The Gospel of John, Chapter 17: Prayer

The Gospel of John, Chapter 17: Prayer

Read Chapter 17 here.

Chapter 17 consists entirely of a prayer Jesus prays.  Sometimes Jesus speaks of himself in the third person.  The language is liturgical and repetitive. In Eugene Peterson’s The Message translation (link above), it appears as a poem or psalm.  I’ll take it in the opposite direction, and summarize with (gasp) bullet points:

• Glorify your Son so the Son may glorify you (third person)

• He has authority over all people (third person)

• He can give eternal life (third person)

• Eternal life means knowing you, God and Jesus Christ whom you sent.

• I (switch to first person) made your name known to those whom you gave me.

• They received the words from you.

• I am asking on their behalf.

• Protect them.

• The world has hated them because they do not belong to the world.

• Protect them from the evil one.

• Make them holy in the truth.

• And I also ask on behalf of future believers, those who will believe in me [through the words of the disciples]

The top 12 words in the prayer are:

World

Given

One

Know

Sent

Word

Father

Glorify

Gave

Ask

Behalf

Love

My word counter (wordart.com) eliminates small connecting words like “in”, but this passage has a lot of the preposition “in” + pronoun:  in me, in you, in them, in us.  There is a lot of “being in.” 

At the start of this Chapter 17 prayer Jesus says: 

“Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. 3 And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.  I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. (verses 17:1-5)

Lots of glorifying there.  Glorify means “to praise, extol, magnify, celebrate, honor.” (Strong’s Concordance)

In verses 1-5 which I quoted above, we see some of the themes from the opening words from Chapter 1:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.  He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and without him not one thing came into being. What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people. …. 

And the Word became flesh and lived among us, and we have seen his glory, … No one has ever seen God. It is God the only Son, who is close to the Father’s heart, who has made him known.

- Chapter 1, verses 1-4, 14, 18.

In his prayer Jesus also recalls the Logos (Word) of Chapter 1:

• I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. (verse 6)

• I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. (verse 14)

• Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. (verse 17)

• 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. (verse 20-21a)

In each of these verses “word” is “logos” in Greek.  It can have so many layers of meaning in this prayer.

Jesus prays for protection from evil for his followers, present and future.  

Jesus ends his prayer with a request for God’s love to be in his followers:

 “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” (verses 17: 25-26)

Jesus’ prayer includes many of the themes we’ve seen all along in this gospel, as you can probably tell from the list of the top 12 words (above).  The prayer is infused with a poetical sense of belonging, loyalty, unity.  It’s so poignant, juxtaposed with the upcoming separation that Jesus is facing.

In the next chapter Jesus will begin the painful and humiliating path to death on the cross.

The Common Household Husband, quoted

I decided not to try to write something original today.  Instead, I bring you... 

Things My Husband Has Said Lately

Me:  We’re supposed to wear black tomorrow.  I wonder if I even have any black pants that fit.

Husband:  Well, there’s always Sharpies.

* * * * * * * *

Husband:  If you look at photos from the Israeli election you would conclude that Trump is running for head of the Knesset.

* * * * * * * *

 

Box turtle at Cleveland Botanical Garden
I did find a turtle costume online, but I didn't like it.

Me:    I need a turtle costume by next Wednesday.

Husband:    Check at the zoo, in the amphibian section.

Me, a confused non-biologist:  Are turtles amphibians?

Husband, thinking for a moment:    No, they are reptiles.  Check in the reptile section.

Me:  Because when you are looking for an animal costume it’s important to be precise about the classification.

The local Halloween store did not have any
 turtle costumes, but they did have this.
Add bathrobe = instant Jesus or Apostle

* * * * * * * *

I arrived home from worship at church.  The scripture the pastor preached on that day was 1 Timothy 2:1-7, which starts out:  “First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone….”

Husband:    How was church?

Me, hanging my head in shame:  The pastor said we have to pray for EVERYONE. 

Husband:      Oh, MAN!  Everyone?!  Really?!

* * * * * * * *

Oct 2, 2019

Me,  solemnly:  Did you know that you have something in common with Bernie Sanders now?

Husband:  I do?  I mean, I do not agree with him on his “college for all” proposal.

Me:  He had a heart problem and had two stents put in.

