The terrible attack on our land just a few days ago has had one tremendous positive result:
Unity
People are praying and singing together.
Sports Stadiums filled with singing and praying people. Congress sang "God Bless America on the steps of the Capitol Building. Children have been praying in school and so have teachers. Groups have come together virtually everywhere.
I heard one report of a group of guys who played soccer every day. They gathered a week following the Sept 11 attack and discovered that Bill was missing. They knew him but not his last name, so they prayed together on the soccer field for Bill, his family, our nation and one another.
Perhaps the most surprising has been the political unity. The party distinction between republican and democrat seems to have disappeared along with the labels of liberal and conservative. This kind of unity as good as it is - we know will not last forever.
It has come and gone before.
Our Parents remember Pearl Harbor and President Roosevelt proclaiming December 7th, 1941 as a day of infamy that will never be forgotten. We Baby Boomers remember the assassination of President Kennedy and the image of little John Kennedy, saluting, standing at attention, as the horse drawn caisson carrying his father’s body came down Pennsylvania Avenue.
Our children remember watching the television and being transfixed by the sight of two smoke trails curling away from a ball of fire the awful news that seven heroes of space who a few minutes ago were smiling on TV were… just gone.
We all remember Oklahoma City and Columbine…
Each of these tragedies has brought anguish and pain that has unified… for a time.
The greater the distress, the broader the sweep of the brush containing death the longer the effect.
But it still fades…
It might take years but the unity that the images surrounding four hijacked jets on a beautiful autumn day has brought to our nation will eventually wither and die away.
Jerry Springer and his like will be back on TV exploiting the differences between our many cultures.
The political ring will resemble a battle bots arena as each party and each label attempts to discredit one another with the same ferocity that mechanical robots attempt to disembowel one another.
The flags now waving will be stored in closets and attics and the National Anthem will be ignored in sports arenas while we anxiously wait for the main event to get started.
And the unity will be gone…
I want to tell you… No, that’s not strong enough! I have to proclaim to you that there is a different kind of unity that builds a different kind of community that does not fade, wither, or die away with the passing of time.
It is too is built on tragedy, but tragedy that has been turned to triumph.
There was a terrible cross and there is an empty tomb.
Jesus, God in a physical body like ours, put to death for no good reason by evil men and careless people opened up a way for all of us to rebuild a broken relationship with the Father God.
All who come to Jesus and follow him, who seek to learn his ways and honor him as their head, their king, the President of their life become part of a community that has a unity beyond comparison to any other unity on this earth.
This is the reason He came…
John 17:20-23
20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,
21 that all of them may be one, Father, just 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.
22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one:
23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Unity is the Goal. Jesus wants YOU to experience unity so you can know your Father God.
Vs. 20-21a
"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you…"
Everyone needs their father… I have friends whose father didn’t hug them or demonstrate his love and acceptance - and that’s all they hunger for.
I have seen men who play sports they hate and work at jobs they aren’t suited for because they think that this will bring them their father’s approval.
I have seen women who fall in love with all the wrong men because they are looking for the acceptance and love they never got from their dad.
Even children who are abused by their fathers will often do almost anything to seek their approval.
Listen if you have a father that was absent -physically or emotionally, abusive, demanding, or may just unable to tell you that he loved you - I have good news for you… Jesus wants you to experience unity with God so you can find your spiritual Father who loves and accepts you.
Jesus wants you to experience unity so THE WORLD will believe that Jesus is from God.
Vs. 21b
"May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.
Our unity also reflects what Christ came to do.
He came to bring reconciliation between God and man, by removing the cause of God’s wrath against us - our sin.
He also came to reconcile Jews and Gentiles, to break down the barriers between races, genders, and cultures. Black and white, Men and women - We are all one in Christ Jesus. Jesus wants you to experience unity so the world will know God’s love.
Vs. 22-23
"I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."
Good news like this is to never be kept a secret! In fact It’s impossible to keep a secret.
This kind of unity is something that draws people to it. Faith in Jesus is the glue. God is the creator of unity… We see it in the trinity.
The Greeks and Romans had a pantheon of gods, who were anything but unified. They fought, bickered, plotted against one another.
But our God is a unity - Father, Son, and Holy Spirit all in complete agreement, with a single will and purpose.
Our unity with one another reflects the unity within the three members of the Trinity. We see it in the marriage of two people… man and woman formed into one person.
We see it in the church… where the people of Jesus become one body and one family unified with God the Father.
We have some false ideas about this unity.
Unity is not found in doctrine, rules, and rituals. Unity is not found in organization, denominations, and structure. Unity is not found in a common vision for ministry, in a shared budget, or in personal devotion to a pastor.
Unity is found in your faith and trust in Jesus Christ as the President of your Life and the Sacrifice that paid for your rebellion and foolishness in rejecting God the Father.
The church is not a club, it’s a family and Jesus holds it together.
A man who was raised in a cult (A cult is a group that changes either the person of Jesus or the redemptive act of the cross) over a period of years gradually rejected the rules and works of religion. One day he cried out to a friend, "You’ve taken away everything I have depended on and believed in. All I have left is Jesus."
That is precisely the point. All we need is Jesus.
The Glory of God is the Gift.
In the OT the Glory of God is so great and wonderful.
The Glory of God was so great that a bush burned without being consumed in the flames and Moses took off his shoes to stand on ground made Holy by His presence.
After Moses went up on the same mountain where he received the 10 commandments, he had to wear a veil because his face shown so bright with the reflected glory of God.
When the people of Israel were wandering in the wilderness they were guided by the glory of God appearing at night as a pillar of fire and in the day as a cloud of smoke.
When David tried to move the Ark of the Covenant from the land of the Philistines and a man named Uzziah reached out to stead the ark on an ox cart he died because of the glory of God.
When Solomon built a new temple to replace the fraying tabernacle he prayed and the glory of God came upon the new Holy of Holies and dwelt there.
Today the glory of God is still great and wonderful.
But it is not in an wooden chest carried across desert wasteland by priests.
It’s not reflected in the face of a great leader.
It’s not even in the great cathedrals of the world.
Today the glory of God is in… me… and you… and you… and all of you who follow Jesus.
2 Corinthians 3:7-11
7 Now if the ministry that brought death, which was engraved in letters on stone, came with glory, so that the Israelites could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of its glory, fading though it was,
8 will not the ministry of the Spirit be even more glorious?
10 For what was glorious has no glory now in comparison with the surpassing glory.
11 And if what was fading away came with glory, how much greater is the glory of that which lasts!
What is unity?
Unity comes from focusing on God’s Glory.
Disorder comes from focusing on the minor stuff.
When the focus is on God - the issues of life fade away.
Tragedy and Glory have the same effect. Tragedy makes us look at life differently. Glory of God makes us look at life differently too with one important difference.
The Glory of God binds us together into a community of believers. We are the church of Jesus Christ.
