Monday, March 31, 2014

Skin in the Game: Why Praying "in the name of Jesus" matters ~ John 16:23-33





23 On that day you will ask nothing of me. Very truly, I tell you, if you ask anything of the Father in my name, he will give it to you. 24 Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, so that your joy may be complete. 25 “I have said these things to you in figures of speech. The hour is coming when I will no longer speak to you in figures, but will tell you plainly of the Father. 26 On that day you will ask in my name. I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; 27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God. 28 I came from the Father and have come into the world; again, I am leaving the world and am going to the Father.” 29 His disciples said, “Yes, now you are speaking plainly, not in any figure of speech! 30 Now we know that you know all things, and do not need to have anyone question you; by this we believe that you came from God.” 31 Jesus answered them, “Do you now believe? 32 The hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each one to his home, and you will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone because the Father is with me. 33 I have said this to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have conquered the world!”

His feats were legendary. Good looking, accomplished military commander, successful merchant – many looked at him as a model of heroism and truth leading to him becoming a major-general. Distinguished in many battles – Saratoga, Ridgefield, Fort Stanwix, often with a small force against superior odds, he proved himself time and time again as one of the more successful military strategist of the American Revolutionary war – a claim substantiated by the throngs of people who would shout his name as he entered towns that dotted that the eastern coast of the colonies: “Benedict Arnold, Benedict Arnold, Benedict Arnold.” His one act of treason altered his story, changed his name.

Names aren’t magical. Being called a Benedict Arnold doesn’t make you a traitor but its associations and inner meanings can change how you are perceived by others and how you even see yourself. In the same way, Jesus’ name isn’t some magical password of prayer, some mantra, or mystical “open sesame” for the spiritual life. But it does have some powerful associations that can affect your life deeply. I’d like to explore those today.

What does prayer “in the name of Jesus” mean? 

          1.      To pray in the name of Jesus is to understand that God can be trusted because God has skin in the game.

To pray in the name of Jesus is to recognize what Jesus has repeated so often in these last few chapters and throughout the John’s Gospel, “the Father and I are one.” So to pray in the name of Jesus has everything to do with who Jesus is and who God is. Jesus says in vs. 26, “One day you will pray in my name” and claims to speak “plainly of the Father.” To pray in the name of Jesus is to confess that God has skin in the game; that in Jesus we see God in action, God at work, God spoken and God revealed. It means that we can know to whom we are praying and how to pray. To pray in the name of Jesus is to acknowledge that Jesus is Lord and that the Father is teaching us through Jesus how to pray.

This brings us to that inscrutable mystery that plagues pastors and church-goers alike – the Trinity – that there is one God in three persons! Now when you hear the word “Trinity” maybe your response is “AHHHHHHHHH!” Or maybe you hear the word “Trinity” like I hear my mechanic talk about what’s wrong with my car – “so your exhaust manifold is leaking due to a busted gasket, wah wah wah wah.” Just fix it, I say to myself, I don’t need to understand it.” But prayer is the perfect context in which to discuss and understand this difficult truth because it has everything to do with how we pray, why we pray, what we should pray for, and whom we pray to. 

Praying in the name of Jesus means that the Father and the Son are one and that God the Father reveals himself bodily in Jesus. So what Jesus tells us of the Father is trustworthy and true. What one wills and does, the other wills and does – this is further added to by Jesus who says the Spirit only says what Jesus speaks, vs. 16:14. How does this affect how we view God? Well, in vs. 26 Jesus says, “I do not say to you that I will ask the Father on your behalf; for the Father himself loves you,”.  So Jesus does not placate the Father or do something that the Spirit refuses to do. So Jesus is claiming more than being the messiah but saying that he has a unique relationship with the Father who loves us. Trinitarian prayer stresses that all who God is expressed in all that God does. So Jesus doesn’t have to mediate for us in the sense of shielding us from a God who wants something for us other than salvation. I continually struggle with a bad Trinitarian theology in which I ask Jesus to go and speak to the scary God for me. Jesus’ own words are not, “I change God’s mind toward sinful human beings” or “don’t worry, he’s grumpy right now but I’ll put in a good for you”; rather Jesus says, “Ask in my name and you are talking to God, I am God and the Father loves you like I do.
More than that, however, it also means that Jesus is uniquely qualified to teach us what to pray for. To pray in the name of Jesus is to know what God wants. What God want us to pray for – is to pray about what Jesus said and did. Jesus is God’s answer to the riddle about God’s will. Too many evangelicals agonize over God’s supposedly secret, personal plan for their lives. Take heart – God’s will is Jesus Christ, God’s will with skin. 

