20 May 2007

John 17:20-26

One love
One blood
One life
You got to do what you should
One life
With each other
Sisters
Brothers
One life
But we're not the same
We get to
Carry each other
Carry each other

One...life

One

Thus ends the song “One” by those musical prophets of our day and age, U2. And indeed they are in sync with Jesus in today’s gospel reading.

John’s gospel brings us this prayer of Jesus at the last supper which speaks of the oneness of his followers. By the time that John wrote his gospel, which is the latest of the four gospels, there were already factions among the followers of Jesus. We know from Paul’s letters that Corinth was fractured among followers of Apollos, followers of Paul and other factions. No doubt, by the time this gospel came around, other gatherings of these early Christians were experiencing differences: differences in the way they governed themselves, differences in theology, differences in their ethical viewpoints.

How could the message of Jesus become so divisive within a century after his death and resurrection? How could the followers of The Way, as the early Christians called themselves, set to arguing so quickly? Well, I think that’s one of the beautiful things about our faith—there has been room for interpretation from the beginning. From a foundation of teachings about God’s love and grace, there is much left for the individual Christian and group of Christians to discover.

When I was in seminary, a Greek Orthodox priest came and spoke to my ecumenism class. He explained Christianity this way: There was once a group of pilgrims who wandered the earth together on foot. They were the Orthodox church. A group of them decided that they would get where they were going faster if they built a train and had an engineer. They were the Roman Catholic Church and the engineer, of course, is the Pope. Well eventually folks on the train got tired of having to stay on the tracks and go only where the engineer decided. So they got out and all got into cars that kept bumping into each other. They were, naturally, the Protestant churches.

We’ve had divisions as God’s people from almost the beginning. But Jesus’ prayer is that we be one as Jesus is one with God. How do we resolve this almost natural proclivity towards divisions within the faith with this prayer of Jesus for oneness in the faith? By this point, here in the 21st century, we are so divided that unity seems a joke.

But we maintain hope. Our two denominations are both working towards oneness. The slogan of the United Church of Christ is “That All May Be One” and from the beginning of the Disciples of Christ we have proclaimed “unity is our polar star.” Both our denominations, though far from perfect, work towards unity through several denominational programs. Even our presence with each other today in this joint worship service is an answer to Jesus’ prayer from 2,000 years ago.

What does it mean to be “one?” U2 reminds us that “we’re not the same, we get to carry each other.” We’re not the same, but we’re called to be one. How do we maintain that balancing act?

We recognize the points in common that we do have together. They may be difficult to find at times. But perhaps it’s God’s cry for justice among us. Perhaps it’s the work we do together, when we agree that poverty and homelessness are not part of God’s plan for God’s commonwealth. Perhaps it’s when we, through organizations such as Peninsula Interfaith Action, which both our congregations support, advocate for a better way of being for our communities.

Working together with others of the Christian faith is a way of being one in Christ, fulfilling his prayer. We aren’t ignoring our differences; we’re transcending them; we’re going past them to find the unity to which we are called.

That’s what we do with the differences; acknowledge them and move past them to do what we can do together. That’s from where our oneness will come.

We are called to carry each other; to provide help where and when we can with our Christian sisters & brothers. And to accept their help when we need it.

It was indeed fortuitous that these scriptures were set for the lectionary today, the day of our joint service. It gets us thinking about working together and being one in Christ even as we worship together. It gets the ecumenical blood flowing. Jesus’ prayer that we be one can be fulfilled in our day. We have to work to make it happen though.