John 15:1-8

By Pastor Marcia Sietstra

May 18, 2003

Today’s text has a verse in it that seems to catch people’s attention. It’s the one I asked the secretary to print in your bulletins today:

If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you. John 15:7

As television therapist Dr. Phil would say, ‘How’s that working for you?’ Based on your experience, do you secretly wonder if prayer really works that way? Ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you?? Tell that to the person with calluses on their knees from praying for a child that is still on drugs. Or to the person who has their family member’s name on every prayer list in the country, but the cancer spreads. Tell it to the young mother who has begged God to save her marriage, as her divorce becomes final.

It is hard to reconcile Jesus’ clear promise here that our prayers will come true with the hard reality of experience which suggests that often ‘what we wish’ is not done.

The recent civil War movie, Guns and Generals, presents this dilemma. By the way, I’m not recommending this movie, which is painfully long and drawn out, too long even for a Civil War buff like my husband. In the movie two southern military leaders, Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson, defended their cause by appealing to scripture and praying for a divine blessing on the Confederacy’s effort. Meanwhile, many good Christian abolitionists in the north surely prayed with equal fervor for their God-blessed side to win.

This isn’t just a piece of history. Competing prayers happen all the time, including in recent days when even the president of the United States frequently referred to his prayers for America to prevail in the war against terrorism in Iraq and elsewhere.

I read an article last month about a couple who asked Dr. Richard Mouw, president of Fuller Theological Seminary, for some theological marriage counseling. They were only half kidding. The wife explained, ‘He thinks we should go to war against Iraq, and that we should get on with it quickly and get it over with. But I don’t think we should fight at all. I favor diplomatic pressure, working through the U.N.’ The husband added: ‘and the problem is that we both pray about this. I pray for war and she prays against it.’

I can understand their frustration. It is one thing for a married couple to prefer different candidates in a local election. For a dozen years Phil and I cancelled out each other’s votes. If I thought he was voting for the wrong candidate, at least I took comfort in knowing that I cancelled out his vote. But Dr. Mouw says that when it comes to prayer we aren’t casting votes. When we offer up competing prayers, we are asking God Almighty to take sides. In effect we are saying, ‘Dear God, please see it MY way.’

A careful reading of this verse may hold the key to solving this dilemma. Here it is once more: If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask for whatever you wish and it will be done for you. Notice that the sentence is conditional, as in IF this happens, THEN that will happen.

If you abide in me, [then]’ask’and it will be done. Just a few sentences earlier, the word picture that John has drawn is that of a vine with branches totally dependent upon the vine, connected for their nourishment and life. That is how close we are to be to God that’s what it is to abide in Jesus. It is a closeness that connects us to him as the source of our wisdom.

The text ends with words about the disciples bearing much fruit, which will demonstrate that they are his disciples. Our prayers are to be focused on what God wants, and on bearing fruit in the world instead of on what we want personally. What does that suggest about our prayers?

It suggests that if we abide in Christ, we are praying for what God wants. Thus we might do well to pray for peace instead of a victory for one side or the other. We might pray for comfort and courage on all sides, for human decency, compassion, and wisdom on all sides and in all international leaders. Can we abide in Chirst with our prayers, i.e. can we draw closer to God by trying to align ourselves with God’s purposes? The famous theologian, Soren Kirkegaard, once commented, ‘prayer does not change God, but it changes the one who offers it.’

It seems to me that prayer is something we are instinctively driven to do because one only develops a relationship with God by communicating with God, thinking about the things we bring to God in prayer, with honesty and humility. I would suggest that part of maturing in our prayer life is to try to align our prayers with God’s will rather than our own, knowing that often we aren’t even sure what God’s will is, and we are left to pray, ‘Oh God, may your will be done, though I do not know what it is.’

For example, I often pray for healing for people, though I resist telling God what to do. I ask for healing because Jesus saw fit to heal people when he walked this earth, and I cannot help but believe that God’s ideal will for us is health, even though God’s circumstantial will apparently allows illnesses and death to occur. Therefore I pray for healing but ultimately for God’s will to be done.

Dr. Mouw responded to the couple with competing prayers by suggesting that they keep praying about what matters to them. It’s important to talk to God about what’s on your mind so you learn to abide in God as you concentrate on God’s will. But he told them also to pray for those whom they considered to be their enemies because Jesus said, ‘Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.’

Lastly, Dr. Mouw suggested that each one consider that they might be wrong in their view of things. And he reminded them of Psalm 139, where the psalmist at first gets very excited about the fact that he and God are on the same side, saying, ‘Do I not hate those who hate you, O Lord? And do I not loathe those who rise up against you? I hate them with a perfect hatred; I count them my enemies.’ But then the psalmist seems to pause and take stock. Imagine him saying, ‘Oops!’ at this point. His mood changes: ‘Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my thoughts. See if there is any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting.’

It is not for us to assume we have the wisdom to say, ‘Dear God, please see it my way and do this or that.’ It is for us to align ourselves as closely as possible with God’s will, to abide with God, and to pray with deep humility. There is an old saying I will leave you with: ‘The one who walks with God always gets to his/her destination.’ So be it. Amen.