Diverse Unity

This sermon was delivered at the First Presbyterian Church in Berryville, Arkansas on the 7th Sunday of Easter, May 20, 2007.

Acts 16:16-34
Psalm 97
Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
John 17:20-26

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts be acceptable to you, O Lord, our rock and our redeemer. Amen.

I bid you please forgive me for tripping over today’s gospel reading. I think if auctioneer and square dance caller schools ever had a final exam; that would be it. Another thing this reminds me of is the beginning of the old Beatles song, “I Am the Walrus,” “I am he as you are he as you are me and we are all together.”[1] Theologically it’s not the same, but as far as pronoun reference and tongue twisters go, the quality is the similar.

Our reading is the third part of the High Priestly Prayer, the prayer which comes at the end of the Lord’s Supper. During the supper, Jesus has broken bread and shared the cup with the apostles. He has given his disciples instructions and warnings. He has told them to abide in his love.[2] He has told them “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.”[3] He tells them that he is the way, the truth and the life.[4] He has explained that he has chosen them out of the world, with everything that means and everything that requires.[5] He has washed their feet[6] and he has fed Judas,[7] the one who even as we read is returning with a detachment from the guard to arrest Jesus.[8] So to end this meal, to end this part of Jesus’ life and ministry, to close this chapter of history, Jesus offers a prayer for all of creation. Jesus offers prayer for himself, the apostles, and in today’s reading, Jesus offers prayer for the church; “for us and all others in all times and places who believe in him, so that we may all be one in the same way the Father and Son are one.”[9]

In a time and place where diversity is cultivated and celebrated, the prospect of “being one” with anything is not appealing to everybody. This continues to be an age of rebellion. These days, rebellion is found in music and art; and in tattoos and piercings. It is found in rage against authority and rage against whatever’s convenient. But there’s another old expression, “Everything that’s old is new again.”

If we think that being one makes us the same, we need to remember who was with Jesus at the Last Supper. It is tempting to think of the disciples as some sort of monolithic group of men on fire for the Lord. But as we know, this is anything but the truth.

Let’s begin with Levi and Simon the Zealot. Levi was a tax collector, and would have been considered a collaborator with the Roman authorities. As a Zealot, Simon would have advocated and worked toward the radical overthrow of Roman rule.

As for Peter, James, and John; they were best friends. They had enough business success that they were partners in fishing boats on the sea. They probably had men working for them. Peter would be the Rock; James and John were the Sons of Thunder. These three men were as close as brothers, men who trust one another with their lives in a dangerous business.

Then there was little brother Andrew. I don’t know who among us is an older sibling, but if you are you know what it is like to be bothered by the pesky little brother or sister. You’re trying to do fun stuff with the “Sons of Thunder” and here’s tag-along Andy. Or if you are the younger, you know what it is to be left out of the fun stuff, always being told you’re too young or too small or too weak or too whatever. Of course for those of you who are the middle child like me, you know about both.

Phillip was perhaps the member of the group who in our day would be creating actuary tables for insurance companies. He was always the rational one, the careful one. Ancient authorities said that it was Philip who after being called to follow by Jesus asked to bury his father first. When a young boy was found with a few loaves and fishes, it was Philip who told everyone that it would be impossible to feed 5,000 souls with such a paltry offering.[10]

So when we consider just these men who attended the Lord’s Supper, we see that they are a diverse group of folks. Nothing tells us that as they became one with the Lord they lost any of their individuality. Jesus’ arrest scene from John has shown us that the disciples responded in different ways. One responded in violence. Others responded by fleeing. One responded by putting the Passion into motion. Oh, as we talk about the twelve, we shouldn’t forget Judas, his role in these actions, and his status with the twelve.

The book of Acts tells us that as the apostles and disciples gather to be the church of Jesus Christ, there are differences. Questions had to be answered: did you need to be Jewish first before following Christ or could a god-fearing gentile become a member of the community without first being circumcised? Was the community required to maintain the strict table code found in the law or is surf-and-turf now on the menu? If there is one thing the witness of scripture tells us here it is that as we are called to be one in the Lord, as we are one in the Lord, this doesn’t mean we will become identical in the Lord. We are not presented with a single minded mass of men on fire for the Lord; the twelve are twelve different men who are one in the Lord who do not lose their individuality. Christ’s gift is unification, not homogenization.[11] We are one, but we are not the same.

