"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on
behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that
they may all be one. As you, Father, 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
The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as
we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become
completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved
them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also,
whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you
have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25
"Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these
know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I
will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in
them, and I in them."
Year C
Seventh Sunday after Easter
May 8, 2016
Cross~Wind UMC
Title: Jesus and Unity
Introduction
The theme of oneness has made me reflect upon the difficulty
we human beings have in accomplishing it.
While in Vincennes, IN, I was the first pastor of the merged
congregation now known as Community UMC. It was the result of the merger of
three congregations, one of which had been a former Evangelical United Brethren
Church. Each congregation had their unique gift to offer to the merger. At
least two of the three did not have to merge, in the sense that they could have
continued onward for many more decades just as they were. Yet, a respected
layperson in the community began to discuss the possibility of merging. Through
several months of discussions, eventually they voted to merge. A fourth
congregation voted not to join. The congregations grew to know each other well
before the merger. They started doing more things together. They pondered what
they could do together for the cause of Christ that they could not do
separately. They received some very good encouragement from the District
Superintendent and from the Annual Conference. They had good lay leadership and
they kept open lines of communication. They faced the challenges with courage. While
we were constructing the new church building across from the High School, a
moment came at a Board meeting when a difference of opinion made it look like
the merger would fall apart right then. Then, one of the young men, a hog
farmer who was from the church that had voted not to join, spoke a word that
was from God. You could feel the tension leave the room.
Some mergers work and some do not work, of course. Among the
greatest difficulties in merging two organizations, or even two people in a
marriage, is the need to bring two cultures together to form a new and cohesive
culture. In a bad merger, 1+1 often equals a sum of two different cultures in
conflict with one another, or, perhaps even worse, the sum of 1+1 equals 1.5,
where one of the partners devalues and treats as unequal the other. The “merger”
of two people in a marriage can have some of the same difficulties. The best
merger math is 1+1=3, i.e., a brand new culture emerges that takes the value of
both and adds to it. Both partners leave behind the things that divide them and
invest in something completely different that adds value to everyone. They are
clear on what matters and why.
Application
I
have been thinking of the image of the church as the Body of Christ. It suggests
unity. Let us begin with a simple admission.
First,
unity is difficult.
If you study the history of the church, you discover that
the church is far more about spin-offs and breakups than mergers. God was in
Christ, reconciling the world to God, said Paul, but the churches find it hard
reconcile to each other. The practical difficulty is that the culture and
values of a body of people are important and deserve respect. Differing aims,
refusal to adapt, and differing values, will split apart an existing group and
keep unification from occurring.
To put it bluntly, we must not make an idol out of unity. With
the same force, we must not think of division so easily, as if to say it is
like going from one room to another.
I am not sure if I dare to offer this, but the United
Methodist Church is slowly allowing differing values to erode its life
together. We have clergy who have done things in direct contradiction of our
Book of Discipline, yet suffer no consequences. We have former bishops who have
done so. It surprises me that on UM clergy Internet sites the rhetoric becomes
so hateful. One would like to think that Christians could disagree lovingly.
Sadly, that train left the station long ago. When the values and culture become
so different, it becomes hard to respect the other who differs from you.
How
Christians treat each other would make anyone ponder whether the church listens
to Jesus very well.
Os Guiness, in his book, The
Call (1998, p. 101), relates this story. I assume the story is true. The
story comes from Washington DC. Arthur F. Burns was a highly regarded official
in administrations that extended from Eisenhower to Reagan. He was Jewish. He
attended an informational White House group made up of Christians for prayer
and fellowship in the 1970s. Out of a mixture of respect and reticence, the
group did not ask him to pray. However, a newcomer joined the group and asked
him to close with prayer. Some of the old-timers glanced at each other in
surprise and wondered what would happen. Without missing a beat, Burns reached
out, held hands with others in the circle, and prayed this prayer: "Lord,
I pray that you would bring Jews to know Jesus Christ. I pray that you would
bring Muslims to know Jesus Christ. Finally, Lord, I pray that you would bring
Christians to know Jesus Christ. Amen."
