Sermon preached on Saturday, June 1, 2019 at Church of the Savior in Wheaton, IL. Scripture: John 17:20-26.
Father, may the words of my mouth and the meditations of all of our hearts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, our strength and our Redeemer. Amen.
There are just some passages of the Bible that you can’t get away from. Sometimes it’s because a passage is particularly inspiring, encouraging, or comforting. Think Psalm 23. Other times, though, it’s because the passage really bugs you. And I’ll confess that tonight’s gospel lesson really bugs me. And I hope that by the end of the sermon, it really bugs you too.
Now, I find the first four verses of our text particularly irksome. So let me read them again for us.
Praying to the Father, Jesus says, My prayer is not for them, that is, my current disciples, alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 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. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one, 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.
Now, this is a beautiful ending to a really wonderful prayer, don’t get me wrong. But here’s what really bugs me about this passage. It doesn’t seem like this prayer has been answered.
For me personally, as a college student, it really didn’t seem like this prayer was being answered. When my evangelical mentors were fired or forced to leave the school. And now, admittedly, despite the personal crisis this caused me, on its own, I mean, come on, a seemingly unanswered prayer isn’t that big of a deal, really. I mean, that’s life.
But consider who is praying this prayer. Jesus Christ, the crucified, risen, and ascended Lord of the universe. Jesus Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God, is praying to his Father, the Lord of all the earth, before whom the mountains melt like wax.
And incidentally, the last time that Jesus prayed to his Father, so that people might believe that the Father had sent Jesus, it was right before he told Lazarus to come out of the grave in John 11. That prayer sure got answered. Spoiler alert.
And here in John 17, Jesus is praying for the same thing, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. Jesus asks his Father that the church might be gloriously united. And instead, it sure seems to me that the church is scandalously divided.
Now, let’s take a quick look at the state of disunion, as it were. So, at a macro level, the church tree is divided into four big branches. You have Orthodox, Roman Catholic, Protestants, and Anglicans. Now, to say nothing of the divisions that exist in the Orthodox and the Roman Catholic branches, the Protestant branch has exploded into thousands of tiny twigs.
And the Anglican branch? Well, we might dress a bit differently and talk a big game, but it’s not much better than the Protestant branch. After all, one of the disagreements within the Anglican branch is whether or not we are, in fact, our own separate branch. A little bit of Anglican insider baseball there.
Now, one of the tragic ironies in church history is that the sacraments, the very things that are supposed to unite the church, have often divided it. I mean, we can’t even agree on how many sacraments there are.
And when it comes to the sacrament we’re celebrating this evening, Holy Communion, well, on the one hand, thanks be to God that the Anglican Communion table is open to all baptized Christians. And I mean that seriously. A Roman Catholic, a capital O Orthodox Christian, an independent fundamentalist Baptist, and Anglicans of all stripes can, if they want to, commune together at an Anglican Eucharist. However, would they want to, is the question.
After all, at best, the Roman Catholics and Orthodox consider Anglican Holy Communion and ordinations to be out of order. We Anglicans are just like other Protestants, not Catholic enough until we return to the Mother Church. And speaking of those other Protestants, plenty of them are scared away because we’re too Catholic. In their eyes, it’s a mistake to think that Holy Communion is anything more than just bread and wine eaten in commemoration of Christ’s death.
And of course, plenty of Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant, and Anglican Christians think that it’s a grave mistake to ordain women. They might not listen to a sermon if a woman is preaching, and they might not come to the table if a woman is presiding.
Friends, the church is scandalously divided. And I don’t know about you, but I am part of the problem.
I mean, I grew up thinking that if any Roman Catholics were, in fact, Christians, it was only by accident. I once called my best friend a pagan because we disagreed about predestination. That’s no joke. And even now, on my worst days, I’m prone to think that plenty of American evangelical churches are only half churches. Heavy on the sermons, sure, but light on the sacraments. On my worst days, I’m prone to think that I’m somehow better than my brothers and sisters for whom Christ died.
And so, despite Christ’s prayer, and because of people like me, the church is scandalously divided.
So, I wonder, what’s the solution to this problem? Well, I see a few potential options. The first and easiest is simply not to care about the church’s unity. But Jesus obviously cares about it. So, perhaps we Christians should as well.
