The Oneness

John 17:20-26
Seventh Sunday of Easter 

A couple of days ago, a friend of mine asked me what my favorite Gospel was.  You can’t ask a pastor that!  That’s like asking who your favorite child is.  (It’s Wyatt, of course.  I’m kidding.  There’s a speaker up in the nursery, so they hear this; and I’m messing with them.)  

So my friend asked me about my favorite Gospel, and it occurred to me, I do have favorites, but it changes.  Sometimes it’s Mark’s brevity. Sometimes it’s Luke’s attention to detail.  Sometimes it’s Matthew’s concern for the poor and the outcast.  But right now it’s got to be John.  Lately, I have been drawn to the Gospel of John because John is all about love.  John hears what Jesus says about love in a way the other Gospel writers only hint at.  Lately, I’m drawn to John because I need love in my life; now more than ever.  I feel like we all do.  There is so much hurt in the world; so much violence, division, greed, and pain.  There’s a reason Jesus made love a command.  

I need love in my life because love, God’s love, doesn’t just make me feel warm and fuzzy; God’s love is what we’re made for; it’s what we’ve made to know and live out; God’s love makes us one.  

Notice who Jesus is talking to today: he’s speaking in the presence of his disciples, but he’s not talking to the disciples.  This is a prayer.  He’s talking to the Father.  If the Trinitarian complexity doesn’t melt your noodle, what and for whom he prays is pretty amazing.   Jesus prays for his disciples but adds, "but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word."  This part of the Gospel of John all happens as Jesus prepares for the Cross.  If you have one of those “red letter Bibles,” there’s a lot of red here.  Right before Jesus is betrayed, tried, and executed; right before he entrusts his ministry into the hands of his followers; he gathers them, he washes their feet as a sign of what their love for one another looks like, and then he begins to teach them.  He spends so much time talking with them because he knows what’s about to happen and he wants them to be somewhat prepared.  From chapter thirteen through sixteen he talks to them about what is to come, what he wants from them, and what it all means; but then, in chapter seventeen, he stops talking to them and begins praying for them.  

And notice, his prayer is for us, too.  Us, those who will believe.  That's you. That's me. Here in the future. Prayers are not held to time and place. 

So what does Jesus pray?  “That they may all be one."  How do we take that?  What does mean to be one? One what? One community? One church? One faith? One in dogma? One in doctrine? When? When were Christians ever one in unity in anything? Christians started fighting amongst ourselves from the get go. Unity? Name the Unity for me if you can.

But it isn’t just our unity, is it?  Jesus says, " 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."  Now hold on, that is more than just us getting along, isn’t it?  That’s pointing to something bigger than just what we choose to do; that’s pointing to something the Spirit of God does in us; something reflected in this meal we share.  

As he prays for his followers, both then and now, he doesn’t just call us to know a thing; he calls us to be in a thing; he calls us to be in him. Please God, Jesus prays, please God, let the Oneness that We share be shared with and among My disciples, who You gave to me. That is His prayer for us, for you and for me. Unity is not about what we know, it is about Love. Unity is about my soul and your soul being United in Love with God, being Loved by God. God is Love. 

But it’s not just for us, is it?  Jesus adds, “That the world may believe.”  There is a point to this prayer that is beyond those unsteady few in that room; there is a point to this prayer that is beyond the unsteady us; the point is that the world might believe.  That the love made known in us—a love that is proven in our unity—might make a point in the world.  

Jesus came to show us that God Loves us. Love is the proof. And then, check this out: “Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory.”  Jesus wants us to shine with Him, to shine like Him, to share that same Love with Him. You and me.  And I don’t think he’s just talking about some far away place of clouds, wings, and harps.  The glory of Jesus is here and now.  His glory is real now because his love is real now.  

The last part of this prayer might be the most important.  Jesus prays, “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 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.”

We have a job: to embody Jesus, as we remember here at this Table; to embody His love, as we remember here at this Table; by his Spirit, to be united, as we remember here at this Table; and then to go, bringing his love to the world in all we do and say… as we remember here at this Table.  

May we be the answer to our Savior’s prayer as we are made one to show his love.