Good Friday Sermon

When I was in college, my friend Ellen and I used to stay up all night studying in the days leading up to our religion exams. First we would meet for coffee and catch up. Then we’d get working on our study sheets. Eventually the coffee shop would close, or get too crowded and we would have to find a new location—my apartment or a study room open late at the library. We would go through the study sheet and answer all the questions. Then we would quiz each other on the terms all night until the wee hours in the morning of course. I always had to take a nap in the morning to make it through the day. We planned these nights of studying too—it was always a couple days in advance of the exam so we could get a good night sleep the night before. And it worked. We got A’s on all of those exams.

It’s kind of like that with Jesus and his disciples on the night before he was killed—except they were praying, not studying. I wonder if they did that often—did Jesus take the disciples to the Garden of Gethsemane for all-nighters before? Or was it usually just during the day? The text says that Judas knew Jesus would be there because it was a place where Jesus spent a lot of time. What I find interesting about the story, is that they had just come from celebrating the Passover meal, followed by the partaking of bread and cup, which Jesus tells them will represent his body broken and blood shed for them. They have this conversation about one of them betraying Jesus at some point and others who will deny that they know Jesus. Then he takes Peter, James, and John to this familiar place so that he can pray. He asks them to keep watch, but they just keep falling asleep. They must be exhausted it was the middle of the night. And they don’t really seem to understand what is going on.

In my experience, it takes 3 things to pull an all-nighter.

1. Practice. Ellen and I were good at all-nighters because we did them regularly. You know we had to take naps early on, but as we were more practiced, it got easier. (Of course, we also had youth on our side.) When I was in seminary it was much harder to stay up all night studying. We have no idea what kind of practice the disciples had. I doubt much because the apparently were not good at it.

2. Community. Part of why seminary all-nighters were so difficult in is that I did them alone. Ellen and I encouraged each other to keep engaged and keep studying. We kept each other company. The disciples, of course, had each other—and most importantly Jesus waking them up every so often.

3. Motivation. Finally, we were motivated. We had an exam coming up and we needed to get that information into our little brains by any means necessary. We knew that if we studied hard, we would get better grades. Lots of motivation. This is what I think the disciples lacked because they were so confused from the night. They didn't understand 1. why Jesus was praying in the middle of the night or 2. why they needed to keep watch. To maintain a relationship with God it takes these three: practice, community, and motivation.

I think it’s the same way with prayer. You can’t just pray and feel a connection with God instantly, you have to practice. It takes time to build that relationship with God. And when you let that relationship go—it’s like any other relationship that you maintain or skill that you develop. You have to build it up again.

It also takes community. You know what the Bible says, "Where 2 or 3 are gathered, there I am in the midst of them." While it is good to pray alone—sometimes we need to pray together in community to experience the power of prayer. Right after seminary, I remember joining a group of women to pray for one of their family members. And I have prayed a good bit in my life, but the power of those 5 women holding hands in a circle felt as powerful as one of the General Assembly worship services with a congregation of thousands. I remember going home afterward and feeling completely amazed and touched by the experience. We experience this weekly at LAPC as we pray for loved ones.

Praying in community also holds us accountable to our practice. Whether it’s a small group of friends gathering daily or weekly to pray, or being sure to be in church for the morning prayer, community not only deepens our prayers, but reminds us to keep up our prayer life.

Finally it takes motivation for us to pray. It’s hard to be consistent in our prayer. Sometimes we don’t pray because life is so tough and we feel disconnected from God, like there is nothing that God can do to make it better. Or maybe we feel we don’t deserve God’s love and support. Perhaps it is that things are going so well that we forget our prayers of thanksgiving. Even if we pray every day, sometimes our prayers feel connected and strong, while at other times they may feel disconnected and difficult to sustain. Community helps us to stay consistent

One great thing about prayer is that we have a great example and inspiration in Jesus that we don’t have for all-nighters. Even that night before he died, he prayed to God asking that this cup pass from him, but continuing be open to following God’s will. We have the prayer that he taught us to pray. We read of him spending 40 days in the desert in prayer and resisting temptation.

But just like the disciples that night and early morning the next day, we will always fall short. There is no such thing as perfection for us human beings. We will betray God, or deny that we follow Jesus, or we might just fall asleep. But Jesus forgave the disciples, just as he forgives us.

The good news is that God always welcomes us back with open arms no matter what we’ve done, no matter how long it has been since we’ve been to church or even prayed. And we know this because of Sunday morning—that empty tomb means that the power of Jesus’ message of forgiveness and grace is stronger than anything—even death.

Amen.