Acts 16:16-34
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17,20-21 (Series C. 7th Sunday in Easter) Ps. 97
John 17:20-26
Loving God, as you opened the tomb and raised Jesus to new life, so open our hearts and minds by the power of your Holy Spirit that as your Word is proclaimed, we may hear with joy what you say to us today, and in confidence go forth to live what you show us. We ask it in Jesus' name. Amen.
A true story.... During the Depression, a man living in the Appalachian area went to Knoxville for the first time to transact some business. While there he saw a refrigerator that made ice. Since it was summertime, he thought it was a miracle of God. When he returned to his home town in the mountains, his church was in the midst of a revival worship service. He arrived to the service during the time when people were giving testimonies.
He told of the miracle of seeing ice made in the midst of the summer. Well, a dispute broke out. Many claimed that there was not such thing. Others wanted to believe him. It resulted in a schism within the church. Many left the church to form a new church. It's name, to this very day, is "No Ice in The Summer Southern Baptist Church."
There are a lot of places in the scriptures where Jesus makes promises to those who believe in him. But the passage that was read from the gospel of John is the only section of the gospels where Jesus specifically refers to us, current believers. Jesus did many things, but only prayed once for those who would believe because of the word of the disciples.
And his prayer was that we would all be one, and that we would be in God - in Christ - in the Spirit so that the world may believe that God the Father - has sent Jesus in to the world.
There is much more to the prayer of Jesus for us as well: Jesus prays that the love of God the Father for him may be in us – and that he himself may be in us, and that we may see his glory - the glory given to him by God the Father, but the prayer of Jesus for us is, at it's core, a prayer that we might be one as God as one, that "It is you and I, and all who follow him, "May be one."
There is a profound outward focus to this prayer; a focus upon how we can and should impact the world because of our faith. And there is a profound desire within that outward focus that we have the fullness of God within us.
Indeed that which is outward must arise from that which is inward. Our unity - that unity which can convince the world that Jesus is the one sent by God, arises out of the unity of the Father and the Son; a unity that Christ prays we might dwell in and that which might dwell in us.
It is deep and very spiritual stuff this dynamic of outward and inward this dynamic of diversity and unity this dynamic of corporate witness and of personal experience. What is unity? And do we have it? Do we convince others by our behaviour - one to another and all to one - that Christ is in us?
There are many ways to envision unity. For some people, unity means "sameness." John Henry Fabre, a French naturalist did an experiment with some Processionary Caterpillars. These poor little beasties will follow the next caterpillar ahead of them, no matter where that caterpillar happens to be going.
Fabre arranged a bunch of his fuzzy friends in a neat circle, each one touching the one just ahead. Faithful to their DNA, each one followed the next one. In the middle of the circle Fabre put some of the caterpillars' favourite food. Would they stop following, even for a moment, just for a bite of lunch? Not on your life. The food was there within inches, but they just kept on following each other in circles until they collapsed and died from hunger.
Sameness can lead to problems. The kind of unity that Jesus prays that we may have is not based on us thinking and doing the same things, but on having within us the unity of God, the character of God, a unity that has to it a present glory and a purpose:
- the glory of Christ who gave himself for us
- and the purpose of God who gave himself in Christ to us.
"As you, Father", Jesus prayed, "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." That the world may believe.
One of my old seminary professors told the story of when he was pastor in a small church they had a major fight over wood piles. This church had a wood stove in the centre of the sanctuary that heated the building. Two groups that didn't get along with each other took turns stoking the fire and keeping it lit.
However, one group claimed that they were working harder than the other group to provide the wood. As a result, both groups provided the wood but in separate piles. One child while reading the scripture one Sunday used his own version of the well know text from Ephesians, chapter four, verse five:
"One faith, one Lord, one baptism, and two wood piles." And it seems appropriate, because it seems that their one God and Father of all was their own view of themselves - as made manifest in the wood piles that they created.
As you, Father, are in me", Jesus prayed, "and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that world may believe you have sent me." Another point that I would like to raise is "letting go and letting God in" as this pertains to change in our midst.
