May 14, 2017 | Rev. Graham McCaffrey
Scripture: John 14:1-14
Audio available at the bottom of the page.
“I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father will be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” John 14:14
Last week we looked at four of the ordinary daily ways that we respond to amazing and life-altering event of the Resurrection of Jesus and the good news that it is for us. Being devoted to the apostles teaching, being devoted to fellowship – or being together, being devoted to the breaking of bread and finally being devoted to the prayers. This week I want to continue to focus on the topic of prayer and what it means for us to ask for anything in the name of Jesus.
Most of us probably learned about prayer when we were children, whether it was with our parents or at church or Sunday school – we were introduced to the Christian practice of prayer. I remember as a child my prayers were often quite simplistic – I would pray for the things that I wanted, for a new toy, for a sweet treats and so on. I also remember being chided somewhat for this type of prayer by well-meaning Sunday School teachers – after all there is more to prayer than the sum total of our desires. There are prayers of adoration, prayers of confession, prayers of thanksgiving, or prayers of intercession for others. The main issue with the sort of prayer of my childhood, is that it was very self-centered, it focused on my desires, my wants and not necessarily what G od desired or wants. I remember broadening out my prayers to include prayers for world peace, prayers for safety, health and strength for friends and families, I even recall as a middle schooler actively praying for people like Sadaam Hussein – because after all we were told that we should pray for our enemies! While there is nothing wrong with these prayers – perhaps they were a little too formulaic – except they were missing something essential, they were missing my desire.
My prayers were not truly honest or heartfelt because I was avoiding to pray for the things I really wanted, no matter how trivial they might seem. There is a dishonesty in our prayers, a lack of authenticity if we do not pray for the things we desire: for some it might be better health, or a better job, or more money, or excitement, or to win the lottery – whatever it may be it is important that we pray for what we desire. St. Augustine wrote that “God wants us to exercise our desire through our prayers, so that we might be able to receive what he is preparing to give us. His gift is very great indeed, but our capacity is too small and limited to receive it. That is why we are told: Enlarge your desires.”
As we come to God with our desires: no matter how trivial, petty or mundane they might seem – the very act of prayer opens us up to God, opens us up to God’s love working upon us and expanding and enlarging our desires to be able to receive more and more of God’s love for us. As we are more disciplined in prayer we become more open to God’s desires, and our desires being shaped by the love of God that we receive in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit.
This is what Jesus is getting at when he tells his disciples that that he will do whatever they ask in my name. And again he when he says “If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” This isn’t Jesus’ carte blanche promise that he will give you what you want – no matter what the prosperity Gospel preachers say. This isn’t a case of the more faithful you are in prayer or the more you really believe, the more successful, or the wealthier you will be – instead it is Jesus saying that as you pray in his name, as your life and prayers reflect who he is, your prayers will be answered, because God’s very life will be forming inside you, the promises of abundant and eternal life will be true for you here and now, because you are being soaked in the very life and love of God as you pray.
And so what does it mean to pray in his name? The passage from our Gospel today gives us a glimpse of what Jesus might mean when he says this.
Our passage today comes in Jesus’ discourse with the disciples on the eve of his Crucifixion – and so the teaching is set in the context of Jesus preparing his disciples for his fate. Jesus begins by offering his disciples comfort – those words we hear so often at funerals – “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many dwelling places. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, so that where I am, there you may be also.”
And to this the disciples were somewhat bewildered. First Thomas says but we do not know where you are going. And then after Jesus responds with “I am the way the truth and the life. If you know me, you will know the Father also,” Philip still not comprehending says “Lord show us the Father, and we will be satisfied.” And Jesus’ response to these questions is: I am the way to Father, my way the way of the Cross, the way of suffering and death the way which deal with sin that is the way to the Father and not only that but that you have been seeing the Father all along, in my very person, in my actions, in my life you have seen the very life of God amongst you.
God the father eating with tax collectors and sinners, God the father weeping and crying at the death of Lazarus, God the Father touching lepers or spending time with a disreputable Samaritan woman, God the Father turning water into abundant wine at a wedding feast. The very Creator and sustainer of the universe getting down on his knees to wash the filthy feet of his friends. The very life of God nailed to a tree, abandoned by all.
Jesus tells his disciples that that is who God is, that the truest and most accurate depiction of the nature of the Holy One of the whole cosmos is not represented in glory, is not represented with dazzling power and might, but is represented by the humility, sacrifice and immeasurable love displayed in Jesus, in his life, in his death and in his resurrection. To understand who God is we therefore must look to Jesus: the Jesus of the Scriptures, the Jesus who saw himself as the fulfillment of the Old Testament, the Jesus who lived among us, the Jesus who died with the full weight of our sin and disobedience hanging with him on that tree.
“I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father will be glorified in the Son. If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it.” John 14:14
And so when Jesus says, pray in my name, this is the name we are praying in. This is the very nature of the divine name, the great “I AM” – a nature defined by the boundless love that the Father has for his creation; a nature defined by the endless grace and mercy the Son extends to us sinners; a nature defined by the power that the Holy Spirit continually pours on and into his church. When we pray in Jesus’ name, we are being transformed by his very life, our prayers and desires are being transformed into the desires and prayers of God.
As we come to God in prayer, as we bring our concerns, as we bring our thanksgivings, as we bring our intercessions and as we bring our mundane or perhaps even our selfish desires – our desire is expanded, our desire is enlarged so that we can receive more and more of God’s gift to us. For any of you who have prayed consistently over time, if you look back over your lives of faith you will probably see a transformation has occurred in your own life – perhaps you are more aware of the needs of others, perhaps you are more grateful, perhaps you are bolder in your prayers and in your faith. By bringing our own desires before God in prayer and offering them up to God our desires are enlarged and expanded over time by the scope of God’s desires, the scope of what God intends for us and for our lives.
And so pray for your desires, teach your children and your grandchildren to pray for what they really want – the toys, money, love whatever it may be – because God wants us to be honest with our desires, honest with our prayers, honest with our relationship with God and not pretending to be holier than we are, but rather committed to the practice of prayer, committed to an openness to the working of the Holy Spirit shaping our desires and prayers. In prayer we learn that we are loved by God, and that love shapes and forms in us the life of God, forms us into the people that God always intended for us.
May the life of God overwhelm you. May the love of God fill you and may the Father be glorified in Jesus, as he responds to your prayers in his name. Let us pray.
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