THAT THEY MAY BE ONE (Memorial to Robb Elementary version)
Text : John 17:1 - 11
John 17:1-11 After Jesus had spoken these words, he looked up to heaven and said, "Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son so that the Son may glorify you, (2) since you have given him authority over all people, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him. (3) And this is eternal life, that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent. (4) I glorified you on earth by finishing the work that you gave me to do. (5) So now, Father, glorify me in your own presence with the glory that I had in your presence before the world existed. (6) "I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word. (7) Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; (8) for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. (9) I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. (10) All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. (11) And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one (NRSV).
Jesus called His disciples (then and now), cleansed them with His word (John 15:3) and prayed over them before He sent them into the world to do greater things (John 14:12). Jesus asked God Father to protect them (and us) and keep them united to Him in much the same way that a branches are connected to a life-giving vine because apart from Jesus who is the vine we can do nothing that will bear fruit (John 15:5). This did not mean that they would not face hard times.
Today, we face hard times when we see evil do its worst. Not a day goes by when we don’t hear about greed, corruption, crime, dishonesty, shootings and other acts of violence and war.
Jesus also gave us the Holy Spirit who regenerates us in our baptism, unites us in the Body of Christ and animates us through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. Jesus was finishing the work that God sent Him to do before they nailed Him to the cross when He prayed this prayer! If there was ever a time in our world need the answer to that prayer to be one as God the Father and Jesus the Son are one it is now! We hurt with those who hurt and for those who have experienced a horrible tragedy like this school shooting. So how does that prayer get answered through His disciples today until Jesus comes back?
We need unity! We need peace! We need perseverance!
UNITY
Why is unity so important to the Church---- Body of Christ? Christian unity according to God’s design does not happen by default. Our unity is about our staying connected to our Creator and each other.
1) Rebellion: Adam and Eve rebelled when they sinned in the Garden of Eden and they were banished from the Garden of Eden for their own good (Genesis 3:23). “ Their misdeed resulted in spiritual death and hence the loss of the life and image of God. … Their misdeed also showed a determination not to seek happiness in God but in the world in the works of His hands. … God banished them into the place of toil and not the place of torment which was an act of mercy”. (Kernneth J. Collins. And Robert Wall. eds. Wesley One Volume Commentary. [quoted and paraphrased] Bill T. Arnold. “Genesis”. Nashville, Abingdon Press, 2020, p. 7 -8).
2) Restoration: Through Jesus Christ the Word made flesh we have been restored because of the price that Jesus paid for us on the Cross.
If we allow others to divide us, then do we not allow them to destroy us? Don’t we need unity now more than ever? Doesn’t division among Christians weaken and destroy our witness? As someone (Tommy Tenney) once said, “If God has a bad reputation in the world today, it is our fault”. (Tommy Tenney. God’s Dream Team. Ventura, California: Regal Books, 199, p. 39). That stings when t is true.
PEACE
How does our unity effect our peace?
Isn’t that the problem we face right now? That problem being that we don’t have peace because our county has moved away from God?! How many praise evil and call it good and condemn good calling it evil (Isaiah 5:20)? Jeremiah 6 :14 and 8:11 both say They have healed the wound of my people lightly, saying, ‘Peace, peace,’ when there is no peace (ESV). How many say “peace, peace” when that peace is light and inadequate?
Jesus once said, Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid (John 14:27). The reason that the world’s version of peace will never work is because it falls short of the way, the truth and the life (John 14:6) and it misses the mark of loving one another as Christ loves us!
How does our fellowship impact our peace?
As humans we can come up with all kinds of ways to enhance our fellowship. However, unless we are not putting God first, then we fall short of being the nation that God has called us to be! So how can we get things into their proper perspective? Consider the best answer of all time that is found in scripture: “If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land” (2 Chronicles 7:14 ESV).
Incidentally, Billy Graham recommended that Dwight D. Eisenhower place his hand on that verse when taking the oath for office of the presidency when he was being inaugurated! (Alan Sears and Craig Osteen with Ryan Cole. The Soul of an American President. Grand Rapids, Baker Book House, 2019, p. 130). That was before there were two terrible decisions that took us away from God, when the SCOTUS passed Roe versus Wade and when they took prayer out of of schools.
PERSEVERANCE
How well do we handle adversity? Can we always handle things by ourselves? Of course not. God did not intend for us to be Lone Rangers!
Aren’t we all blood relatives in the Body of Christ because of His sacrificial love? It is the blood of Christ that makes us all family, because we all have been washed clean of our sinfulness by His blood!
What is the greatest strength to perseverance in the Body of Christ? How many of you answered, “Love”. Aren’t we supposed to be known as Christ’s disciples because of our love? Jesus who laid down His life for us said, “Greater love has no man than he lay down his life for his friends” (John 10:10 & John 15:13). God used the cross to conquer evil because because Jesus, God’s only begotten Son sacrificially laid down His life for us out of the depth of His love to conquer, sin, death and the fear of death.