The history of the church, a record of how Christians treat
each other, is a divisive and challenging history. Yet, your experience of the
church, my experience of the church, is challenging as well. We need to know
Jesus better.
Second,
we need to focus more on posture than
position.
The
problem is not just difference. The problem is the struggle we have when we
become so deep in our position that we can no longer respect the position of
those who differ from us. Unity will be impossible when we have lost respect
for those who differ.
Yet,
we are quick to defend our positions. Maybe we need further reflection on our
posture. Look at the relationship between Jesus and the Father. Gaze upon its
unity and togetherness. Gaze upon the love that flows between Father and Son. Here
is the posture, the model, for how we are to be toward each other. We bring
glory to God when we adopt that posture, regardless of the position we hold.
Third,
unity and glory go together.
"The
glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one as we
are one" (John 17:22).
"Glory"
is a major theme in John's gospel, and here Jesus uses it to describe both what
he has received from the Father and what he has given to his disciples. We
reflect divine glory, of course, rather than glorify self, church, doctrine, or
position. Focusing on divine glory makes clearer the path toward unity.
And
what is the revelation of this glory? We know this glory through our love for
God and one another. "I made your
name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you
have loved me may be in them, and I in them," (John 17: 26). This is
akin to what Jesus says in John 15:12, "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you."
Notice the chain of love -- the Father gives his love to Jesus, Jesus gives it
to us and we give it to one another.
I want to share with you an icon of
the Holy Trinity painted by Andrei Rublev in 1425. Artists always painted the
last supper with peculiar seating arrangements.
Leonardo da Vinci oddly (if you think about it) put Jesus and all the
disciples along the same one side of a long table, not just so we could study
their faces and gestures, but so we might acknowledge a place for ourselves
across the table from our Lord, from the saints of old. Rublev depicts Father,
Son, and Spirit as angels occupying three sides of a table, with the fourth
side open, inviting the viewer to join them.
Henri
Nouwen notes that this icon is not simply a lovely decoration. If we place
ourselves in front of it, we “experience the gentle invitation to participate
in the intimate conversation” taking place. The invitation is there to join
them around the table.[1]
This
is my destiny, my identity, my hope – and it is your destiny, and that of the
person next to you. Think of the most difficult person in your life to whom you
must relate. Remember this. God made that person for this destiny as well. Here
is a holy invitation to have a secure place at the table of this Trinity of
tender love.
Rublev
apparently painted this icon during a time of political turmoil and hatred, a
striking stroke of hope in troubled time. Is this not our most desperate
desire? That our only hope during harsh times is being drawn into that holy
circle of love? This is glory, knowing there is a place in God’s own heart, for
me. This is my desire, my joy, my reality, my truth.
This
is unity. In a world of strife, in a place where there is no peace, we try to
resolve conflicts by applying force. We seem willing to beat the other into
submission, literally or metaphorically. We seem content with the superficial
unity gained by truces and by policing one another. However, true unity is an
offer to us to reside in the remarkable home that is ours with Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit painted so peacefully by Rublev.
Jürgen Moltmann put it like this:
Through
their tenderly intimate inclination towards one another, the three Persons show
the profound unity joining them, in which they are one. The chalice on the
table points to the surrender of the Son on Golgotha. Just as the chalice
stands at the centre of the table round which the three Persons are sitting, so
the cross of the Son stands from eternity in the centre of the Trinity. Anyone
who grasps the truth of this picture understands that it is only in the unity
with one another which springs from the self-giving of the Son “for many” that
men and women are in conformity with the triune God.[2]
Our
glory is our belonging in the loving life of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Our
glory implies unity, and our unity is our glory. Yet, we are not good at unity, even in
church.
Conclusion
One
of the questions we might ask ourselves often as we merge with Jesus' vision is
this: Are we working toward becoming the church for which Jesus prayed?
Corporations
have a tough time pulling off mergers because everyone tends to be in it for
themselves. Could Christians successfully merge because we are in it for God's
glory, mission and love -- and nothing else?
