That All of Them May Be One
Dr. Larry Thorson
John 17:1-9; 20-23
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and
prayed:
"Father, the hour has come.
Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority
over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given
him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and
Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by
finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your
presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
Jesus Prays for His Disciples
6 "I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world.
They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they
know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the
words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came
from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not
praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours.
20 "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also
for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may
be one, Father, just as you 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. 22 I have given them the
glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and
you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will
know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Today’s New
International Version Copyright © 2001, 2005 by International Bible Society
Today
in some Christian circles “World Communion Sunday” is celebrated The concept of setting aside one day
when Christians of all nations would
celebrate the Lord’s Supper on the same Sunday throughout the world started
back in the fall of 1933, when Dr. Hugh Thomson Kerr, Moderator of the
Presbyterian General Assembly and Pastor of the Shadyside Presbyterian Church
in Pittsburgh, envisioned such a day.
Think
about what was going on that fall of 1933.
The world was in the heart of the Great Depression. The Japanese had invaded
With
Of course he was dead wrong. Over the next seven
years more than 16 million military men and women died on both sides, together
with millions more who were wounded, and God only knows how many civilians,
including children, were lost. That was the context for World Communion Sunday;
the Great Depression and the gathering storms of what would become the Second
World War. If ever there was a time for
Christians to be unified, that was the time.
The world needed a strong, unified witness for God and for good in that
world. Tell me that that need is any
different today.
Now you may not be thinking that the issue
of Christian unity is a significant issue to be talking about. I mean, don’t Christians basically all get
along? If we don’t get along, there are
other churches to worship in with people we do get along with. So what’s the big deal? Christian unity was such a huge matter to
Jesus that there in the Garden of Gethsemane on the evening of his betrayal and
arrest, when he was pouring out his heart in prayer to his father, look at what
he prayed for. He prayed for his
disciples then and he prayed for us now “that they may be one” as he and the
father are one.
So
as Jesus was approaching betrayal, suffering and death, nothing mattered to him
more than the unity of his disciples. Why? It wasn’t just unity for unity’s
sake. No, he prayed “that they may all be one so that the world may
believe that you have sent me.” It is for the sake of the world; for the witness
of the gospel; the evangelization of all humanity as well as the integrity of
the gospel that disciples of Jesus Christ are to be one. Why would or why
should a non believing world ever be drawn to a savior whose disciples spend so
much of their time and energy attacking one another, and, even in the name of
that Savior?
The unity of his disciples was a huge matter for Jesus and
still is. Marvin Rickard, my pastor in
high school and college at the Los Gatos Christian Church near San Jose wrote a
book called “Let the Church Grow” which told the story of the phenomenal growth
of our church in the late 60’s and early 70’s when a thousand more people would
be in worship than the year before. This
went on for many years. He said a church
will grow naturally if you remove its obstacles. The number one obstacle is not outdated
music, poor sound, or lack of parking as important as those things are. The number one obstacle to the growth of a
church is disunity.
In
the mid 80’s a former associate pastor of that church accused Rickard of having
an affair with a woman in the church. But the affair had long ended,
reconciliation had happened with his wife and the matter was closed until this
pastor pushed it public. They went
through a series of unfortunate pastoral changes. The church went on a long decline from 4000
on Sunday mornings to probably less than 700 on a good day. Now the church is coming back with fresh
leadership and renewed unity. Unity is
huge.
Recently
I read a story Daniel Massie, pastor of First Scots Presbyterian Church in
Charleston, South Carolina told about his experiences with the Christian church
in Jerusalem in the mid 90’s.*[1] When I think of Jerusalem I think of
conflicts between Jews and Muslims. But Massie
writes “one
day in
Massie
continued “The
fight started when an Egyptian monk decided to move his chair into the shade
--- technically, argued the Ethiopians, encroaching upon their jurisdiction.
Because of an edict issued in 1752 by a Turkish sultan and reaffirmed in 1852,
this edict defines which parts of this holy church standing above the
traditional site of the crucifixion and burial of Jesus belongs to each of six
Christian groups: the Latins (Roman Catholics), Greek Orthodox, Armenian
Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Copts and Ethiopians.”
Our
Lord never expected his disciples to look alike, to think alike, or to act
alike. There was Philip, the cautious intellectual with a lot of unresolved
questions. There was Thomas who made no secret of his doubts. There was Peter
the impulsive fisherman who would speak and act before his mind ever kicked
into gear. There was Simon the Zealot, a political revolutionary bent on the
over throw of the occupying Roman forces; and Matthew on the opposite extreme,
an employee of the Roman Internal Revenue Service. How boring, how dull and how
ineffective the
early church would have
been and would be now if the disciples were cut from the same piece of cloth.
Jesus
doesn’t expect us to be alike in every respect or to agree with each other on
every point. But Jesus also doesn’t expect
us to lord it over one another, or to vie for favor or first place. Jesus expects us to strive only to be a
servant to one another. Jesus said that the greatest among us would be the
least of all.
Jesus
died on the cross to make us one with our Creator God and one with his
church. It doesn’t matter whether one
votes Democrat and the other thinks President Obama is the anti-Christ. It
doesn’t matter whether one likes traditional hymns and the other likes loud
praise music. It doesn’t matter whether
one is invited to be on a committee and the other one isn’t. None of that matters. What matters is that Jesus died on the cross
for us and our sins are forgiven, period.
Today
when we take the bread and the juice, if you’re thinking thoughts of anger
against another person, you need to confess that before taking communion. Do not take the bread and the juice if you’re
planning to go talk badly about someone you’re mad at. Don’t.
Repent first and ask God to give you the strength to confront that person
in love and to treat them with respect whether you think they deserve it or not. I would rather throw this bread and this
juice in the garbage than you take it and sin against God.
Unity
of the body is a big thing to Jesus. I pray
also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of
them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you…23b…then the
world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
You
are loved. You are cared for. You are included in God’s family. You may cry yourself to sleep at night
because you don’t think anyone loves you.
But if no one loved you, you wouldn’t be invited to this table. I, as God’s representative, invite you to
God’s table, with all the Africans, Europeans, Hispanics, Asians, middle
easterners, Democrats, Republicans, PhD’s, high school drop outs, military
people, religious people, non religious people, mechanics, plumbers, CPA’s,
doctors, counselors, retired, unemployed.
Today, we are unified because we trust in Jesus Christ and Jesus lives
in our heart. If you haven’t yet turned
your life over to Jesus I invite you to do so as you come to this table. The table of our Lord.
[1] “BEING ONE IN
A DIVIDED WORLD” a sermon preached Dr. Daniel W. Massie
on