Sermon - Rogate 2022 - John 16:23-33

The High Priestly Prayer, Eugene Burnand, 1901

Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!

Often when Jesus speaks in the Bible He’s speaking to mixed groups of people: strong believers, and people just curious, and those who hate His guts. But our readings the last two weeks and this week are spoken exclusively to His inner circle, the apostles. What’s more, these words were spoken on Maundy Thursday, immediately afterwards Jesus said a prayer and was arrested and crucified. This was His farewell discourse, His final words spoken to faithful Christians who were going to have to live in this world after He ascended to heaven. These words are extraordinarily applicable to us faithful Christians gathered here. 

Eburg:[These words are also very applicable to the four young people being confirmed in our parish today. You have spent some years learning from Jesus, and today you are prepared to make a public confession before the church that what you have learned is good, right, and salutary. You’re telling the church and God that there’s nothing more important in your life than Christ, this Christian assembly, and our confession of the faith. You will confess that you’re prepared to die rather than fall away. The life of faith you’re embarking upon won’t be easy.]

Christianity is not popular the way that it was a couple of generations ago. It used to be that nearly everyone went to church. Ascension Day is on Thursday, and in the past businesses closed on Thursday afternoon so that folks could go to church on this feast day. But times have changed. Christianity is culturally strange, it’s seen by many as an antiquated relic of the past, at best. 

The Christian ethos is actually hated by many today since Christians say that: church attendance is mandatory to keep the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd commandments; or that feminism is against the 4th commandment; or that abortion is a sin against the 5th commandment; or that fornication and homosexuality is a sin against the 6th commandment; or that gossiping is against the 8th commandment; or that our materialistic culture is against the 7th, 9th, and 10th commandments. The world doesn’t like how exclusive Christianity is, that only Christians go to heaven and all others will perish. Jesus wasn’t kidding when He said: “In the world you will have tribulation.”

It was because of this tribulation that Jesus spoke at such length to His apostles. He instructed them how they would endure these troubles, He teaches us how we will endure the many hardships we face. He said: “Ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be full.” In the face of trials, Jesus teaches us to pray. Since we have troubles in this life, we speak to God, and He hears us because He is with us and He loves us.

Jesus said: “I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” This world is filled with tribulation. Our Lord Jesus knew it well, especially when He was arrested and crucified. We know it as well when we experience untimely deaths, chronic or terminal illnesses, endemic diseases, feuding families, and wars abroad or at home. But Christ has overcome this world by His sacrificial death, so that just as He ascended to the Father so shall we. In Jesus we have peace since the troubles of this life are always and only temporary in light of the resurrection.

However, Jesus is not only our peace at the end of this world, we don’t just overcome this world when we rise from the dead. Instead Jesus is our peace right now. We overcome the world today. The divide between the divine and the temporal is much more narrow on account of Christ. The Christian faith is a lot more practical than we sometimes make it out to be. James said: “But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves.” The faith is not only something which is heard but it is something which is lived daily.

A most significant aspect of this daily living in the faith and overcoming the world through Christ, is in prayer. “Truly, truly, I say to you, whatever you ask of the Father in My name, He will give it to you… Ask, and you will receive.” Prayer is far more important than we often think. It’s not important because it’s like magic, where we can say incantations and get what we want. But prayer is important and powerful because of God’s love for us. Remember, “the Father Himself loves you.” Through baptism, we’re God’s children, He’s adopted us into His family, and He loves us!

Our prayers have power because the Father loves His children and desires what is good for them. He answers our prayers not because we change God, but because the loving Father listens to His children, even when what they ask for is unwittingly foolish. We should always pray to God for whatever we think is good, and God will always give us what is good. “You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have, because you do not ask.” So ask! Don’t worry about asking for the wrong thing, God will sort it out.

“The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working. Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth. Then he prayed again, and heaven gave rain, and the earth bore its fruit.” God does in fact answer our prayers because in Christ we overcome the world. This world can’t hold a candle against the prayers of God’s righteous people! 

I suppose you might be wondering why we sometimes don’t receive what we ask for, even when it seems good to us. James says: “You ask and do not receive, because you ask wrongly, to spend it on your passions.” St. John also wrote about this: “if we ask anything according to His will He hears us.” In the Lord’s prayer we pray “Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” God always gives us what is good, it’s just we don’t always ask for what is good; our wills are not perfectly aligned with God’s yet. Sometimes the children just want dessert, but the Father knows that what is immediately sweet tasting may become bitter in time.

This means that part of prayer is learning to align our will with God’s. If prayer is a conversation with God, then we’re not the only ones speaking, and prayer also entails listening to the voice of God as it has been revealed in the scriptures. So here we come upon another comfort in prayer: when we pray, we’re reminded just how near we are to God. Jesus said: “I am not alone, for the Father is with Me.” The same is true for us! We are not alone, for the Father is with us! In fact, He’s so near to us that we can hear Him and He can hear us. This is a good reason for us to pray out loud whenever we pray, even when we’re alone, because it’s a reminder that we are truly speaking to God and that He’s with us and hears us!

So when you face life’s daily tribulations, take heart in knowing that Christ has overcome this world and that you overcome it with Him. May your hearts be filled with peace beyond human understanding. When troubles rise to meet you, lift your heart to the Lord and ask Him for His divine providence, knowing that He will give you what is good.

May this hope and peace which fills your heart give you the endurance necessary. Like St. Paul said to St. Timothy, so do I say to you: “You then, my child, be strengthened by the grace that is in Christ Jesus.” Eburg:[I say this especially to you young confirmands, who are at the beginning of your Christian walk and are now admitted to the blessed sacrament of the altar.] Let us look to Jesus and “Share in [His] suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus… An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.” Behold, there’s a bountiful treasure awaiting us, even if we must first suffer and labor with Christ, so it will be worth it. Alleluia! Christ is risen! He is risen indeed! Alleluia!