That
would truly be a marriage made in heaven!
Going deeper
John 17:20-26, the
conclusion of the prayer of Jesus, becomes a prayer for the readers. The
conclusion of this final prayer of Jesus is that the witness of the church
might bear fruit. Jesus prays for those who believe through the word disciples.
That word is a present reality. The text refers to future believers in Jesus, especially
those who believe Jesus is the Son of God.
They come to believe through the disciple's word. They are Gentiles and Jews.
In verses 21-26, abiding as John views it involves abiding
in a sphere of being, and this abiding in love is the union that unites
believers to each other, as well as to Jesus and the Father.[3]
John 17:20-26
"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who
will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. [Jesus prays
that they may all be one. The phrase is an instance of a phrase of Jesus that
has become, to many, a cliché - and as such has become the rallying cry for the
ecumenical actions among many of today's denominations. Since the ecumenical
implications of these verses were scarcely in Jesus' mind, it is important that
we examine this passage in the context of Jesus' whole prayer, and his hope for
the witness that would follow his death. Pannenberg stresses the Holy Spirit binds
believers together, being present in the church in the proclamation of the
gospel and celebration of the sacraments by which the Spirit draws believers
into the fellowship of the Son and confirms them in it.[4] In the gospel of John, "oneness"
is a central symbol. Jesus and the Father are one (10:30; 17:11), and Jesus
desires all who come to faith to be one (vv. 21, 23). There is to be one flock
and one shepherd (10:16). Even seamless robe of Jesus (19:23-24) and the untorn
net (21:11) show this wholeness, this oneness, in John's gospel. The work of
Jesus has been to gather the people, save them and unite them into one.
When Jesus prays that the disciples will be one, he asks that they may all live
in God, as Jesus dwells in God. While believers desire "oneness,"
oneness has its contrast in unbelief and/or distance from God. John describes
that state as being lost or scattered (17:12; 18:9). The oneness of those who
believe in Jesus has two important features. First, they believe in Jesus, and
their belief is more than adherence to Jesus, but a full appreciation of who
Jesus is: One with the Father. Secondly, those who have faith unite in their
commission to preach to other humans, with the belief that faith will result
from this work. If the Paraclete bears witness to Jesus, the Paraclete has also
done this through the disciples and future believers (15:26-27). The unity of the believers has its model
in the unity of the Father and the Son - unity that is fundamentally a united
purpose, expressing itself in a common mission and message.] As you, Father, 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 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so
that they may be one, as we are one,[Jesus says that
the oneness of the believers flows from giving to the believers the glory that
the Father has given to him, so that unity comes down from the Father and the
Son to the believers. The action, therefore, of the believers is not the
primary source of unity, but the relation of the believers to the Father and
the Son and the relationship of the believers to each other. Visible unity has
to be visible enough to challenge the world to believe in Jesus, offering the
same type of challenge that Jesus first offered to the disciples: a challenge
to recognize God in Jesus. The
Spirit draws believers into the glory that he receives from the Father.
