RCL Year C - Easter 7
The Rev. Kenneth H. Saunders III
Trinity Episcopal Church
Towson, MD
May 12, 2013
What does it mean to
live in one-ness? How do we define unity? Does it mean that we are all like-minded? Or is it that we all have the same goals and
aspirations in life? Or is it even that
we all believe the same thing? I don’t
think so.
I would suggest that
if we were all like-minded, and we had all the same goals and believed all the
same thing, we would be no more than starving brain seeking zombies with no
intellect, no soul, and no future. Life
would be pretty boring - and we would drone on mindlessly, continuing to seek-out
something because it feels good.
So, if that’s not
it, what is unity? What is oneness?
Today we find
ourselves in the middle, as we so often do, in church… as we celebrate the life and ministry of Jesus
today, we find ourselves in the place between his ascension into heaven (which
we celebrated on Thursday) and the coming of the promised Paraclete (the helper
or supporter), the holy spirit that will continue to help and guide us; help us
remember Jesus’ teachings, and comfort us with the promises of salvation and
everlasting life.
In our celebration
today, we are found right here in the middle of those two significant events in
the church calendar, but the scriptures appointed for today take us back… They chronologically takes us back to a time when
Jesus prayed for unity for his followers that they might be one, as he and the
father are one.
The seen we have from
today’s gospel reading from John is familiar.
Jesus and his disciples are gathered in the garden of Gethsemane and Jesus
has gone off by himself to pray. He
knows that the end is near, and soon Judas and a caravan of Roman soldiers will
come trampling up the path to arrest him.
He is stressed and
worried. So, Jesus then begins to pray
for his followers and everything that he has been trying to teach them. He prays that they understand, and that they
will continue to be and act together and “be one” with each other in community. Jesus
prays that they “ALL may be
one.” And he prays this so hard
that his sweat was like drops of blood! – as Luke’s gospel tells us.
To be a follower of Jesus IS to be a part of a greater whole. Part of a community… Because he knew, united they would stand and
divided they would fall.
According to Jesus, there’s not supposed to be any solitary
Christians out there or spiritual Lone Rangers.
Does this mean they have
to get along all the time? No! Does this mean they have to agree all the
time? No! If we think primarily that this is some sort
of functional or political statement, then it would seem to call us to constant
agreement and like minded consensus.
But if we think on
more along ontological terms (as it relates to our general nature of being) then
it becomes more of who we are. We are
one in Christ whether we agree with each other or not. And, we are one in
Christ whether we like one another or not. To become a part of Christ is to become a part
of the community; to be a part of the one.
It’s one of the most
difficult things that we can learn to do.
And yes, I believe that it’s a learned and practiced trait and I use the
word practice, because we haven’t perfected it.
The world and even
the church (the followers of Jesus) have not shown us good examples of this
unity that Jesus prays for. The violence
and destruction modeled by governments and social systems only adds to the
division and exclusion… He or she is not
one with us because he or she… (you can fill
in the blank)
Has a different color
skin…
Speaks a different
language…
Lives in a different
part of the world…
Doesn’t make enough
money…
Makes
too much money…
Doesn’t have the right
job…
Is disabled or handicap
or has a learning disability…
(and the list is
infinite!)
And the church is
just as bad (mia culpa). He or she is
not one with us because (fill in the blank)
We don’t worship the
same way…
You ordain women /
homosexuals…
You don’t use the right
prayerbook…
You say odd prayers that
include the Virgin Mary…
You think that organized
religion is stuffy and has no value…
You don’t celebrate
communion every Sunday…
You practice private
confession…
You pray
extemporaneously…
You don’t kneel or you
don’t stand or you don’t genuflect…
You don’t know Jesus
like I know Jesus…
You don’t pray the right
prayers…
(again the list goes on
and on and on…)
Yet Jesus’ most
stressed and personal heart wrenching prayer was for his disciples to be one,
and for them to continue practice community…
and for them to love and live into their diversity…
This oneness doesn’t
rear it’s head and say, “I have no need of you.” It says, “come my brother or sister, sit and
eat, feast at the table and be refreshed and renewed.”
It doesn’t say, “I’m
upset because you don’t play my way, so I am going to take my toys and go
home. That it’s my way or the highway.” It says, “I’ll walk with you, learn from me,
and give me your burdens, because my yoke is easy and my burden is light. Together we can share the journey and the
load.”
Jesus’ prayer for
unity reminds us that our unity, our oneness with each other, is to be an
outward sign to the world of God’s love for us in Christ Jesus. We understand from his prayer that oneness and
unity is about love. It embodies the trust
and allegiance. That Beverly talked
about last week.
And if you have been
a part of a family, or a member of a church, or a community, you know that
within that love that it can get messy sometimes… there are always disagreements and
squabbling. Because we are all human, made
by the one creator, God. But the mystery
of the incarnation (God coming into this world, embodied in the person of Jesus
the Christ) is that God desired unity with us so much; God became one of us. And at that moment we were invited into the
oneness of God, in unity with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit. It is only with God’s help that we are able
to continue to live into that oneness.
Like the disciples, who
were in the middle, in a time without Jesus between the Ascension and the gift
of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. We are
in that time between the first coming of Jesus Christ and his coming again. May we rejoice in the promise that Jesus the Christ
continues to be one with us in our diversity, as we continue to pray for our
oneness, and for the unity of humanity as community.