The next option might be to insist that we are the one true church of Jesus Christ. Whether we Anglicans, or we egalitarian Anglicans, or we Church of the Savior in Wheaton, Illinois, we are the one true church, and all other churches are in error. And the church will be united when they come to their senses, repent, and join our church.
Now, the problem with this approach is that it’s part of the problem and not the solution. It’s exactly the same prideful stance that’s been taken in every church split throughout the church’s history. We’re the true church. No, we’re the true church.
So, I wonder, is there anything else we could do? Well, we could emphasize the church’s invisible unity. After all, despite appearances, the creed reassures us that the church is one, holy, Catholic, and apostolic.
According to John 10.16, there is one flock with one shepherd. According to 1 Corinthians 12, the church is one body with many members. According to Galatians 3.28, there is no longer Jew or Greek. There is no longer slave or free. There is no longer male and female, for all of you are one in Christ Jesus. And according to Ephesians 4.4-6, there is one body and one spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all who is above all and through all and in all.
So, by definition then, the church is one. And yet there’s a danger here, I think. Because we can’t allow the church’s invisible unity to be an excuse for ignoring the church’s visible disunion.
We can’t just throw up our hands and say, you know what? The church only appears to be divided. That’s not our problem. We don’t need to worry about that. We don’t need to change. This is all just going to work itself out. We can’t do that.
Instead, we are called to the hard work of reconciling with our brothers and sisters in Jesus Christ.
So, perhaps we should do the opposite then and emphasize the church’s visible unity. After all, according to John 17, if the church’s unity is meant to cause the world to believe that God sent Jesus, then surely this needs to be some kind of visible, tangible unity. And the unity between Jewish and Gentile believers, which, by the way, is a key theme of the New Testament, that unity was a visible, tangible unity. It had to do with what was on the dinner table when they gathered. You couldn’t just spiritualize away the pork that had been sacrificed to idols. It was visible, tangible division and unity.
But, of course, there’s a danger here as well. Because we can’t allow the church’s visible unity to become an end in itself, detached from the church’s invisible unity. When we do so, this leads to the pursuit of visible unity at all costs. And some of the first things to go when we do that are usually the historic doctrines of the church. After all, doctrine divides, right?
So, Christians can’t agree about the sacraments? Well, let’s just not teach about the sacraments. Can’t agree about sexuality? Well, let’s just not talk about that. Let’s just go with the least common denominator doctrine. Something like, God exists. And he wants us to be good people.
Well, he does exist. And he does want us to be good people. But we’re talking about the unity of the church of Jesus Christ here. We’re not talking about the unity of vaguely ethical theists.
So, we really need to emphasize that the church’s unity is both invisible and visible. We can’t use the one as an excuse to ignore the other in either direction. In other words, here’s my big idea. The church’s unity is God’s gift to a divided world. The church’s unity is God’s gift to a divided world.
How is the church’s unity God’s gift? Well, notice when we look at our passage that the church’s unity is something Jesus prays for. He doesn’t issue a white paper about church unity. He doesn’t offer us a three-step plan for church unity. Instead, he asks God to unify his people.
And furthermore, notice that the church’s unity is not just any kind of unity in general. In John 17, 20, Jesus prays for those who will believe in me through their message. And this means that the church’s unity flows from and through the apostles preaching and teaching about Jesus. Which, based on what we’re told about the apostles in the Bible, is pretty astonishing.
And what’s even more astonishing is that the church’s unity is modeled on the diverse unity of the Trinity. To say the church is one has never meant all Christians are exactly the same. We’re not trying to abolish all differences and diversity. Instead, we’re talking about a unity of love and purpose that resembles the eternal unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
So the good news is that the church’s unity is not something we can manufacture on our own. It is God’s gift. But it’s not a gift that we’re supposed to hoard for ourselves. The church’s unity is God’s gift to a divided world.
You know, the goal of the church’s unity is that the world may know that God sent Jesus and that God loves the church like he loves Jesus. the goal isn’t that the world would look at the church’s rampant division and say, wow, what a hot mess. I hope that invisible unity thing works out for them. The goal isn’t that the world would look at the church’s watered down unity at all costs and say, wow, you know, those Christians sure are nice people. Instead, the goal of the church’s unity is that the world would look at the church’s Christ-centered, sacrificial unity and say, wow, what a glorious and loving God.
So if we want to be seeker-sensitive in the best sense of that term, we should quit watering down the gospel. But we should also stop insulting those seeker-sensitive churches. We should instead love one another just as Jesus has loved us. By this, all people will know that we are Jesus’ disciples if we have love for one another.
