His Lord’s Prayer

 Jesus has been preparing us for his imminent departure. In his farewell discourse (John 14-16) he asks us to love one another as he has loved us. He characterizes our interconnectedness through the vine and branches allegory: through him with him and in him. In (John 17:11-19) Jesus offers up a beautiful prayer of supplication to the Father that may well be called the other Lord’s Prayer:

Lifting up his eyes to heaven, Jesus prayed saying
“Holy Father, keep them in your name that you have given me,
so that they may be one just as we are one.
When I was with them I protected them in your name that you gave me,
and I guarded them, and none of them was lost
except the son of destruction,
in order that the Scripture might be fulfilled.
But now I am coming to you.
I speak this in the world
so that they may share my joy completely.
I gave them your word, and the world hated them,
because they do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
I do not ask that you take them out of the world
but that you keep them from the evil one.
They do not belong to the world
any more than I belong to the world.
Consecrate them in the truth. Your word is truth.
As you sent me into the world,
so I sent them into the world.
And I consecrate myself for them,
so that they also may be consecrated in truth.”

Jesus knows that the world in which we live can be a harsh, difficult place and alien to God’s Spirit. However, he knows that while we are united with the Father and are of his world, we must live in our world… they do not belong to the world any more than I belong to the world.

So Jesus doesn't pray that it will be easy, but rather that God will support us in our challenges and that we will be one in fellowship with each other and with Jesus and the Father through the Spirit.

But Jesus doesn’t ask only on behalf of his disciples there and then; he asks on behalf of future generations of followers, us….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

When we think of the Lord's Prayer, we of course think of the prayer Jesus taught his disciples, and that we say each day of our lives. But this reading gives us another Lord's Prayer, the prayer our Lord prayed -- and is still praying -- for us: that we might find the strength we need and be one.

Albert Nolan writes that “God is closer to me than I am to myself. If we are in some profound sense one, then I have nothing to fear. I will be cared for at all times. Nothing can really harm me and whatever happens will be for the best. I am loved beyond measure because I am one with the whole mystery of life.” (Albert Nolan, Jesus Today)