Quilts and Knitting Needles

John 17:1-11

A few years ago, when a friend of mine heard about some struggles I was having, she gifted me with this shawl. This isn’t just any shawl. It may look in construction like certain other knitted creations. I’m sure there may even be other shawls out there that look similar to this one. Perhaps there are scarves or small blankets knitted with the same kind of yarn from the same dye lot, with the same colors and patterns and texture. What sets this shawl apart is that it is a prayer shawl. With each stitch that went into the making of this shawl, came a prayer. The friend who made it knitted it in love, with thoughts and prayers constantly ascending, constantly floating heavenward, constantly encircling me as the yarn encircled the knitting needles. Those prayers connected us even as the yarn was knitted and purled in patterns of three, reflective of the Holy Trinity, row after row across the length of this shawl.

Many churches have prayer shawl ministries in which women and men lovingly and prayerfully knit together tangles of threads to form beautiful shawls or lap robes that are dedicated and blessed for the recipients. What I love about these ministries and about my shawl, is that long after the knitting needles have fallen silent, long after the last knot is tightened and the trailing yarns are woven into the finished shawl, the prayers and the thoughts that took place during their making continue to bless the recipient – in this case me – serving as a concrete, tangible manifestation of God’s care and the love of an individual or community who embody God’s healing grace for one in need. In the case of prayer shawl ministries, prayer shawls may be knitted, stitch after prayerful stitch, with the knitter never knowing who will receive the finished product or what that person’s particular need is. It doesn’t matter. God knows.

The gift of love contained in this shawl is reinforced visually. It is also tactile. It offers warmth. I feel wrapped in love when I drape the shawl across my shoulders. It serves as a reminder that I am not alone, that God cares for and accompanies me through each and every good day and bad day. It reassures me that healing comes in many forms, not the least of which, is compassionate prayer from another person for me – or from me for another person – or, as we see in today’s gospel, from Jesus – for all of us.

This is what we call intercessory prayer. Intercessory prayer reminds us that healing also comes through accompaniment – when we walk with another in and through prayer. Because prayer was at the core of all that is incorporated into the design and creation of this shawl, I know that faith in Jesus and trust in his care and healing were knit into it as well.

I have since moved a distance from my friend. Yet even though I don’t get to see her anymore, her love and care stay with me through this gift. Her heart and her prayers continue to warm me. Her faith in Jesus continues to give me strength whenever I see the tangled loops and threads of this shawl.

You are sitting in pews surrounded by quilts this morning, and in just a few moments we will bless and dedicate the quilts you see scattered throughout the nave. These quilts, like the shawl I have here, are created works of love. The fabric has been measured and cut, and sewn and assembled to make these beautiful quilts through the quilting ministry here at Grace. Distributed by Lutheran World Relief, these quilts will warm not only the bodies but also the hearts of those who receive them wherever in the world they go. They will remain tangible signs of God’s love and compassion for those who receive them. They will go with our prayers, held together by stitches of unifying grace. Through them, God’s comfort and protection will reach out and touch hearts.

Those who have contributed materials, those who have given of their resources, and the hands that made these quilts have worked together in a ministry of love and care, embodying God’s mercy and love and grace. They didn’t know who would receive these quilts. We don’t know the recipients’ stories. That’s okay. It doesn’t’ matter. God knows.

Prayer is powerful. As we enter into conversation with our Lord, we enter into the very presence of the divine. As we pray over these quilts and dedicate them to the use of God’s children, we remember that through this gift people see and experience Jesus. They may not even know Jesus. Yet they will experience him just the same.

In our text today, we read some of the last words Jesus spoke in the presence of his disciples. They are not spoken to his disciples. Rather, they are words that Jesus delivers as he is preparing to leave his disciples, words directed to God, perhaps with the intention of the disciples hearing them as well.  Jesus speaks these words, words of intercessory prayer, on behalf of his own beloved disciples – and us. They are words knit together as Jesus’ compassion wraps the disciples in the tender embrace of Jesus’ love.

Jesus often turns to prayer in the gospels. As in the scriptures of old, as with the fathers and mothers of our faith, as with the prophets and evangelists, as with the psalmists, as with kings and princes, blind men and sinners, prayer is the primary way to communicate with God. In our gospel text today, Jesus models once again what it means to be in constant conversation with God. Jesus shows us what it is to take to God with all his thoughts, concerns, joys, sorrows, needs, fears, and desires.

And you know, I think Jesus must have been Lutheran. Because as Martin Luther once said we should “sin boldly” always, Jesus prays boldly – and invites us to do the same. In this text Jesus boldly begins by first declaring and establishing for those within hearing, his unity with the father. Then he prays on behalf of his disciples. Jesus prays fervently on behalf of those he leaves behind for now. He prays for those who remain in the world.

We hear Jesus ask for protection on behalf “of the ones God gave him” and, in verse 20, on behalf of the ones who believe on their account—Jesus is praying and asking for us, on our behalf. Jesus is also praying and asking with us. Know always and forever, when we pray, we do not pray alone.  Even when we don’t pray, don’t know how to pray, to put into words what it is we need to pray for, Jesus is praying for us. Because, Jesus knows. Jesus always knows, even better than we, what to pray for on our behalf. I don’t know about you, but I think that’s a fairly powerful truth. To know that wherever we are, whatever we’re doing…whatever we are experiencing Jesus is there praying “Holy Father, protect them in your name”.

Each week in our announcements, we list the names of those we know to be in need of prayer, and we lift up many of those names in our worship. I know that many of you pray for one another regularly. Our intercessory prayers, the ones prayed for each other, for our country, and even for people you may not personally be acquainted with, unite us one with the other. United in this way, we are covered with God’s grace and care, to the glory of Jesus Christ.

Jesus is glorified when we come together in community to pray. Jesus is glorified when we turn to him in the dark of the night and pray. Jesus is glorified when we sit and silence and let the Holy Spirit wash over us in prayer. Jesus is glorified when we pray over yarns and threads and fabric, when those things are put together to make beautiful and warm and then serve to convey Jesus’ love and care for years to come. And just as the prayer shawl and these quilts are tangible witness to the love and prayers that went into their making long after the makers themselves have let them go, Jesus’ prayer in this text, stays with us.

May the Holy Spirit guide us as a community and as individuals, steeped in prayer through the grace and mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. May we be strengthened through this ministry of love, and in daily devotion to the one who was, who is, and who is to come. Amen.