Pannenberg says that in the act of the glorifying of Jesus as the Son, which
also glorifies the Father in the Son, believers share in the fellowship of the
Son with the Father. Therefore, they also share in the glory of God by which
their own lives are changed into imperishable fellowship with the eternal God.[5]Arians
used this verse, suggesting a moral unity between Jesus and the Father. Pannenberg says that because glorifying by
the Spirit effects the union of the Son with the Father as well as our own
union with and in God, as we see here, Moltmann could link the consummation of salvation
history in eschatology with the consummation of the Trinitarian life of God in
itself. When all things are in God and God is “all in all,” then the economic
Trinity is subsumed in the immanent Trinity.[6] The
believers participate in the common glory of the Son and the Father.[7]] 23 I in them and you in
me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you
have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. [The
unity and indwelling visible among the followers of Jesus challenges the world
to believe in Jesus' mission. Believers
are to be one now, in order to have an effect on the world. The gift of glory leads to the unity of
believers and this in turn challenges the world to recognize Jesus. Through the disciples, the world will get
another chance. The unity of believers
will prove to the world that God has loved them. Part of that unity is the love they have for
one another.] [Verses 21-23
have a strong parallelism in words. Heavenly
unity is a source and model for the believing community. Barth will refer
to verses 21-23 and state rather bluntly that the disunity of the church is a
scandal.[8]] 24 Father, I desire that those
also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which
you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.[Barth will
stress that the love present within the Trinity is present because God is
eternal love. [9]] 25 "Righteous
Father,[Addressing the righteous Father, Pannenberg finds it worthy
of consideration as to why righteousness of God is so meager in the teaching of
Jesus.[10]] the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have
sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it
known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them." [Jesus made
God's name known to those who believe in him - this is in the past. Jesus' name
has already proclaimed to them, and they will continue to do so. In the future,
believers will make known Jesus' name to others. There will be a continuation
of Jesus' ministry through the Paraclete and believing community. Pannenberg
says that whereas Jesus was with them only for a short time and will come again
only at the consummation, the Spirit will stay with them always in 16:14.[11] Kasemann
emphasizes the theme of separation in John, yet the New Testament as a whole
distrusts the world. One might wonder if
the hope of joining Jesus in heaven precludes the apocalyptic hope we find in
other parts of the New Testament. No, for though John has a realized eschatology,
it does not preclude looking to the end.
The goal of Jesus here is not so much a new heaven and a new earth
(Revelation 21:1), but the gathering of souls into Jesus' heavenly home. This
prayer ends on a theme of the indwelling of Jesus in the believers. It suggests
a strong Covenant Theology. The discourse begins in 13:34 with a new
commandment of love, and this new covenant - John has no explicit Eucharistic
body and blood - recalls the Sinai covenant, when the glory of God that resided
on the mountain came to dwell in the tabernacle, which was in the midst of
Israel (Exodus 24:16; 40:34). Jesus is the new tabernacle, and the divine glory
dwells in him (1:14) - the human longing for the indwelling of God (cf. Isaiah
7:14) is accomplished in the Christ event. At the end of the prayer, in a
covenantal setting, Jesus now promises to give the believers the glory that God
gave to him.] [In
verses 24-26, Jesus' wish is that
believers be with him. We hear that
God has already united the believers to Jesus here on earth.]
[The motion in John's gospel is downward and outward, and
this prayer reflects that movement. Jesus descends to speak the truth of God,
and mounts up to God by means of the cross. In coming down and going up, Jesus
gathers people to himself; up from darkness and lostness; from unbelief into
life with God. To dwell in God and have God in one's life is
"oneness." When Jesus prays that the disciples will be one, he asks
that they dwell in God. Jesus is the One the disciples know as Lord and God
(20:28), and he prays that for all eternity he may be in them.]
[We need to discuss the ecumenical element of these verses.
Does it refer to church unity? If so, it
is important in ecumenical discussion.
Some would stress the diversity of Father and Son, however. In addition, B. Haring suggests it as a model
for church organization. Note that unity
has its origin in divine action and is not just a human endeavor. There is a vertical unity with Father and Son
and a horizontal unity of believers symbolized in love. The fact that this union must be visible
enough to challenge the world is against a purely spiritual union. Jesus challenged the world out of his unity
with the Father. The community of
believers challenges the world through its unity with Father, Son, and one
another.]
[1] (Henri Nouwen, Behold the Beauty of the Lord:
Praying with Icons [Notre Dame: Ave Maria Press, 1987], p. 20.)
[2] (Jürgen Moltmann, The Trinity and the Kingdom: The
Doctrine of God [Minneapolis: Fortress, 1993], p. xvi.)
[5] Systematic
Theology Volume 3, 11.
[6] Systematic
Theology Volume 1, 330, referring to Moltmann, Crucified God, p. 265-66, and Trinity,
125ff, 126-27, 160.
[7] Systematic
Theology Volume 3, 625.
[8] Church
Dogmaitcs IV.1 [62.2] 677.
[9] (Barth, 2004, 1932-67) II.1 [28.2] 279.
[11] Systematic
Theology Volume 2, 453.
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