It is in letting go and letting God in – that we see - where love is given space to grow - where the unity that Christ speaks of arises within us where our witness becomes one of power - one of light - for it is no longer simply us - as individuals - or as a group - that makes witness - but it is God himself working through us. It is not about us, but God.
God is moving and doing things new things around the world. I want you all to get hold of that today - and to rejoice and delight in it, and I want us to think about just what it is that God is doing in and through us this these last few months, these last few years.
I don't want you folk here today to take the topic of today's sermon amiss, the topic of unity and of witness, and to end up thinking that things are going badly here, that God's glory is not been served, that no unity exists among us, that we have two woodpiles being assembled around our wood stove, Because that is far from true.
One of the things that struck me from the beginning about this church when I first arrived here nine years ago, is the very real warmth, the very real love, love for even me and love for the strangers who come to the door of this Sanctuary.
But more, there is a willingness here to look beyond denominational barriers, a willingness that extends beyond our traditional "openness" as part of being a Lutheran, which is an openness of heart and mind.
To an openness of Spirit that sees a vision of all our brothers and sisters working together, in prayer and in activities, in worship and in service, to shed light upon this community. In other words I am suggesting to you today, as I unfold this word of God to you, and speak of our unity and witness - a unity that the world may believe as Jesus prayed.
Now I know that you all can think of hurts and of pains that have been done in our midst, of efforts not appreciated, and persons not remembered when perhaps they ought to have been, but I want to think past that to what else has been going on, to what has been growing ever larger in our midst, which is the good stuff - the fruit of the Spirit that Paul speaks of in Galatians 5, verse 22 love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control Think on the lives that are being touched for good and not for ill. "The glory that you have given me", Jesus prayed, "I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one. I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."
Think of the verb tenses in this prayer. The glory that you given me, I Have Given them. So that the world may know that you Have sent me and Have Loved them.
These verb tenses describe a reality that is already with us. A reality that Jesus prayer may become even more real, when he asks the Father that we may be one.
What is this glory that Jesus has given us that the father first gave him? The great biblical scholar, William Barclay lists three ways Jesus has glory:
1) his cross: suffered in love for the sake of others
2) his perfect obedience to the will of God: out of love for the Father, and
3) his special relationship with God: that people could see God when they saw him,
and hear God when they heard him.
Jesus gives those who believe in him this glory - his glory - the glory of the Father. As we turn to God and live in him, God lives in us his obedience becomes our obedience his cross - his burden - becomes our burden, and his ability to reflect and show God to others, becomes ours as well. As we turn to him and live in him:
Think of the prayer that Jesus prayed, my friends, read it over when you go home, mediate on it not just the promises, but his focus on the world. Make them one, that the world may believe that you have sent me.
What we do here at St. Ansgar's
as we do these things together, each as God has called, each in the way that Christ has showed us, they make a difference in our community.
The more together we are, the more united in Christ we are,
the more who will believe in him,
the more who will be healed by him,
the more who will become one with him, and God with them. We are the testimony to the truth of what we proclaim. Continue to strive to be true to that truth that our witness may shine forth as a light - house to those who so need light in their lives.
This is what I have learned over the years from the diversity of the Christian Church. Even though it is not God’s intension in the beginning to have so many different denominations in the world, but God is still God and his eternal and unfailing purpose is …. “That all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the call according to his purpose.”
With our answer to Jesus’ prayer, the great Church will be marked by the dignity and the scholarship of the Anglicans, the order and sacraments of Roman Catholics, the warm fellowship of the Methodist, the Presbyterian desire for good preaching, the Lutheran respect for sound theology.
There will be the Baptist concern for individual salvation, the Congregational respect for the right of lay members, the Pentecostal reliance on the Holy Spirit, and the Quaker appreciation for silence.
We will find the Mennonite sense of community, the social action of the Salvation Army, the social justice of the United Church, and the Reformed love of the Bible, all wrapped in the Orthodox reverence before the Mystery of God.
God will use us if we but let him. Christ has prayed that it might be so. And his word is not an empty word for those who take it into their hearts and then share it by word and deed with the hearts of others.
Amen.
Rev. Samuel King-Kabu
May 20, 2007