Prayer for a New World
Prayer is not a concept that frequently captures the public imagination. Typically it is relegated to the a throw away line that we use end our conversations. We say things like “my thoughts and prayers go out to you” or “I’ll pray about” even though we know that we won’t.
In light of this culture I set out this week to find the public figure who seems to engaging the concept of prayer in a refreshing way. I wanted to discover who is talking about prayer, and being taken seriously by culture at large. I think that person is Chance the Rapper.
Chance the Rapper’s album Coloring Book, a work which lead the way to the three Grammys he won last year, talks about faith and prayer in engaging ways. So engaging in fact that seven million people streamed the album on Spotify this month. In short, he is talking about faith, and he is being listened to.
Our text this week is a prayer from Jesus, and it reveals the vision that Jesus had for us as his followers all these years later. This weeks text from John 17: 20-26
20 “My prayer is not for [the apostles] alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. 25 “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. 26 I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”
It my hope that the prayer of Jesus recaptures our imagination for what the world could be like, and that we, like Chance, could express our faith in creative ways.
We are called to be "one"
Unity is a testimony to the world
Jesus will have a continued presence
We will see you Wednesday!
