John 17:20-26 (New Life Version)
“I do not pray for these followers only. I pray for those who will put their trust in Me through the teaching they have heard. May they all be as one, Father, as You are in Me and I am in You. May they belong to Us. Then the world will believe that You sent Me. I gave them the honor You gave Me that they may be one as We are One. I am in them and You are in Me so they may be one and be made perfect. Then the world may know that You sent Me and that You love them as You love Me.
“Father, I want My followers You gave Me to be with Me where I am. Then they may see My shining-greatness which You gave Me because You loved Me before the world was made. Holy Father, the world has not known You. I have known You. These have known You sent Me. I have made Your name known to them and will make it known. So then the love You have for Me may be in them and I may be in them.”
“MAY THEY ALL BE AS ONE”
A couple of weeks ago we heard the story of St. Peter’s vision of the sheet being lowered before him – a sheet filled with animals of all sorts, clean and unclean – and a voice, saying “Take, Peter, and eat.” As we looked into that reading we found that, in the symbolic language of scripture, it was telling us that Jesus’ message of invitation was meant for everyone – Gentile and Jew – no one was to be excluded as unworthy or unclean.
The week before that, on Earth Day Sunday, we were reminded that “the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,” and that when God reached the sixth day of creation he pronounced it ALL to be “very good.”
And now today, we have Jesus’ impassioned prayer that “they may all be as one.” The one-ness -- unity – it would appear – has been God’s plan for us all the way from the first moments of creation, through the last moments of Jesus’ teaching among us. May they all be as one, Father, as You are in Me and I am in You. Earlier in the 13th chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus tells us: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
This became one of the primary teachings of the emerging Christian faith and the letters of the New Testament are filled with exhortations to be as one in Jesus’ name, such as this, from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians:
A couple of weeks ago we heard the story of St. Peter’s vision of the sheet being lowered before him – a sheet filled with animals of all sorts, clean and unclean – and a voice, saying “Take, Peter, and eat.” As we looked into that reading we found that, in the symbolic language of scripture, it was telling us that Jesus’ message of invitation was meant for everyone – Gentile and Jew – no one was to be excluded as unworthy or unclean.
The week before that, on Earth Day Sunday, we were reminded that “the earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it,” and that when God reached the sixth day of creation he pronounced it ALL to be “very good.”
And now today, we have Jesus’ impassioned prayer that “they may all be as one.” The one-ness -- unity – it would appear – has been God’s plan for us all the way from the first moments of creation, through the last moments of Jesus’ teaching among us. May they all be as one, Father, as You are in Me and I am in You. Earlier in the 13th chapter of John’s gospel, Jesus tells us: A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
This became one of the primary teachings of the emerging Christian faith and the letters of the New Testament are filled with exhortations to be as one in Jesus’ name, such as this, from St. Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians:
Now I beg you, brothers, through the name of our Lord, Jesus Christ, that you all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be perfected together in the same mind and in the same judgment. For it has been reported to me concerning you, my brothers, by those who are from Chloe's household, that there are contentions among you. Now I mean this, that each one of you says, "I follow Paul," "I follow Apollos," "I follow Cephas," and, "I follow Christ." Is Christ divided? Was Paul crucified for you? Or were you baptized into the name of Paul?
We could go on all day finding New Testament references to the call to unity – but I won’t – you get the idea. This is what Jesus asks of us: Love one another as I have loved you; This is what he prays for: that they (we) may be one.
Jesus doesn’t just want this in some strange “Can’t we all just get along and hold hands and sing Kumbyah?” request. Our unity is to be the ultimate witness to the world. Through our unity, the whole of creation will see God’s truth, God’s reality: I am in them and You are in Me so they may be one and be made perfect. Then the world may know that You sent Me and that You love them as You love Me.....I have made Your name known to them and will make it known. So then the love You have for Me may be in them and I may be in them.
This is what God wants. This is what God has always wanted for this world, created in such love and beauty. This is how it was always supposed to be from those very first moments when God looked and proclaimed it all very good. (Even though we managed to screw that one up in no time at all.)
This is what the prophets came to tell us. This is why Jesus came to live among us. This is why early missionaries spread Jesus’ message over all the earth – all that we may one day be in that moment when God is truly all in all throughout the earth. And the only way we ever get there is to get there together.