          2.      To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray knowing that we have skin in the game.

I recently heard a marvelous story about a four-year-old child who awoke one night frightened, convinced that in the darkness there were monsters hiding in the closet. Alone, she ran panicked to her parent’s bedroom. Her mother calmed her down and, taking her by the hand, led her back to her own room where she turned on the light and reassured the child saying, “You needn’t be afraid, you are not alone here. God is in the room with you.” The child replied: “I know that God is here, but I need someone in this room who has some skin!”

To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray to the God who came and took on flesh, presence, and action. But the incarnation, God taking on flesh, is not simply a thirty-three year experiment by God in history but God’s continued bodily work in the world. God still has skin in the game, human skin, powered by His Spirit – the church. We are, Paul tells, the Body of Christ. We are God’s skin.

To pray in the name of Jesus therefore is not some desperate need to have a go between to save us from an angry God. To pray in the name of Jesus is to recognize that we are part of God’s concrete, enfleshed presence and plan to redeem and heal the earth and all that is in it. This is what it means to pray as a Christian rather than as a theist. Both believe in God but a theist prays to a distant God in heaven. A Christian prays to a God who brings “heaven to earth.” To pray in the name of Jesus is to recognize that the answer to prayer is now partially dependent upon being what we pray for. So when we finish a prayer “in the name of Jesus” we are not only asking God in heaven to act. We are also charging ourselves as the Body of Christ by the power of the Spirit with some responsibility for that action. To pray as a Christian, in other words, demands concrete involvement or it is not Christian prayer. To pray as a Christian is to demand God’s intervention but also our own. If my friend is sick and I pray that she gets better, but do not drive her to see the doctor, or visit her, I have prayed as a theist, not as a Christian. I have not given any flesh or skin to my prayer. This is the point of James who asks, “If a brother or sister is naked and lacks daily food, 16and one of you says to them, “Go in peace; keep warm and eat your fill,” and yet you do not supply their bodily needs, what is the good of that?” There is always a politic to prayer, there is always some necessary action for it to be prayer “in the name of Jesus.”

There is an Ingmar Berman movie called “The Serpent’s Egg” which powerfully illustrates my point. A priest has just finished presiding over a mass and is taking off his clerical robe when a woman confronts him. Middle-aged, needy, lonely, and suffering from a burdensome view of God she sobs to the priest, “I’m so alone, Father, nobody loves me! God is so far away! I don’t think he could love me anyway. Not the way I am! Everything is dark for me!” At first, the priest is more irritated than compassionate, but he finally says to the woman: “Kneel down and I will bless you. God seems far away. He cannot touch you right now, I know that, but I am going to put my hands on your head and touch you – to let you know that you are not alone, not unlovable, not in the darkness. God is here and God does love you. When I touch, God will touch you.” This is someone praying as a Christian, praying in the name of Jesus. This is someone who understands that we are God’s skin – that we have skin in the game.

          3.      To pray in the name of Jesus is to pray by the power of the Spirit who rose Jesus from the dead. 

In other words, to pray in the name of Jesus is to pray knowing that God has already acted and won in the death and resurrection of Jesus. To pray in the name of Jesus means that there is no such thing as a bad or wrong prayer but that all prayer is animated, worked with, empowered by God. When we pray in the name of Jesus we recognize that we are joining God in his work and he is not worried. I’m not suggesting that there’s not heart ache in this life nor that prayer can’t be vexing as we struggle to understand why some are answered and some seem not to be answered. I’m simply saying that in the end, heart ache doesn’t win because Jesus rose from the dead. And that same Spirit who rose Jesus from the dead, Jesus says in chapter 16, will guide and direct us. Friends, because God has skin in the game – God has already won and we can join him in his work. So to pray “in the name of Jesus” - to end your prayer with that phrase - is not some sort of divine magic but to remind yourself that you need not worry about life being redeemed, you are simply waiting and working with the God who will make it so.

Like the disciples, you may scatter when trouble comes your way. But be of good cheer – your life is not determined by what you fail to do but by what God the Father, Son and Holy Spirit have done. Jesus says, “I have conquered the world!” Doesn’t that make you want to pray?

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