Husband:  Good for him!  But was he able to get a bagel with cream cheese after the procedure?

* * * * * * * *

Back in early September, my husband said, “It’s not my job to make sense of things.”

I don’t remember what we had been talking about, but I think it’s very hard these days, even though we have great and unmatched wisdom, to make sense of anything.

This is why I needed to wear black - black or
orange - to demand common sense
gun legislation

Prayers on Thanksgiving Day

Prayers uttered on Thanksgiving Day by the Common Household Mom

O God of Mercy,

Please grant me your merciful permission to cook the turkey with the neck inside. 

Alas, my sinful ways have caused me to start defrosting the turkey only 6 days ahead of time.  In my human hubris, I had imagined this to be enough time to fully defrost the 14-pound turkey, but I did not take into account that the temperature in the back of the fridge is less than at the front.  My human pride in this caused there to be a coating of ice in the regions in which an underpaid and overworked assembly line worker stuffed in the bag of giblets and the other end in which a same such worker stuffed the neck. 

Grant me the wisdom and fortitude to spend extra huge amounts of money on a fresh turkey next year.  But this is only assuming that I can request the giblets and the neck on the side, instead of in. 

Amen.

* * * * *

O Lord,

Forgive me for secretly reacting with disdain when my husband appeared at 10 AM (only after my struggle with the giblets), looked in the refrigerator, and said, “There’s nothing to eat in here.”

Amen.

* * * * *

God of Providence,

Thank you for providing us with the bounty of a working clothes washer and dryer.  We praise you for your continued upholding of the plumbing.  We are reminded of this scripturish passage:

And they shall descend upon your household as grasshoppers for multitude,  heavy laden with all manner of soiled clothing;

they shall approach with laundry bags overflowing.

And day by day for the entire Thanksgiving weekend shall the washer be in use.

Woe be unto you mothers and fathers who did not have the wisdom and foresight to finish your own laundry before your offspring arrived.

                                    The Book of Admonitions 10: 2-5

Amen.

* * * * *

 As always, Lord, thank you for pie.

Amen.

Standing at the cliff, so you don't have to

Cliff on the coast of California, 2007

Every few days, my mother calls me, in agitation about the presidential election campaign.  I talk her back away from the cliff, blathering on about the weather and the roads, the children and what we had for dinner. By the time we finish our conversation she is feeling a little better.

And I am left standing at the cliff. 

That is why, when a clergy person invited us to meditation last Saturday morning, I jumped at the chance.  I’m not usually one for meditating, but I craved it as a way to put some distance between me and the cliff.  I have a fear of heights, even for metaphorical cliffs.

It was a fifteen-minute meditation.  As an introduction, the rabbi reminded us of The Shema, the Jewish statement “Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One” (disclaimer: it can be translated more than one way.).  It begins with the Hebrew word “shma.”

Rabbi said, “You know, the word “Shma” is made of three parts.”  Then he gently intoned:

            Shhhh.

            Mmmmm.

            Ahh.

Rabbi instructed us that he would set a timer for fifteen minutes.  This is a great thing to say to anxious, time-conscious people. We don’t want to have to meditate for too long!

He said that before we fell to silent meditation, we would begin by s l o w l y chanting the Shma, with a breath in between each word, five times through.  Then we fell silent and were alone with our thoughts and God.  I spent a fair amount of time reciting “Shhh.   Mmmm.  Ahh.” over and over in my head. 

It occurred to me that “Ahh” could be interpreted different ways, depending on pronunciation.  It could mean calm and satisfaction.  “Ah.  A cup of hot soup on a cold day.”  Or a sharp realization:  “Ah! I missed my flight!”  Or a scream of surprise or despair:  “Aaaaaaah! The election!  That candidate!”  For any of these, “Shhh” follows, confirming calm, or providing a challenge to listen and step away from the despair.

Listen.  Hear.  Shhh.  Mmmm.  Ah.

Cliffs aren't all bad.  At the bottom of that cliff
(which we descended by a wooden staircase)
there was this incredible beach, with
tide pools teeming with sea creatures.
PLEASE click to enlarge.

I have to add that if we had taken the interstate instead of back roads, we would never have seen that astounding beach in northern California.  We were the only humans there.