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Jesus Continues to Pray for Us
A number of people have asked for copies of Bishop
Romero’s sermon at the Episcopal Lutheran Service at
Trinity Cathedral last week.
Sermon preached by the Rt. Rev. Sylvestre Romero
The Episcopal – Lutheran Service at Trinity Cathedral –
San Jose
May 9, 2006
It is indeed an honor to be the preacher at this special
service. I am the interim bishop of the Episcopal
Diocese of El Camino Real. Prior to this position, I was
the bishop of the Diocese of Belize, my native land.
Before I continue I want to ask your prayers for the
election of the next bishop for this diocese. I also
want to thank Dean David Bird and the members of this
cathedral for hosting this service today and thanks for
all who are here present. God bless you.
I chose as this text for my sermon: The glory that
you have given me I have given them, so that they may be
one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they
may become completely one, so that the world may know
that you have sent me and have loved them even as you
have loved me, taken from the Gospel according to
St. John, chapter 17, verses 22-23. I chose this verse
because it reminded me of my own personal experience
that day I decided to tell my priest about my call to
become a priest.
In this passage we find Jesus praying that his disciples
may have victory and that through them Jesus would be
glorified. The task was designed to bring them joy. But
he also offered them a warning telling them that they
were different from the world and that they could not
expect anything else but hatred from it. Their values
and standards were different from that of the world, but
they would find joy in battling against the storm and
struggling against the tide. Those of us involved with
ministry are aware that it is by facing the hostility of
the world that we enter into the Christian joy.
We are called, not to abandon the world, but to win it.
Christianity was never meant to withdraw us from life,
but to equip us for a better life – for ourselves, and a
better life for the whole world. Tonight as we come
together to pray, let us not forget to listen to what
God is telling us to do. Let us not just talk without
listening to him.
Jesus prayed for the unity of his disciples. Because
there are divisions, because there is exclusiveness,
because there is competition between the churches, we
are aware that Christianity is wounded and the prayer of
Jesus frustrated. The gospel cannot truly be preached in
any congregation which is not one united band of
brothers and sisters. The world cannot be evangelized by
competing churches. Jesus prayed that his disciples
might be as fully one as he and the Father are one; and
there is no prayer of his which has been so hindered
from being answered by individual Christians and by the
churches than this.
Jesus prayed that God would protect his disciples from
the attacks of the Evil One. It is quite certain that in
this world there is a power of evil which is in
opposition to the power of God. It is uplifting to feel
that God is the sentinel who stands over our lives to
guard us from the assaults of evil. The fact that we
fall so often is due to the fact that we try to meet
life in our own strength and forget to seek the help and
to remember the presence of our protecting God. By the
way, let us not forget that the evil one is even inside
each of us.
Jesus prayed that the disciples might be consecrated by
the truth. The word for consecrate is usually translated
holy but its basic meaning is different or separate. It
has two ideas in it.
It means to set apart for a special task. For example,
when God called Jeremiah, he said to him: “Before I
formed you in the womb I knew you; and before you born I
consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the
nations” (Jeremiah 1:5). This word also means to equip a
person with the qualities of mind, heart and character
which are necessary for that task. If a person is to
serve God, that person must have something of God’s
goodness and God’s wisdom in him/her. He who would serve
the holy God must himself be holy too. God does not only
choose a person for his/her special service, and set
him/her apart for it, He also equips that person with
qualities he/she needs to carry it out.
We must always remember that God has chosen us and
dedicated us for his special service. That special
service is that we should love and obey him, and should
bring others to do the same. God has not left us to
carry out that great task in our own strength, but out
of his grace he fits us for our task, if we place our
lives in his hands.
Jesus prayed for his disciples because he was aware of
the task they had. The task is not completed, yes – so
he continues to pray for us. Let us not place frontiers
and barriers in fulfilling the mission he gave us, but
rather let us listen to his prayers and work together to
remove them.
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