Consecrated in Prayer

Easter 7

Fr. Tim Nunez

May my spoken word be true to God’s written word and bring us all closer to the living word, Jesus Christ our Lord.  Amen

Graduation Sunday is always bittersweet. We are so very blessed by the young people in this church, as well as their families. Year after year, we celebrate our graduates’ extraordinary character and goodness, which attest to how very well-grounded they are in their faith. That is largely a product of God’s hand on them, their families and their church.

Our high school graduates are Lydia Blackburn from Frostproof High School and Kate Willette from Lake Wales and with an AA from Polk State College.

Our college graduates are Gabe Chandley, who majored in, surprisingly, Agricultural Operations Management from UF. Emma Putnam majored in Agricultural Education and Communication at UF. Katherine Skipper earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Santa Fe College, and Cadence Van Hook majored in Psychology.

We also have two graduate degrees; Emily Skipper earned a Master’s of Science in Child Life from Texas Women’s University and Abbie Putnam has earned a Juris Doctorate from the University of Florida College of Law.

Our education system is designed to prepare each of them to do something. Some of those goals are very specific. Gabe going into Agricultural Operations Management is a bit on the nose. A cow’s nose to be exact. Emma’s communications skills could go a variety of directions. Katherine into nursing is pretty focused, Cadence’s psychology degree could lead anywhere as it’s so foundational to why and how we live. Emily has a very specific call to serve families of children with major medical issues. Abbie’s law degree can go in a variety of directions.

Our high school graduates have not focused in on one thing yet, which is fine. I’m on career number three. I was 37 when I started down this path. Lydia and Kate are 18, so double that. But my point is that we tend to think of education as preparation for something we are going to do. It’s more than that, of course, but that’s how we think of it.

With that in mind, let’s look at today’s Gospel in context with how Jesus is preparing his disciples. Leading up to this passage, he has been teaching them for four chapters. Chapter thirteen leads with washing their feet and teaching them about servant leadership as well as receiving ministry from him. Fourteen begins, “In my Father’s house there are many rooms,” and he teaches about who he is and where it’s all leading. Chapter fifteen he teaches about abiding in him and in chapter sixteen he teaches them about the Holy Spirit.

There is a lot more in there, of course, but it’s all teaching them in preparation for what he is calling them to do after what comes in chapters eighteen, nineteen, twenty and twenty-one: his arrest, trial, crucifixion, resurrection and ascension.

Sandwiched between the teaching and those astounding events and their further is chapter seventeen, which we call Jesus’s “High Priestly Prayer.” The first thing we should note is that teaching and training his disciples are essential parts of their preparation, but they are not enough. The whole enterprise must be bathed in prayer.

When we contemplate these young adults, and consider the life we have shared with them and their futures, we should pray for them. Their educations and training are very important, but we older folks know that life comes at you fast and while it will by God’s grace be filled with joy, it’s often difficult and at times heartbreaking. Prayer is essential. Jesus taught them to pray, and has demonstrated prayer before, so yes, do that.

But now he’s praying for them.

Note that Jesus isn’t praying for their tasks, their mission trips, their physical, mental or spiritual health. He is praying for the Father to be glorified in the Son, for the Son to be glorified in the Father. This glory isn’t about dazzling light, it’s about revealing God through self-giving, sacrificial love.

Then he prays for the Father to hold and keep his disciples in eternal life, which is simply to know God and to know Jesus Christ. Knowing the Father and the Son is eternal life. It’s that relationship that blesses, binds and directs everything else. Whatever we are, whatever we do, becomes consecrated to God and thus a means by which He is made manifest in the world.

At baptism, we are asked, “Will you who witness these vows do all in your power to support these persons in their life in Christ?” Our response is, “We will.” Often, as we did last week, we are saying that about a baby or small child. Many, but not all, of our graduates were baptized here. But whenever and wherever they were baptized, the promise holds to this point and beyond, to the extent we have opportunity.

But it actually applies to all of us and it never ends. Our job, collectively, is to help each other, primarily through prayer, to know the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit - which is eternal life.

Graduates, please stand.

Let us pray for them.

AMEN!