7th Sunday of Easter

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​“Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they
may be one, as we are one.”

In the Gospel of John, we hear Jesus’ prayer:
The prayer that he prayed the night before he died.
Kind of an interesting reading to hear on this seventh Sunday of Easter.
But then again: There’s a reason for that:
Because it brings us full circle.

On the night before he was arrested:
Jesus prayed a prayer for his disciples:
A prayer for everyone who would believe in him:
A prayer for us:
A prayer for the world.

To be one:
Just as Jesus and the Father are one.

To be one.
To be one with all people.
To put aside our differences:
To be in loving community:

To end the fighting:
To end all wars:
To be one.

This is a big prayer.
An astonishing prayer.
A prayer that seems almost impossible.

We might be tempted to say, “Who are you kidding, Jesus?”
“It didn’t happen in your time:
What makes you think it could ever happen in ours?”

But Jesus told his followers that they should be one in this world:
in their culture and their time.
It goes along with Jesus always reminding the disciples, and all of us:
That the Kingdom of Heaven is here –
not something that will come in the next world.
But to be one right now. Right here.

Its an echo of Jesus’ teachings on eternity:
The past, the now, the future:
All of it: In its fullness.

That they all may be one.

It’s not just about “later.”
It’s not just something to wish for, long for, or hope for in heaven.

And what’s cool about Jesus:
Is that he ALWAYS talks about these things in positive statements:
As his dream for the world:
Not as a “yeah right”
Not something sarcastic:
But something that he believes is actually possible.
Something that he believes is actually REAL.

It’s as if Jesus is saying to God:
“This is my wish: This is my dream:
That those who believe would be one:
just as you and I are one.”
He says it as if he expects it to happen.
He says it as if he thinks we understand what he’s talking about.

But Jesus knows what he’s talking about.
Whether WE know what Jesus is talking about is an entirely different thing.
And maybe that’s just the thing.

Maybe we just don’t know what “unity” means
When Churches throughout the centuries have battled, and split off from one
another repeatedly.

That’s not being one.
When the human obsession with being right consistently puts up roadblocks
against Jesus’ prayer.
That’s not being one.

But how can we even understand the image that Jesus gives us:
About our own unity as the mirror of Jesus and the father being one?
That’s pretty hard to understand.
That’s pretty hard to fully know:
It’s one of those things:
Like the peace of God which passes ALL understanding.
Beyond our comprehension.
Beyond our understanding.

But that’s no free ticket to give up.
To let the seeming impossibility of unity and one-ness make us quit.

So we have to look for the oneness.
It is our call and our duty:
To seek it in God and in each other.

And Oneness with God means being at one with all of God’s gifts:
Cultures, peoples, nations:
And every single bit of our own human existence.
The joys and the sorrows.

The fears and the strengths.
To tear apart one bit of our gift is to put a tear in the beauty of oneness with God:
And oneness with each other.

I’m thrilled that we’re back to receiving communion together in a semi-circle
(rather than in a single file line)
It’s a great image of our “one-ness.”

But please remember:
That “one-ness” doesn’t mean “the same.”

Being the same, is not the basis of unity.
Just like Jesus and the Father are not “the same.”
Love is the basis of unity: and nothing else.

Being the same: is not unity.

When St. Paul said that there was no more male or female,
Jew or Greek.
He didn’t mean that men and women would be morphed into some other form of
human being:
Or that Jews and Greeks would become one new nationality.
He meant that each of us:
In our uniqueness would look with love on all the other creatures of God.

He meant that we would see beauty in the gifts that others have,
Instead of being jealous of another’s gifts:
Or thinking that our gifts are better than someone elses.
He meant that:
All of the gifts matter:
And all of them are necessary for us to all be one.
He meant that we should join together to build the Kingdom of God:
The Kingdom of God that IS among us.

This kind of love is hard.
Our human nature makes it hard.
Our culture makes it hard.

If we take Jesus’ words seriously, we’ll hear that the outpouring love that IS God:
Is there for all of us.
In all of its different ways:
And we’ll strive to let it guide our words and actions.

I know that you’ve heard me say a lot of this before.
But I’ll say it again and again.

That not all of us are called to do the same things:
Even though we are “one”.
We need it all:

We need everyone:
We need priests:
And we need lay readers.
We need activists:
And we need people to pray silently at home.
We need teachers,
And we need listeners.
We need the young,
And we need the old.

Oneness:
Is all of it taken together.
Pooling our gifts together.
And praying together:
Praying that God might open our minds and hearts:
Relinquishing some of our own needs to be in control:
Or our own sense of whats “right.”

Praying to receive new knowledge.
Asking God to change our minds when its needed.
And to be tolerant and hospitable to others:
Not only for their sake:
But for ours.
Because we might learn something from those who come with new knowledge
and ideas.

And This is our heritage.
This is who we are: as Christians:
The ones who are striving to be “one”
With God and one another:
In old ways, and in new ways.

Amen.

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