May 29, 2022
Hope Lutheran Church
Rev. Mary Erickson
John 17:20-26
A Prayer for Unity
Friends, may grace and peace be yours in abundance in the knowledge of God and Christ Jesus our Lord.
“I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one.”
Every year on this seventh Sunday of Easter, we read a portion of Jesus’ prayer from John 17. Just before his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus prays for his church. It’s a perfect Sunday for this because last week Thursday marked Ascension Day. Following his resurrection from the dead, Jesus walked among his disciples for 40 days. So there was a gap between when Jesus ascended into heaven and the day of Pentecost when the Holy Spirit descended upon the young church. This Sunday, the 7th Sunday of Easter, falls in that “gap week.”
So it’s appropriate on this day to hear Jesus’ prayer for his friends whom he will soon leave.
Jesus prays for his new church to be one. He prays this prayer on the evening just before he will be arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane. Jesus knows that everything is about to change. The day to day fellowship he enjoys with his disciples will very shortly come to an end. He’s about to face the culmination of his mission and ministry: his death on the cross.
It will be the moment of his agony, but it will also be his highest revelation of the Father’s love. Only on the cross can he perfectly manifest the divine will and compassionate grace. The cross will be the epitome of Jesus’ revelation of God. His crucifixion is where he will most clearly reflect the unquenchable love of the heavenly Father.
This perfect oneness between Jesus and the Father: this is what he desires for his followers, his church. “I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one.”
When we look at the Christian church on earth, we seem far from one. We’re fractured and divided. Our many denominations are suspicious of each another. Sometimes we even question one another’s faith, if “they” are really Christians. We judge one another in regards to orthodoxy, for piety, for biblical purity, on whom we admit into our fellowship and on whom we exclude.
The Christian church is so very broad and diverse. We sing different hymns, we adorn our sanctuaries differently, we baptize with varying amounts of water. Are you still praying for us, Jesus?
“I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one.”
We can talk a very fine line about Christian unity. It’s one thing to talk about it; it’s a very different thing to live it. Even within the Lutheran home, we have a track record of fracturing whenever we come together:
• In 1988, when three Lutheran bodies came together to form the ELCA, there were congregations that either left or split apart over the merger.
• Then in 2000 the ELCA entered into full pulpit and altar fellowship with the Episcopal church. Lutheran pastors could serve in Episcopal congregations and vice versa. It helped tremendously to provide clergy coverage for small parishes in remote areas. But once again, this coming together in the name of Christ caused division and separation. There was fracturing.
So we Lutherans are very good at dividing whenever we come together.
“I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one.”
Frequently when we talk about unity, what we really mean is, “I want us to be one. I want you to become just like me. Adopt our ways, our beliefs. If you all would just become like us, then we could all be one.”
But unity doesn’t mean uniformity. St. Paul spoke of the human body. It’s one body comprised of many parts. You need all of the diverse parts for the body to function as a unified whole. It’s our diversity that allows us to fulfill our purpose.
Consider a basketball team. Each team consists of five separate players. They function in five different positions, but they work together as one unit. They are five players, each one highly capable. But when you watch a team that’s really got it going on, it’s like they’re of one mind. They feed the ball to each other; they make blocks so that someone else can shoot. They move and weave and act as one.
What happens is they all have a common purpose. They have a singular aim: to outscore the other team. To do that, each one of them has to let go of their individual egos. They have to make sacrifices so that their teammates can flourish.
If you’ve ever been on a team or part of an organization where all the parts are humming, it’s a really incredible experience. You really do become one! You become part of something bigger than yourself. On a sports team, as part of a choir or a band, on a volunteer crew, at your job as part of a work team. Or maybe you’ve felt it here at church, when we’re all singing a beloved hymn or during communion or the sharing of the peace.
“I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one.”
My great, great grandfather, C J Albrecht, was a Wisconsin Synod minister at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, MN. While there, he also founded Dr. Martin Luther College in New Ulm.
My grandfather told me a story about his grandfather. In those early days, New Ulm was extremely German! Basically, everyone there spoke German. There were only two brands of Christians in New Ulm: the Lutherans and the Catholics. This was in horse and buggy days. It was before there were telephones. So life was lived in a much smaller circle.
With no other clergy readily available, my great, great grandfather and the Catholic priest in New Ulm met together on the first Tuesday afternoon of every month. The two men of the cloth enjoyed being able to converse with another clergy person. The topics of their conversation varied and covered many things. They shared the struggles each of their congregations were facing. They spoke of local and current events. They discussed who was ailing and who was dying.
Well, at one of these monthly meetings, one of the two gentlemen mentioned that their parish was considering the purchase of some bells for their church tower. “No kidding,” said the other man, “so are we! Tell me, where are you thinking of getting your bells?”
“Well, we were thinking that we’d order the bells from Ulm, Germany.” “No kidding,” said the other man, “So are we!” And so between the two clergymen, it was decided that a total of 16 bells would be purchased – 8 for the Catholic church and 8 for the Lutheran church. Each bell would peal its own distinct note, but together they would ring in harmony with one another.
It’s really amazing to me what these two men achieved and the time in which they did it. This was WAY before Vatican II and there was a very clear line of demarcation between Protestant and Catholic. And yet, perhaps fueled partly by their isolation, these two clergymen of different stripes came together.
The image of these pealing church bells has been a very powerful image for me of what unity in Christ is supposed to be about. Each bell peals its own distinct note. No one forces the note to be anything other than what it is. But as all of the bells ring together, the full richness and depth and harmony of their combined reverberations increase the glory to God.
Isn’t that our purpose as the church of Jesus Christ?
“I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one.”
The Methodist evangelist E. Stanley Jones once said, “Talk about WHAT you believe and you have disunity. Talk about WHO you believe in and you have unity.” Our Christian unity is grounded in Christ. As Christ is one with the Father, and as Christ is in us, that is when we become completely one.
Our unity is in Christ. Together we are members of the Body of Christ. It’s in acting on Christ’s behalf that we become one in him and with the Father. As we take up our own cross we reflect the light of Christ, the love of Christ, the peace of Christ. It’s in that living, in that acting in union with Christ that we become one with another.
St. Teresa of Avila reminds us: “Christ has no body now on earth but yours, no hands but yours, no feet but yours. Yours are the eyes through which the compassion of Christ is to look out on a hurting world. Yours are the feet with which he is to go about doing good. Yours are the hands with which he is to bless now.”
Together we are the body of Christ. May Christ’s prayer for Christian unity be fulfilled in us.