In his book The Wisdom of Faith, the late Bobby Bowden tells us of the sacrificial love of a WWII Medal of Honor recipient. “In WWII Jack Lucas was ducking bullets with his buddies on the front line of Iwo Jima when a couple of grenades landed in their foxhole. There wasn’t time to pick them up and throw them out. Lucas quickly pushed the two grenades together put his helmet on top of them as he curled over the helmet. If he couldn’t live, at least his buddies might. Seconds later the grenades exploded. His buddies survived the blast. Miraculously, Lucas did, too, though he spent the rest of his life with over two hundred shell fragments in his body”. (Bobby Bowden. The Wisdom of Faith. Nashville, Tennessee: B & H Publishing Company, 2014, pp. 34 -35). Evil didn’t win that day!
A rural school. An overcast day. Mrs. Welch arrived early to work driving, her husband’s truck. There has been a lot of rain lately, she almost didn’t get here this morning. Her clay road washed out.
Mrs. Welch parked and stared at the brick building in the distance where she’s been teaching for 14 years. She tried to imagine what teachers in Uvalde, Texas, must have been feeling when their sanctuary was invaded by a lone gunman yesterday. A gunman who killed 19 students and two teachers.
She trotted across the parking lot toward the school, carrying a bulky cardboard box beneath her arm.
Her principal unlocked the door and buzzed her in.
“You found them?” the principal said.
“Yes,” said Mrs. Welch. “I found them.”
Last night at 9:30 p.m., Mrs. Welch had an idea for her school. So she got in her car and drove to her church while still in her PJs. She has a key to her church. Women like Mrs. Welch always have the key to the church.
She dug through the church shed for a box of candles her church used for the Christmas Eve service last year. The candles have flimsy paper guards. The church has septillions of them.
When she walked into the school gym, the school staff had already gathered and was waiting. There was a somber mood hanging over them like a damp towel. These are people who have dedicated their lives to education. Yesterday, in Uvalde County, the sanctity of that hallowed calling was attacked.
The students started arriving. Kids were guided into the gymnasium and asked to remain silent out of respect for the 21 victims of Robb Elementary School. As children filled the bleachers, they were given candles.
Thus it was, that 232 students, first-, second-, third- and fourth-graders, entered the gymnasium and kept surprisingly quiet. These are 232 kids who are never quiet. Not even in their sleep.
“It just shows you what an impact this tragedy has had,” said Mrs. Welch.
The sounds of rustling feet died down when Mrs. Welch took the stage. The same stage where the school holds its spelling bee.
“Can I have everyone’s attention?” said Mrs. Welch, speaking into the microphone.
Everyone got quiet. The staff members lined the cinderblock walls.
“Raise your hands,” Mrs. Welch began, “if you know what happened yesterday in Texas.”
Two hundred and thirty-two hands raised.
“Raise your hands if you would like to pray for the families of the people who died in the shooting.”
Two hundred and thirty-two hands raised.
Soon, representatives from each class were selected by their respective teachers to pray publicly. After several spokeskids from each class were chosen, Mrs. Welch gathered the children onstage.
The lights went off.
Candles were lit. Each candle represented the prayer of a child. Children took turns at the microphone. Here is what they said:
“God,” said a first grader. “Please, um, help all the kids who saw the bad things happen, but they didn’t die, and now they’re really scared.”
“I pray,” said a girl whose copper hair was in braids, “that you please make all the moms and dads to be comforted… Well… I mean… Just help them.”
A boy in a Nike shirt took the mic. “God, make everyone just quit hurting each other, and be, like, friends with each other… Please don’t let people kill, just make us all stop the fighting and killing.”
The school’s SRO officer, a former military man, pinched his nose and began to cry.
A blond girl who was missing her two front teeth said, “Can you make everyone love each other, God, ‘specially the kids?”
A girl with midnight skin spoke. “Thank you for the teachers who died yesterday, who loved their kids so much, God. Thank you for our teachers, God.”
After all prayers finished, Mrs. Welch was about to end the communal prayer when a first-grader asked if he could speak. She almost told him to go sit back down. But she couldn’t. The boy wore thick glasses and his little shirt was tucked into his blue jeans. He held the mic with both hands.
“Jesus, please forgive the man who shot everyone.”
And 232 of God’s children said amen.
True or not, this story is traveling through the internet on Facebook. In President Ike Eisenhower’s world it would have been true! In this story, we see unity, we see peace and we see a spirit perseverance through love. We persevere when we overcome evil with good when our love is sincere (Romans 12:9 & 21 paraphrased). We see how this prayer is getting answered today.
In the Name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit. AMEN.