So why is this so hard for us to manage? Why do we just not seem to get it? It seems, especially lately, that instead of recognizing our one-ness, we just go on finding more and more ways to divide ourselves – more and more way to see ourselves as somehow ‘better than,’ ‘other-than’, ‘superior to’ someone else. Forget Republican/Democrat, black/white, gay/straight, right/wrong, smart/dumb, man/woman, liberal/conservative, Christian/Muslim/Atheist – those of us who claim to be Christians can’t even manage to just be Christian - oh, no, we have to have names to show how different we are from other Christians - how much smarter we are than all the others – we have to be liberal-Christian, Evangelical-Christian, Bible-believing-Christian, Southern Baptist-Christian, Lutheran-Christian, Catholic-Christian, even Post-Christian-Christian - and on and on and on ..... and every one of those groups believes they are somehow more right than any of the others.
Sometimes our scriptural reading requires some unpacking – like Peter’s Vision. That one required some historical setting, some cultural context to make sense. We had to know how things had been before we could understand the magnitude of the change of view-point that God was demanding from Peter and the other early believers.
But that’s not the case with today’s reading. All that is required here is that we simply LISTEN to what Jesus is saying. I pray for those who will put their trust in Me through the teaching they have heard. May they all be as one, Father, as You are in Me and I am in You. May they belong to Us.....I want My followers You gave Me to be with Me where I am.....Holy Father, the world has not known You. I have known You. These have known You sent Me. I have made Your name known to them and will make it known.
That’s what Jesus wants from us and for us: that the love You have for Me may be in them and I may be in them. It’s really pretty simple. Just listen to Jesus.
Make us one, Lord, please – in spite of ourselves. Amen.
Jesus doesn’t just want this in some strange “Can’t we all just get along and hold hands and sing Kumbyah?” request. Our unity is to be the ultimate witness to the world. Through our unity, the whole of creation will see God’s truth, God’s reality: I am in them and You are in Me so they may be one and be made perfect. Then the world may know that You sent Me and that You love them as You love Me.....I have made Your name known to them and will make it known. So then the love You have for Me may be in them and I may be in them.
This is what God wants. This is what God has always wanted for this world, created in such love and beauty. This is how it was always supposed to be from those very first moments when God looked and proclaimed it all very good. (Even though we managed to screw that one up in no time at all.)
This is what the prophets came to tell us. This is why Jesus came to live among us. This is why early missionaries spread Jesus’ message over all the earth – all that we may one day be in that moment when God is truly all in all throughout the earth. And the only way we ever get there is to get there together.
So why is this so hard for us to manage? Why do we just not seem to get it? It seems, especially lately, that instead of recognizing our one-ness, we just go on finding more and more ways to divide ourselves – more and more way to see ourselves as somehow ‘better than,’ ‘other-than’, ‘superior to’ someone else. Forget Republican/Democrat, black/white, gay/straight, right/wrong, smart/dumb, man/woman, liberal/conservative, Christian/Muslim/Atheist – those of us who claim to be Christians can’t even manage to just be Christian - oh, no, we have to have names to show how different we are from other Christians - how much smarter we are than all the others – we have to be liberal-Christian, Evangelical-Christian, Bible-believing-Christian, Southern Baptist-Christian, Lutheran-Christian, Catholic-Christian, even Post-Christian-Christian - and on and on and on ..... and every one of those groups believes they are somehow more right than any of the others.
Sometimes our scriptural reading requires some unpacking – like Peter’s Vision. That one required some historical setting, some cultural context to make sense. We had to know how things had been before we could understand the magnitude of the change of view-point that God was demanding from Peter and the other early believers.
But that’s not the case with today’s reading. All that is required here is that we simply LISTEN to what Jesus is saying. I pray for those who will put their trust in Me through the teaching they have heard. May they all be as one, Father, as You are in Me and I am in You. May they belong to Us.....I want My followers You gave Me to be with Me where I am.....Holy Father, the world has not known You. I have known You. These have known You sent Me. I have made Your name known to them and will make it known.
That’s what Jesus wants from us and for us: that the love You have for Me may be in them and I may be in them. It’s really pretty simple. Just listen to Jesus.
Make us one, Lord, please – in spite of ourselves. Amen.
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