June 1, 2025: Jesus Prays for Us

Seventh Sunday of Easter

New Testament Reading:  Acts 16: 16-34
The Gospel:  John 17: 20-26                      

Paul and Silas were stripped and beaten for releasing an enslaved girl from bringing profit to her owners through her gift of divination. They were thrown into jail with their feet fastened in stocks, and what did they do in response? They sang hymns and prayed while the other prisoners listened to them. 

God then gave them an escape route in the form of an earthquake that opened the doors to their prison. Did they run? No, because their job there was not yet done. Their jailer, his family, and likely the other prisoners still needed to learn more about God. They learned this through Paul and Silas’ actions as well as their words.  By remaining in their cell, even when they could walk away, they caused the jailer to listen to the word of God as they taught him. That day, the jailer and his family were baptized and likely many others learned that the power of God shows itself through peaceful resistance and love. 

Paul and Silas’ actions of praying and singing hymns of praise to God despite their unjust imprisonment and in stopping their jailer from killing himself, teaching him the way of life through the peace of Christ instead, illustrate the power of prayer in the face of adversity.

I wonder what Paul and Silas were praying. I get the feeling that it was not just for their release from jail. If that were the case, wouldn’t they have just run when the earthquake opened the doors? No, they were likely following Jesus’ advice and praying for their enemies, those who put them in jail and even their jailer. I think this is why the other prisoners were likely listening so intently to them. They might have been thinking, who prays for the people who persecute them? This was indeed something new. 

Jesus, in our John scripture today, knew his time on earth was limited and  was praying to God the Father to protect his followers. In an earlier portion of the prayer in John 17:15, Jesus says, “I ask you to protect them from the evil one” adding in 17-18 “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into this world, so I have sent them into the world.”

In verse 20, we get the explanation of the future mission of the disciples and all of us believers when Jesus in his prayer says, “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.” 

Jesus’ prayer for his disciples was answered in both the escape route that  Paul and Silas received in the form of the earthquake - keeping them from evil ones, but also in their praying and staying, despite their ability to escape. This second part shows that Paul and Silas were sanctified in the truth of God’s words, sharing them with others. In other words, they were one with each other and one with God, in working to teach about Jesus’ peace and love even unto an enemy. Rather than destroying an enemy, they converted an enemy into a friend; that is the Jesus way.

I don't know about you, but I feel incredibly humbled to think that not only can I pray to God when I am in need or have concerns for the world, but that God is also praying with and for me for the same things. The concept of a God who not only receives and grants prayers but joins us in prayer is mind blowing! 

Now some may think that this is silly. Why would God need to pray to God’s self or why would God bother to pray with us instead of just receiving and, hopefully, granting many of our prayers? Well, this is how our God is different. We immediately see this in a God who is humble enough to take human form, come among us, teach us, and suffer with us even unto an unjust death. God cannot save us from all of the suffering in the world, but God has been and still is with us through it, praying for our strength and our ability to teach, and love, and endure through struggle as Jesus did. 

Poet and German religious pilgrim, Rainer Marie Rilke reminds us in speaking of God,
We must not portray you in King’s robes
You drifting mist that brought forth the morning.

Once again from the old paintboxes
We take the same gold for scepter and crown
That has disguised you through the ages

Piously we produce our images of you
Till they stand around you like a thousand walls
And when our hearts would simply open,
Our fervent hands hide you.

Rilke is reminding us not to build up a king-like image
Of God that separates us from the God who took human
Form, walked among us and still walks with us, praying
With us as we go through the sometimes challenging, sometimes painful maze-like journey of life.

First we have to remember to pray. Anne Lamott advises that there are three primary prayers in her book Help, Thanks, Wow! She said in a 2012 NPR interview, “People say 'help' without actually believing anything hears that. But it is the great prayer, and it is the hardest prayer, because you have to admit defeat — you have to surrender, which is the hardest thing any of us do, ever. A lot of the time we don't know when we're surrendering that we're actually, at the same time, maybe establishing connection ... to a power greater than ourselves — or something in the next concentric circle out whose name is not me. So, that to me is where help begins. You know, we're often ashamed of asking for so much help because it seems selfish or petty or narcissistic, but I think, if there's a God — and I believe there is — that God is there to help. That's what God's job is” Lamott says.  

And as we pray for help for something that we need or this country or world needs that we have no idea how to fix, what if we could envision God praying with us, feeling our sadness, anger, frustration, concern, powerlessness with us? Can we take that a step further and picture God guiding us through our prayers to something maybe we can do whether it is acceptance of something we cannot change or an action, even a small one, that can bring about a positive change? Or maybe in praying with us, God will put someone or something in our lives that will help us, that will make that difference. 

In our Help me, Help us prayers we humble ourselves before God, offering ourselves and our challenges to God, and then listen for God’s response whether that is in a nudge towards a certain direction, a calmness that we have done what we can, or angels who somehow come into our lives offering help and support just when we need them. 

The second type of prayer Lamott recommends in the thanks prayer. She says of this, “The full prayer, and its entirety, is: Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you. But for reasons of brevity, I just refer to it as Thanks.

"It's amazement and relief that you caught a break; that your family caught a break; that you didn't have any reason to believe that things were really going to be OK, and then they were and you just can't help but say thank you."

It is a kind of a relief prayer and there is nothing too small or too big to be thankful for. I like to imagine God with a small smile and a nod in acknowledgment of these prayers. 

At school there is a wellness program for staff called Path that encourages us to exercise, eat healthfully and take time for preventative and self-care. As a part of this program, I recently participated in a month-long practice of gratitude journaling. The idea was to list three things that I was grateful for each day and not to repeat but to try to come up with three new things each day. I thought that it would be a challenge to come up with three new things each day but it really wasn’t. It was a matter of switching from the broad categories of things I am grateful for: church, family, friends etc and bringing it down to the little things: a good lunch, a plant that was in bloom or a walk without rain. 

After recording three things I was grateful for, I then had to note a positive experience and an act of kindness that I witnessed or performed. Again, doing this daily was a reminder to appreciate even little positive experiences - a kind word, leftovers so you don’t have to cook, time to read a good book. And considering a different act of kindness each day made me better appreciate small moments like students helping me to put up or take down chairs, a colleague offering to help with a project or my husband making sure I never run out of cream for my coffee. 

Then comes the Wow prayers. Lamott describes it this way“"Wow is the praise prayer. The prayer where we're finally speechless… Wow is the prayer of wonder."  

For me, the wow prayers often come on a walk when I round the corner and see a pileated woodpecker, shooting star, or a sunrise or sunset that takes my breath away. I try to stop my body and whatever I am thinking in that moment and just say, “Wow, thanks God!”

It is the wow prayers that renew our hope and faith in this world. I like to picture God smiling in delight in these brief Hallelujahs to God and life itself.

So let’s make time to pray and room for God to pray with us in our prayers for help, to hear our prayers of thanks and gratitude and to delight in our prayers of astonished joy. Amen.

Pastor Michelle Fountain

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