The sermon
In the final words of today's gospel in John 14. Jesus says, "If in my name you ask me for anything, I will do it." A simple message from Christ to us, a promise. But is it that simple? Does it work?
As children, we asked for everything one way or another. When we grew up, we continued to ask for things but had to get used to the answer no or later. And asking God for things led to difficulties, too. I wonder how many of us actually ask things from God and believe that we shall receive them.
It takes a crisis in our lives to drive us to our knees. To beg God for whatever it is, for happiness, for health, for a friend, for help in making a decision. And even then, there is the tendency in all of us to bargain with God. Oh, God, get me out of this mess and I'll make it up to you later. that sort of thing.
In today's gospel, Jesus shows us where we go wrong in our prayers. I will do whatever you ask in my name. The clue is in the last bit. We are to ask God for anything we need but in the name of Jesus. that is in the character, the spirit, the attitude of Jesus. This is the kind of prayer which will be answered. And that's why so many formal prayers end with the words through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Or we ask this in the name of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. It might seem a way of telling everybody that the prayer is over, but actually it's the most important part of the prayer.
Human life can be frail and ebb and flow and need we need to focus on the next journey beyond to eternal life through Christ. God’s love is not limited to just those who are healthy. God’s promises are real and we all have unique journeys that we cannot comprehend sometimes, but we have to have trust in God. God can help to mend hurt if we let him try.
Jesus himself said, "He who believes in me will also do the works that I do." We pray not on our own, but with Jesus. Think of the times when you asked God for something and didn't receive it. When the prayer didn't work.
When you looked for God and you didn't find him. Those are the occasions when with the best will in the world, we're using God for our own ends. It's like turning God into a torch. We switch on the torch to find what we're looking for. Then we switch the torch off. We want to control the outcome of everything.
We keep God at a distance. He's either listening to us or turning away. This is not a mature response to life. the great gift of our being. This is just dreaming. This is just the child saying I want.
We need help from those who have gone before us. One example, 1400 years ago, St. Benedict wrote his rule and the first word of the rule is listen. Not talk of which I am doing too much right now but listen, stillness, silence, simplicity.
None of them easy even in church. I know there is no real silence in the liturgy unless we are turned towards the Lord in our heart.
It is the inner silence that is important. Even so, what can we do when God doesn't answer our heartfelt, desperate prayer and there is no stillness in our life. For when we defend and nurture the God within us, we achieve a dignity which no one can take from us, however appalling the circumstances.
And that is a dignity which attracts and which can help and comfort others. The lesson for us is that our calling is to let the Son of God be revealed in us. We become the word made flesh. That is the setting for all our prayers.
A prayer might well start with me and what I want to happen. But when we enter Christ's presence, we move to a deep connectedness with all humanity in which we can rest and be secure whatever happens.
We learn to live without easy answers. We don't love God for what he gives us. We face the mystery where God knows and we don't. Instead of asking all the time to see the light, to know everything, we must put ourselves in a place where the light can find us our whole life. then can become a life of asking and receiving. Asking and receiving. It is one action not two. So in your prayers instead of asking God for things, try reversing Jesus's command, ask me Lord and you will receive. make your will known to me and you Lord will be glorified in me.
And that is when our prayers begin to be answered and our sorrows melt into joy. And perhaps the most important verse of today's gospel is the first one. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Sometimes we need to thnk why our prayers may not have been answered and do what you can and keep trusting in God.
