to the Father, opens his heart, and there we are. Isn't that amazing? So I'm trying to do two things at once. I'm trying to acknowledge that Jesus prays as an invitation to give you people to permission to pray, run to the Father. Anyone think we have reason to pray? The world's spinning for him. And he runs to the Father. The world's spinning. The most important thing in all the world is a small band of believers upholding the concerns of the world in their prayers. And you know what he prays? When he prays for you? That we may be one. Why is it that the high priestly prayer gets sort of set aside as like an afterthought after we do all the really important Christian things? Like you gotta tell the truth and you gotta call out sin and you gotta all of it, you know? Why why is like the the high priestly prayer that they may be one? Why is that like dessert if you're still hungry? There are three commands Jesus prays in the prayer, which I find interesting. Jesus demands, at least grammatically speaking, glorify your son, protect them, sanctify them. There are three commands in the prayer. The line between demand and desperation is a thin one, you know? Desperation quickly becomes demand. Uh Ava and I, she's the nine-year-old, we read each night. Uh we're into the Nancy Drew books. I'm a Hardy Boy guy myself, but now I'm into Nancy Drew. Uh, The Secret of the Hidden Staircase. We've got three chapters to go. I can hardly wait. Uh I read the chapter, she falls asleep. I try to sneak out of her bed in such a way that she won't wake up. It never works. How does she know? You know, I'm probably old. I don't really roll out of bed. I sort of lumber out of bed, and she leans up and she opens. She I mean, she's like out. She's like breathing heavy out, and then she opens her eyes, she licks up, and she says, Daddy, no. You don't want me to leave. She's demanding, but really desperate. Don't leave. Don't leave. Father, father, glorify your son. Father, protect them. Father, sanctify them. It's a demand, but it's desperation. And in the desperation, behind the demands, is a plea that they may be one. The whole thing is about intimacy, relationship, connection, that they may be one, one with one another, one with us, as I am in you and you are in me. May they be in us. It's not like just getting along a little bit better, avoiding some conflict as much as you can. It's one in us, in them, that they may be one, so that the world may know. It's not shocking that the rise of polarization in the church, which may be a reflection of the culture or may seep out of the church into the culture, corresponds with the rise in the decline of church attendance. Shocking. Leslie Newbegin, you know this line. The disunity of the church is a direct and public contradiction of the gospel. That they may be one as you, Father, are in me, and I am in you. May they be in us. The whole story of the Christian faith is one of intimacy. God makes the world in the beginning and says it's very good. He breathes into the first man the breath of life, intimacy. He walks with the first man and the first woman at the time of the evening breeze. And then all chaos breaks loose, brokenness happens, sin takes place, and they separate, they divide, they hide. And Cain kills Abel, and Lamech kills a man, and Babel gets higher, and the dispersion gets wider. Abram sells out his wife. And in the fullness of time, Jesus Christ shows up. He prays that we would be one. They hang him on a cross where he says, Forgive them, and my God, my God, why? He takes on the hiddenness, he takes on the isolation, he takes on himself the separation to restore us to God and to one another. So that St. John could say in Revelation, see, the home of God is among mortals. He will dwell with them. They will be his people. God himself will be with them. The whole story is one of intimacy, relationship, connection. I'm praying not only on behalf of these, but on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word that they may be one. As you, Father, are in me, and I am in you, may they be in us that the world may believe. Are you tracking with me or am I tracking with you? James Houston, do you know this name? Probably not. He was the president of Regent College, where I took classes for a couple of years while living out in the Northwest. He died last Sunday. He died, you ready for this, at 103 years old. That's some clean living. And the interviewer reports that Houston chuckled and said, When I meet him, oh, we're in communication just now. That they may be one. I in them and you in me, that they may be completely one. So this is one of those sermons, I hate to do this to you, there's really no ending. You know? This isn't really something you make happen, like it's it's something you You open yourself to when you stop fighting and you stop hiding, and you stop pushing and yelling, and open yourself to the one who prays for you that they may be one. This is probably, I'll let you think about it. I wonder if we could answer Jesus' prayer. I'm not asking on behalf of these only. I'm asking on behalf of those who will believe through their word that they may be one. Amen. In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Amen.