May 20, 2007 Easter 7C

Sermon Title: “Oneness”

Series: Empty Tomb Postscript

Text: John 17:20-26

Dr. Steve Jackson

NewSong Community Church

Delivered on May 20, 2007

 

“I ask…that they may all be one…as we are one. ” John 17:20-21

Oneness

The past couple of weeks for me have been filled with thoughts of graduates and graduation. First Amy graduated, then I wrote my newsletter article about graduation, and on top of that this is graduate recognition Sunday at NewSong. To be honest with you it’s caused me to think about my own graduation days. Back when I graduated from high school—back in the days before electricity—there was a tradition at my school to put out was called the “Senior Class Last Will and Testament.” Do any of you remember those? The newspaper staff at our school gathered statements from all the seniors and published them to the whole school. In it you “gave away” all your important school stuff like your “stinky PE uniform to Henry Smith” and your “parking spot next to the gym to Joe Jones” and the cafeteria’s “tasty and mouth-watering food” to the Junior and Sophomore class.” It was an opportunity to thank the teachers and friends you loved and to take a few parting shots at the teachers and classmates you didn’t. It was also a place to leave some last words of advice to those you were leaving behind.

 

Most of these last words were intentionally humorous, but some of them were serious attempts to say something that would be helpful to those left behind. Last words can be important. There’s something about the transition times in our lives like graduation, weddings, ordinations, death and the like, that make us all get more reflective. We look at life on a deeper level and we try to say things to sum up or clarify how we really feel. And, as last words, they represent a kind of mature viewpoint—a reflective, “after-the-fact” “looking-back-now-that-it’s-all-over” kind of perspective.

 

Last week we talked about Jesus’ last words to his disciples spoken in the Upper Room when he was about to go out and be arrested, tried, and crucified. We discussed how last words like these are important. But final prayers are important too. And the text we read this morning is part of Jesus’ final prayer before his passion. Interestingly it’s the only time he prayed specifically for you and me—believers of today. In the first verse he says his prayer on behalf of the disciples there, but “also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word”. As such this prayer takes on special meaning for us here today.

 

Picture the scene with me. It's the last night of his earthly life and what's on Jesus’ heart? What does he pray for? He prays that those who follow him, “May be one.” It’s that we would enjoy the same kind of holy kinship with God and with one another that Jesus himself enjoyed with his heavenly Father. Jesus prays for unity or “Oneness,” which is the title of today’s concluding message in our series “Empty Tomb Postscript.”

And so this morning I want to talk about this oneness. I want us to examine what it is and what it’s not. I want us to think about why it’s so important to Jesus that he made oneness the main point of his final prayer for his followers. As we talk about it I want us to be thinking, “Do we have this kind of unity in our hearts? And do we have it in our church?”

 

Let’s begin with the question, “What is unity?” There are many ways to think about unity, some of them more helpful than others. Here are a few thoughts about that.

 

UNITY IS NOT UNIFORMITY

First of all, biblically speaking, unity is not uniformity. It’s not the kind of “sameness” or homogeneity where everyone thinks and acts the same way. Jesus wasn’t saying we ought all to be clones of one another. Jesus loves diversity—if you don’t think so, look around the room!  Jesus wants a healthy diversity within our unity because he understands that sameness leads to problems. It’s not healthy.

 

A scientist conducted an experiment on a certain species of caterpillar called the processionary caterpillar. You may have actually seen a processionary caterpillar and not known it. What makes this caterpillar special is its instinct to form long lines. It’s built into its nature to fall in line with other caterpillars in its quest for food. This behavior gives the caterpillar its name, but it can also be a deadly characteristic. In his experiment the scientist took a flowerpot and placed a number of caterpillars in single-file around the circumference of the pot’s rim with each caterpillar's head touching the caterpillar in front of it.  The caterpillars then began to circle the flowerpot. He then removed the flowerpot and placed the caterpillars' favorite food in the middle of the circle created by their procession. Faithful to their DNA, each one followed the one ahead thinking that it was heading for the food. Round and round they went for seven days.  After a week of this mindless activity, the caterpil­lars started to drop dead because of exhaustion and starvation.  All they had to do to avoid death was to stop the senseless circling and head directly toward the food—less than six inches away.  But the caterpillars were so locked into their sameness they couldn’t keep themselves from this mindless behavior.

 

My point with that illustration is that the kind of unity Jesus prays that we may have is not based on us mindlessly thinking and doing the same things, but on our having within us and among us the unity of God, which is a unity of diversity. The language of Jesus’ prayer is very Trinitarian language, and just as the Godhead is made up of the “three-in-one” each one performing His part in the work of God—so, too Jesus prays we would each fill our role in bringing glory to God as his particular body of believers located at 230 Elm Street in Cumming, GA.

