So That They May be One

June 2, 2019
St. John’s United Church of Christ, Union, Illinois

John 17:20-26

I wonder how the disciples felt, after supper, listening as Jesus prayed for them. He had washed their feet, a surprising thing for their master to do, demonstrating through this act that they were to live as servants to one another. Judas had left, though they did not yet know why. They had to understand that something big was about to happen; Jesus had told them he was leaving the world and going to God. He had given them a new commandment, that they love one another as he had loved them. And he had warned them that the world would hate them, and told them that they do not belong to the world.

They may have felt like their world was about to be upended, and I’m sure they were a little afraid of what was to come. “Do not let your hearts be troubled,” Jesus tells them, and he prays for them. I did what I could to teach them, to love them, and to prepare them. Now that I am leaving, I give them into your care. They will be sent out into the world, a world that will hate them, and they will need one another like they never have before. Jesus prays for their unity, “that they may be one,” as Jesus and God are one, and that they may be included in that oneness. 

This is what Jesus prays for them, and also for us. “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.” The prayer of Jesus for the disciples, a prayer for the people of God, is a prayer that all of us need to hear. And in that prayer, we are included with the twelve, with the first followers of the Way of Jesus, with two thousand years of Christians. We are included in the love with which God has loved Jesus.

Jesus began by turning the tables of the disciples’ lives upside down, and nothing would ever be the same. But after that supper, after all Jesus did and said in that moment, they must have felt that everything was about to change again, and this time they would lose the one for whom they had left everything behind. The disciples were facing a liminal time, a time of change and transition between one way of being and the next. They were uncertain of their future and the changes that would come.

I find it encouraging that the disciples experienced that liminal time. We, too, are facing change and uncertainty, a time when decisions will be made, new paths will be chosen, and we will need to trust one another. You have a new pastor in me, and I have a new family to love, a new history and community to learn. In our time together we will seek to open a new door for people to join this community of disciples as we seek to live out the gospel of Jesus. And, as always, we’ll have to figure out how to do it all within budget.

It is natural to want to cling to what has been, even as we realize that things are no longer what they were before. It is only human to be anxious when we are going through change. But we can take heart that other faithful people have been here before us. We can be encouraged when we remember that we abide in Christ, and we are the people for whom Jesus prays.

“I made your name known to them,” Jesus prays, “so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.” Next Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, remembering that day when the disciples were all together in one place, and the Holy Spirit came like the rush of the wind, resting on each of them like tongues of fire, and they were filled with the Spirit. That same Spirit fills us as well, giving us joy, love, and holiness.

Holiness is not the striving for perfection and righteous piety that we might think. Rather, to be holy means to be “set apart.” We are not “set above” or made better than anyone else; instead, we have been given a particular calling to love one another and serve the world, this world that God loves, this world in which we are children of God, loved by God even as God has loved Jesus.

So, as a people set-apart, we gather to tell the stories of Jesus, to seek his presence in the bread and cup, to support one another in fellowship, and be reassured that Jesus will always be with us. And then, as a people not of the world, but sent into the world, we are called go out from our gathering to live a life dedicated to God, loving God with all that we are, showing love and compassion for others, making hard choices and trusting that we are not alone. God watches over us. We are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield fruit in its season, and our leaves do not wither. In all that we do, in love and in service, we prosper. We are the people that Jesus prays for, a set-apart community, uncertain of our future, but moving ahead as one, one with each other, and one with God.  Amen.