Easter 7A
Text: John 17:1-11
sermon by Rev. Robert Klonowski
Faith Lutheran Church, Homewood, IL
May 24, 2020
The Power of the Overheard Conversation
I have this great story in my life of an overheard conversation. This happened when I was a senior in high school, and to understand the power of what I overheard you need to know that between my father and me in those days there were, shall we say, the usual adolescent issues. One of them, of course, was my long hair. For those of you who were there in the late ‘60’s, early ‘70’s, let’s just put it the way we all heard it from Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young: I was lettin’ my freak flag fly.
My dad hated my hair. I mean, he really hated my hair. I mean, he hated my hair so much, that even the joy that came that year with a college scholarship I won from his company was mixed, because the article about the scholarship in the company newsletter was illustrated with my senior graduation picture, and there I was, with all my hair.
He came home from work that day and I could hear him in the kitchen, fulminating and fuming at my mother. “His graduation picture and he couldn’t get his hair cut? This is the picture he sent with the scholarship application? All day at work guys were coming up to me and saying, ‘Is that really your son? Cuz it looks like your daughter!’”
So what did you say to those guys?, my mom asked.
And my dad stopped yelling, got quiet for a moment, in that way that makes you know that what comes next is going to be the hard-to-hear, honest, unvarnished truth. And he said, “I told them … I don’t see your kid’s picture there.”
The power of the overheard conversation is such that I remember it, forty-five years later. At a time when it was hard to say to one another, I love you, or, I’m proud of you, that was the way we could say it. Sometimes overhearing it, is the only way you can hear it.
For the Gospel lesson this morning we get Jesus’ prayer, his conversation with God, just before he is taken to die. You probably remember the circumstances of this prayer in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke: Jesus goes off to a place alone in the garden to pray, and the disciples who go with him fall asleep.
But here in the Gospel of John Jesus prays to the Father, and he prays for his disciples, in the presence of the disciples. The disciples overhear, as Jesus prays for them.
I’m sure you’ve had someone pray for you, in front of you. For me those have sometimes been very powerful moments, that feeling of someone who loves me putting me (and whatever it is we’re praying for) over into the hands of God. There is something so powerful about conversation that is overheard, something that means it’s the absolute truth.
For us in our lives of faith, I think this means two things. One is to be praying for one another, in front of one another; let your people overhear you. We so often want to be private about prayer, off in the garden alone, but if you are praying for someone these days, I encourage you to pray not just for that someone, but with that someone. Break through that “prayer privacy” barrier. If you’ve ever had someone pray for you, in front of you, you know the power of overheard prayer. Well, then, you bring that power to others. Let them overhear your prayer.
This also means something for us in terms of evangelism, how we share our faith. So often we think of evangelism in terms of convincing someone else; what I want you to do is come believe with me, what I want you to do is join and help support my church institution.
What if evangelism, faith witness, is more like an overheard thing. People around you should be able to overhear your life, overhear your faith, overhear the language of your prayer, in a way that’s not convincing them of something you think they need to hear, but rather letting them hear of the thing – Christian faith – of which you are convinced. What if our faith conversation would be loud enough, for others to overhear?
When I was a teenager I wondered a lot what my dad thought of me. That overheard conversation in the kitchen that day told me the truth; fact was, he was very proud of me.
Same here in this overheard gospel lesson. We find out what Jesus really thinks of us. He prays for us: “Now they know that everything you have given me is from you. Sanctify them in the truth …. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them ….” What he really thinks of us, is that we can be trusted, with nothing less than responsibility for God’s mission in this world. “Sanctify them, for they are sent;” now you know what Jesus thinks of you.
Let this world, then, overhear our faith. Let people around you hear you, from time to time, speaking of your faith. Let them hear you praying; let them overhear. And finally, let your actions speak even louder than your words, that when people overhear the witness of your life, the power of what you do, they may know of God. That’s the power of overheard conversation.