 

Let’s face it, none of us has everything it takes to do the work of God. Some have this gift, others another. It’s only as we work as a unified team in the diversity of our oneness that we accomplish what's necessary to be God's people in the world and bring glory to Him. And so God prays for this kind of unity—this oneness—that is not the same as uniformity or sameness, but instead is the kind of oneness of diversity evident in the Trinity.

 

NOT UNITY FOR UNITY’S SAKE   

Notice also that the unity Christ prays for is not unity just for unity’s sake. There is a purpose to the unity Jesus prays for that’s deeper than the simple comfort of being around like-minded people who we enjoy being with. And that purpose is that the world may know the Father and the Father’s love through Christ in us. It’s mentioned twice in the passage we read.

 

You know, all Christians claim to be about the same business of “making disciples of all the world.” But sometimes when I think of how we go about it, and the lack of unity in the church between the various denominations and factions and even within churches the image that comes to mind for me is the battered and bandaged face of Rodney King pleading before the television cameras saying, “Why can’t we all just get along.” I read about church fights over doctrine and about church splits and realize that some people view the oneness Jesus prayed for as just his plea that we not tear one another apart.

 

There’s a great story, supposedly a true one about a church in Tennessee with a very unusual name. It seems that during the Depression, a man living in the Appalachian area went to Knoxville for the first time to transact some business.  While there he saw a refrigerator that made ice.  Since it was summertime, he thought it was a miracle of God. When he returned to his home town in the mountains, his church was in the midst of a revival worship service.  He arrived at the service as people were giving testimonies.  He told of the miracle of seeing ice made in the midst of the summer. Well, a dispute broke out. Many claimed that there was not such thing. Others wanted to believe him. It resulted in a split within the church.  Many left the church to form a new church.  It's name, to this very day, is the “No Ice in The Summer Southern Baptist Church.”

 

Why can’t we just get along?

 

Another, supposedly true story involved a group of shipwrecked people who were adrift at sea for weeks in a long lifeboat. In time, as people are prone to do, the people in the front of the lifeboat began to think of themselves as the “front” people and those in the back as the “back” people. Suddenly, the front of the boat developed a bad leak. When it did a man in the back of the boat was overheard whispering to the woman next to him, “Thank God that leak is in the front. If it were in the back, we’d all be doomed!”

 

Both these stories convey a serious lesson. All of us are obviously in the same boat. Therefore a threat to any one of us is a threat to all of us and should be perceived and dealt with as such. When Jesus prayed for oneness among his disciples and with all those who would come to believe in him through their efforts, he was similarly affirming the solidarity of all believers—those who believe in ice being made in the summer and those who don’t. Those passengers in the front of the boat and those in the back, but not just so we’d get along. His purpose behind our oneness was deeper than the cosmetic reasons of peace and security – it was so the world would see our unity and be drawn to the Father.

 

There is a distinct purpose to our unity, it’s not just some whim Christ had. When we view unity in that regard, we see it not as some ancillary aspect of the faith, not some fringe benefit of being a believer, but instead as the very heart of the matter.

 

UNITY IS NOT AN “EXTRA” IT’S THE ESSENCE

And that’s the next point I want to make as we continue to get our hands around what this unity Jesus prayed for is really like. Unity is not an “extra” to our faith like the “icing on the cake” it’s the essence of who we are and of what we do.

 

I’m reminded of my Boy Scout days. It seems I’ve been thinking a lot about my scouting days lately too, for some reason. At any rate. When I was a little boy I wanted to be a Boy Scout. I joined a Scout Troop. I purchased a uniform and read the Boy Scout Handbook. I went to meetings and camp-outs and Jamborees. I started earning merit badges. But you know what? I was never cut out to be a Boy Scout. I never had scouting in here [point to chest], so I could put on all the trappings as much as I liked, I could speak the Scout lingo and recite the Scout Motto (Be Prepared) and go around tying knots and helping old ladies cross the street, but if I wasn’t a Scout at heart, on the inside, I was never going to be a real Scout. Does that make sense to you?

 

There is an essence to being a Boy Scout, and there is an essence to being a believer. Being a believer isn’t about wearing a smile and faithfully carrying your Bible to church every Sunday. Being a believer isn’t about reciting the Lord’s Prayer correctly (thank God!) or being able to name the 66 books of the Bible. Being a Christian is about loving God and loving your neighbor as yourself. If you don’t have that inside you, you’re not a Christian, no matter what you wear, or say, or do.