One way I look at this comes from a good friend of Marie and me named Hal Butts. Hal is a Major in the Colorado State Police (Yes, he is Major Butts) and was best man at our wedding. During his toast, he invited us to think of ourselves as two corners on a triangle with Jesus at the apex. He reminded us that as we moved toward the Lord, we would move closer to one another. As Marie and I are two individuals, we will never be one and the same. Thanks be to God we will always be individuals. But as we move toward the Lord, we become one in the Lord, one in our marriage, and one in one another.

This example isn’t so unlike when Peter and John remind the Jewish leadership council that Jesus is the keystone of the faith they have rejected.[12] In stone arch windows and doors, there is a piece at the top of the arch, a keystone. It is the keystone that takes the weight of the sides of the arch keeping the stones from falling in on themselves. Remove the key, and the arch crumbles. Actually, if you remove any of the stones the arch will be weaker, but the key bears the brunt of the forces from both legs and the rest of the structure.

In both examples, none of the individual elements loses its individuality. One spouse does not become the other. One stone does not become another. Neither the people nor the stones become the other, but working together they form something new, different, and wonderful. Whether a marriage or a doorway or a window, the separate pieces retain their individuality yet become something else in unity with the key that makes them whole.

Jesus proclaims that he and the father are one, yet as Father and Son they cannot be the same. They are different and distinct. As Jesus hopes that the church, the church of every time and age, will be one with them; he knows we will not be the same. Jesus prays that we be one so that the world will know God; knowing the Father has sent the Son, and knowing the Father loves the world as the Father loves the Son. Jesus prays that we may be where he is, now and forever in his presence and in the presence of the Father. And yes, Jesus knows the world does not know the Righteous Father, but Jesus knows him and the apostles know that the Father has sent the Son. Jesus finishes his prayer, “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.”

It is through this love that we are one, one in the church, one in the body of Christ, one in the love of the Righteous God. And while we are united in Christ, we are still individuals. We are one, but we are not the same.

In the Sunday night group we’ve been talking about the Irish rock band, U2 and their music. Talking about his band, Larry Mullin, Jr. says, “We are very different people with diverse personalities,” and then paraphrasing one of his band’s songs, “we are one but we are definitely not the same.”[13] This line comes from a song called “One.” The band was having a tough time in 1993 whle working on their new album. They were trying to do something new, and something new just wasn’t happening. Bass player Adam Clayton said, “We weren’t getting anywhere until [the song] ‘One’ fell into our laps and suddenly we hit a groove.” Bono, the lead singer and principle lyric writer said, “Maybe ‘great’ is what happens when ‘very good’ gets tired. We kind of out-stared the average, it blinked first and this song arrived.”[14] This is what came out of nowhere.

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.[15]

We are given one love and one life in the one blood: the love of God through the blood of Jesus Christ. Through what the Lord our God has given his Son our Lord Jesus Christ, we are able to see the one perfect love in action. Through his teachings we are able to see the beauty and the grace of his life and love around us. And through this, we are called as the church, the body of Christ, to live one life with each other, sisters and brothers. We have one life. A life to live worshipping and working to grow closer to the cornerstone, the keystone of the faith, the one whom we believe, we trust, we hope. And in this grace and this peace and this mercy, we are to carry each other. We are to come together as one, one people united in the love of God the Father, through the blood of God the Son, by the power of God the Holy Spirit. This is how we are to respond to god and to one another in his mission of peace and redemption.

We are one, but we are not the same. As diverse as we are, we are called to unity so that we may all be one because as Jesus prays “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.” As Jesus prays, may we be.

[1] Lennon and McCartney, “I Am the Walrus,” Magical Mystery Tour, Capitol Records, 1967
[2] John 15:1-17
[3] John 14:12-24
[4] John 14:1-11
[5] John 15:18–16:4a
[6] John 13:1-11
[7] John 13:21-30
[8] John 18:1-12
[9] Bower, Peter C., Handbook for the Revised Common Lectionary. Louisville, KY: Westminster John Knox Press, 1996, page 231.
[10] Barker, William P, The Personalities Around Jesus. Westwood, NJ: Revell, 1963, page 20-29
[11] http://homileticsonline.com/subscriber/printer_friendly_installment.asp?installment_id=2838 accessed May 6, 2007.
[12] Acts 41:12
[13] U2 with Neil McCormick, U2 by U2. London: Harper Collins, 2006, page 9.
[14] Ibid, page 221.
[15] U2, “One”, Achtung Baby. Island Records, 1993