Jesus’ Call for Prayer, Evangelism, & Genuine Welcome

By Rev. Heather J. Blais, Rector

Our gospel lesson takes place on the night of Jesus’ arrest. That evening Jesus modeled servant leadership with the footwashing, offered his final teachings, and then ended the evening with a prayer. Today we heard the very end of that prayer. 

Jesus is readying himself, his followers, and all of us for what is to come. He begins the prayer by praying for himself. It is a poignant reminder that we, too, are wise to start our prayers by asking for God’s guiding presence.  As we strive to be healthy and well, and to make ourselves more fully available to God, so we might be agents of Love in our families, schools, and communities. 

Jesus' prayer starts off by acknowledging with humility and clarity that his work here is complete. He came into the world as the living embodiment of God’s insurmountable Love, and over the course of his ministry he ignited a movement to pursue God’s dream. He did this by:

• Teaching us that love is the essential ingredient in every relationship; that our relationships matter deeply, and that the natural outgrowth of love is justice, mercy, and humility. 
  

• Offering us liberation from the prisons of our own making; helping us to experience the true freedom that comes when we release the shame, guilt, anxiety, pain, and anger that limits us. 
  

• Preparing us for the life-giving change that happens when we offer ourselves in faith to walk the Way of Love in community. 
  

Jesus’ movement grew with remarkable speed because people were, and still are, hungry for the message of God’s Love. Soon he had followers who were empowered to work alongside him. Jesus loved these followers, like we strive to love our own families - knowing full well the gifts they bring, and their shortcomings. 

So that night in anticipation of his death, he prayed for these disciples, his chosen family, and the work before them. Jesus asks for God to protect them, to ground their ministry in joy, and bless them with a deep understanding of God’s love. In doing this, Jesus models for his followers the need for us to regularly pray for one another, those we serve, and the universal Church in all our many expressions. 


Then Jesus does something that is both incredibly powerful and humbling. He prays for all those who will someday become followers of Jesus through the disciples’ mission and ministry. Jesus is praying for the Church in every generation, knowing full well what is possible when we come together in Christ’s name. Jesus is praying for us. 

Over 2,000 years ago, the person we now understand as God’s embodiment of Love in human flesh, prayed for each and everyone of us. As well as, for each and every person who through our mission and ministry will come to know God’s love. If that doesn’t humble us at our core, I’m not sure what will. 

By praying for future followers, Jesus is once again modeling for us that we, too, are called to pray for those who will come after us. Praying in our worship, and in our lived choices, for our children, grandchildren, and the generations yet to come. We have handed them a polycrisis, which is when crises in multiple global systems become casually entangled in ways that ‘degrade humanity’s prospects’. * They need our prayers - in our thoughts, words, and deeds. It also empowers them to someday do the same for future generations. 

This final prayer of Jesus, teaches us as much about prayer, as it does evangelism. I know, we are Episcopalians, and that other E word makes us a bit jumpy. Because we wouldn’t want to make anyone uncomfortable. Yet evangelism is so much more than knocking on doors to tell people about Jesus, or obsessing about the number of people in the pews. (Though leave it to the church to ask for a parochial report each year where we are required to offer that precise information.)

Evangelism begins with deep listening and attentiveness - considering:

• What is unfolding, right now, in our wider community?
  
• How is this moment in our society affecting our neighbors?
  

• What precisely do our neighbors need?
  

This requires us to observe, and be in conversation with our neighbors beyond the church. 

Evangelism then requires us to take these observations to God in prayer. To collectively discern how the particular gifts of our community might be used at this hour. With so much need all around us, it can be easy to want to jump in and try to do too many things at once, setting us up for overfunctioning and burnout.  But no one church community can or should try to be all things to all people. Only the living God can or should be our all in all. Which is why we lean on prayerful discernment, inviting the Holy Spirit to help us see the particular way in which our gifts might be brought to bear, at this particular moment in time.

