"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they many all be one.  As you, Father, 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."  John 17.20-21

Prayer. Unity. Invitation. Obedience. Glory. Death. Resurrection. These are the thoughts that flutter around as I consider these  final moments of wisdom imparted from Jesus to those who sit at table for their last meal together.

Jesus' time with the disciples is coming to a close.  The meal is soon over; the long discourse and overheard prayer complete.  Unlike that meal of bread, fish, wine and herbs, this final overheard prayer is rich and dense.  Just before Jesus steps out into the great abyss that awaits, he allows us a glimpse of his inner conversation with the Divine Father, giving us words to hold before our lives as we stumble forward in the coming gift of resurrection life.

Pray my beloved friends.  Pray that you may be one. Why? Because you need each other: each other's strength, each other's gifts, each other's doubts, each other's need for healing, each other's hunger. Pray that every one finds their seat at the table where our Lord is both the host and the meal that gives sustenance.  Left on your own, too many will be excluded; too many seats will go empty; we are not whole when even one is missing, so, pray my friends.

Pray that the Divine Will be manifest in this place, among these people, at this very moment, wherever you are. Daily bread. Justice. Peace. Healing. Forgiveness. Shalom. Nothing less will suffice because anything less is not the Kingdom of God. Pray, because the path to the kingdom requires some dying.

Pray that the life revealed on Easter morn becomes your life blood, and that of your community, and that of your nation, and then of God's whole creation. When Empire crushes you and disease breaks you and evil rears its ugly head, pray.

Remember that this night, most especially this night, just before it all happened, Jesus prayed that all would become one. Just before Jesus broke through the final barrier, he handed us this parting gift, this parting command. Pray.

It's a radical thing, this praying, because we are talking to the one who in the beginning created all beginnings and in the end, holds all things in Divine care.  In obedience to our Lord's command, for the sake of the whole world, and to be made whole in yourself, pray.