 

What I’m trying to say is hospitality, love, the ability to get along and truly care for your brothers and sisters in the faith—this thing I’m calling “oneness,” the last thing on Jesus’ mind right before he left the earth for heaven, is not something extra, but it’s the essence of being a follower of Christ.

 

Are you that kind of Christian? Do you have Christianity in here [point to chest]? Do you truly love others, even the unlovable ones who may be sitting near you this morning in this church? If not, what should we do about it? Should we all get up and have a “group hug” or something? Should we just “force ourselves” to love each other? Is that what Jesus is praying for here? I don’t think so, and that leads to the last point I want to make about unity this morning.

 

UNITY IS NOT SOMETHING WE “GRIND OUT.” IT’S A GIFT OF THE SPIRIT

And that is that unity is not something we “grind out” or “whip up” amongst ourselves. Unity—oneness—is a gift of the Spirit.  The unity Jesus requested in his prayer can’t be established by good will or human effort, nor is it the kind of fleeting harmony that would result if it relied solely on the will and/or natural ability of its participants. This unity is a supernatural gifting having its source in God. Furthermore, the presence of unity among us is the surest sign of God’s presence among us.

 

Let me ask you a question. Would God command us to do something that we cannot do? He wouldn’t would he? Would God tell us to “love one another” if he thought we couldn’t do it? Of course not! So God not only commands us to love one another, to dwell in oneness, he provides the means to do so.

 

This goes back to the Trinitarian language in Jesus’ prayer I’ve already mentioned. Here’s how it works. God is love (1 John 4:8), right? Jesus knew this. And so when he prays that we be brought into the love relationship of the Trinity, we will be filled with the love God has for God’s self (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit).

 

In John 17:24 Jesus says, "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.” God is love because the relationship between God the Father and God the Son is a relationship of love and has been even before time began. God the Father and God the Son have always had an infinite living Spirit of love between them—God the Holy Spirit. God is love because from all eternity love through the Spirit has been uniting the Father and the Son. According to John, therefore, when you come to personally know God, who is Father and Son united in infinite love through the Spirit, you become a loving person. The plainest way I know to say it is this: Knowing God creates loving people. Look at the final verse for today. In John 17:26 Jesus concludes his prayer for us with amazing words, “[Father] I made your name known to them (to know God’s name is to know his essence), and I will make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

 

Again, what Jesus is saying is this. When you come to know God personally, you are actually drawn into the fellowship of the Trinity. This is what Jesus prays for us here. He asks that the love with which the Father has loved the Son might be in us so that we might love one another—something that would be impossible without the Spirit’s help. The evidence of being indwelt by the Spirit of God is the experience of loving Jesus the way the Father loves him and loving others with that same kind of love. If you truly know God, you share in the fellowship of the Trinity, and if you share in the fellowship of the Trinity, you love the Son of God with the very love that the Father has for him.

 

Bottom line - we will love each other and dwell in unity with a distinct, supernatural love when we taste the fellowship of the Trinity. That’s Jesus’ aim with this prayer. And it has worked in the past, and it can work again.

 

Way back in the third century the Christian apologist Tertullian marveled at what the Pagans of his day were saying about the Christians: “See how they love one another” Apology [39.6]. Unfortunately that isn’t being said too often about “church-folk” these days. In fact, that statement cannot honestly be made about many Christian communities today. Thankfully, I believe it can be said about our church. I’ve seen you banding together to help one another, sacrificing time, effort, and resources to care for each other as if you truly were “family.” And for that I’m grateful.

 

And so today’s message is not one of scolding or chastisement. Today’s message is just a simple reminder that we are called to love one another and to dwell in Trinitarian oneness. That’s the one thing Jesus prayed for you and for me. That unity is not uniformity however, we are diverse with diverse gifts and we could use even more diversity in our midst. That unity also isn’t simply unity for unity’s sake—the purpose of our unity is to make his name known among the nations. Fact is, it’s the essence of who we are, not an extra. And finally, again thankfully, it’s not something we have to whip up or grind out on our own. It’s a gift of the Spirit if we’ll simply get to know Christ better and thus be swept up into the love relationship of the Trinity.

 

And so today’s sermon boils down to this—as it usually does, and always should.

    Do you know the Son of God?

           Do you love him above all else?

                  Is your heart’s desire to know him more and thus to become more loving?

 

Has the flame of God’s love in your heart flickered and died? Do you need God to do a new work in your heart this morning? If so, now’s the time to ask. We’ll pray for you and with you as you do. In fact, let’s pray right now…Amen.