It is deep in our ancestral DNA at both former St James and former St. Andrew’s to feed our hungry neighbors. Eight years into our life as Saints James and Andrew, we have embedded that piece of our heritage into our life together as a new church. Over the decades there have been coffeehouses, roast beef suppers, coffee hours, pancake suppers, and two weekly feeding ministries. The way we go about feeding people may change, but it is a piece of who we have historically been, and the unique gifts we have brought to bear. Jesus taught us that when we feed people, and are grounding that ministry in prayer, we offer much more than a simple meal. We are offering our neighbors an embodiment of the spiritual nourishment and sense of community that we experience in our weekly worship. 

Now, there is another part of Evangelism that we sometimes overlook. Yes, evangelism will make us uncomfortable because it is going to require us to change. Two things we often would prefer avoiding. Yet when we are effective at being Jesus’ hands and feet in the world as a community, we may inspire people to try joining us in worship. And the real question is, are we ready to receive them?

It is tempting for all churches to fall into a narrow understanding of welcome. One where we agree to be more or less friendly, but expect the newcomer to mold themselves to us. Best of all, without ever being told, church members may expect that newcomers can somehow inherently intuit that they: 

…must not sit in a certain pew.
…must share our politics and our thinking on justice issues. 
…must know when to do what in worship, and what it all means. 
…must make themselves or their children behave a certain way. 
…must understand our vast Episcopal vocabulary, which offers a specific name for every piece of church furniture, space, liturgy, or committee.

But that is not a genuine form of welcome. 
When we genuinely welcome visitors or newcomers, we are embodying the Gospel’s call to lovingly welcome the stranger. This requires us to have a softened heart, and remain open to the natural discomfort that accompanies change. At Pentecost, our parish has a tradition of welcoming those who’ve been exploring our parish as a spiritual home. At the heart of the liturgy we use, is the acknowledgment that in welcoming these newcomers, our community has been changed for the better by their presence. Their presence is a gift, and an opportunity for our community to grow in faith. 

When we can accept discomfort and change as part of growing the Jesus Movement, it helps us live more deeply into our core identity:

• As a local faith community that strives to provide nourishment in every form, and follows Jesus as our model for a life of faith, compassion, hospitality, and service.
  

• As well as our identity as an Episcopal Church, a branch of the Jesus Movement that leans evenly on scripture, tradition, and reason; is socially progressive; passionate about liturgy; and whose mission is to restore all people to unity with God. 
  

As the Episcopal Church, we are a particular cup of tea, and not everyone is going to want to drink us. This is one of the great gifts of the diverse and many branches of the Jesus Movement, where there are so many different expressions of being the Church. However long our paths may cross, it is a privilege to walk together - whether that be for a Sunday, a year, or a lifetime. 


So, what do we do with Jesus' final prayer?

We can begin by following his model of prayer. Praying for ourselves, our community, and those who will come after us. 

We can accept evangelism as an essential part of our calling as followers of Jesus.  Readying ourselves for the fruits of evangelism, by offering a genuine and sincere welcome to newcomers.

• Moving from our familiar pew to let someone who has a hard time hearing move to a better spot or to let a young child have a closer look at what is happening on the altar. 
  

• Translating Episco-speak to be more user friendly. 
  

• Offering the last leaflet to a newcomer so they have a sense of what is to come. 
  

• Introducing ourselves, and letting folks know that questions are welcomed and celebrated. 
  

Because there is no such thing as a dumb question or a taboo topic at God’s 
table. 

• Being sincerely friendly, and never taking ourselves too seriously. 
  

On any given Sunday, in any given ministry - whatever goes right and whatever goes poorly, God is in it, and always with us. Stepping into the natural discomfort that accompanies change, and the joy of knowing this is a sign of growth. And that we are called as followers to grow the Jesus Movement in our time, in our place, in our community. 

As we hold all of this, it’s helpful for us to remember that the most common way for someone to begin exploring a church is when they are invited by someone they trust or respect. 

• Who in our lives needs the nourishment our community offers?
  

• Who is curious about Jesus?
  

• What do we each need to hold more loosely in order to offer genuine welcome?
  

Amen. 

Lectionary
Acts 16:16-34
Revelation 22:12-14,16-17,20-21
John 17:20-26
Psalm 97

* As described by Rev. Jesse Zinck at the 2024 Clergy Conference of the Diocese of Western Massachusetts



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