And you know, the church’s unity is really a much-needed gift to the world. It’s one of the most powerful witnesses, I believe, to the truth of the gospel. But on the other hand, church division, I really believe, is one of the most powerful witnesses against the truth of the gospel.
At least in my own life, I’ve never existentially doubted that God exists and that he loves me or that he has redeemed me from my sins in Jesus Christ. But you know what brought me the closest I’ve ever come to giving up on the church? It was the Christian divisiveness I witnessed in college. And it was only glimpses of the church’s unity. First in a Mennonite church, then at my interdenominational seminary, and now in the Anglican tradition. These glimpses of the church’s unity helped keep me from leaving.
And this is why it’s important not to overlook the glimpses of church unity that we’ve been given. Because for one thing, we should praise God that the church even exists. Think about it. Despite persecution, despite division, and despite differences, generation after generation of faithful Christians have handed down the apostles’ message concerning Jesus Christ, and we are here this evening. Thanks be to God.
And for another thing, we should praise God that this local church exists. Our church is filled with people who have come from various backgrounds, including from many different branches of Christ’s church. We share clergy and a youth group with churches who are in many ways different from us. And we have an open communion table where men and women, young and old, black and white, rich and poor, Catholic and Protestant, egalitarian and complementarian, can taste and see that the Lord is one and that the Lord is good. So thanks be to God.
But I wonder, how can we move forward as a church in unity? How can we grow? So here are some pastoral suggestions from your friendly neighborhood deacon.
First, I think we need to recognize the issue because I really do think that it’s easiest to just ignore the problem of the church’s unity. We ought to be burdened by the lack of unity in the church. I think it should grieve us. But we shouldn’t just sit in our grief because it’s a grief that should lead us to prayer.
So we also need to pray for the Holy Spirit’s power. As we prepare to celebrate Pentecost, let’s remember that only the Holy Spirit gives union with the Father and the Son. Only the Holy Spirit can give us the strength and the wisdom that we need to be reconciled with one another as we are reconciled to God. So we should pray something along these lines. God, do not leave us comfortless and divided. Pour out your Spirit to strengthen and unify us that the world might believe in your Son, Jesus Christ.
I think we also need to love each other well here in this local congregation. As we pray, we need to recognize that church unity begins here in our local church because, yes, there are plenty of big-picture divisions in the church, but honestly, we can’t do very much to address those in our daily, weekly lives. What we can do, however, is sacrificially serve one another despite our differences and despite the hurried and isolating forces at work in our culture around us. And from what I can tell, you’re doing this already. So keep up the good work.
Bringing meals to one another is God’s gift to a divided world. Going to visit one another, helping one another move, giving one another rides to work and to church, sharing meals together, these are all part of God’s gift. to a divided and divisive world. They might seem like small things, but they’re becoming increasingly countercultural and therefore important. We need to love each other well here in our local congregation.
And finally, we need to take great care how we speak about other believers. There is a place for critique to be sure. So let me critique a tendency I’ve noticed in myself and in some other Anglicans. We should think twice before we insult someone for whom Christ died. If we have some theological sympathies with our Roman Catholic and Orthodox brothers and sisters, that’s great. But what’s that really worth, I wonder, if we become known on the ground for making fun of various kinds of American evangelicals. And I am preaching to myself here.
Because at least for me, I think that some of this comes from thinking, well, you know, I used to be a complementarian. I used to be a young earth creationist. I used to be a fundamentalist. I used to be a Baptist. That means I can make fun of those people, right? I don’t think so.
We can and should honestly explain what has drawn us to the Anglican Church. But we should speak well of other Christians whenever possible. And we should only critique our brothers and sisters in Christ when it’s necessary and when it’s for their good and not at their expense.
Now, I don’t know about you, friends, but the more I think about the Church’s unity and the lack thereof, the more I realize just how much the Church always needs Pentecost. The Church’s unity is God’s gift to a divided world, and the Holy Spirit is God’s gift to a divided church. We need the Holy Spirit to give us the kind of discernment, patience, and humility we need in order to be a unified witness to a loving God.
Jesus Christ’s prayer for the unity of the church will not be left unanswered. It is being answered even now as we gather at the Lord’s table. And yet we pray, come, Holy Spirit, come, Lord Jesus.
In the words of the prayer book we pray, Almighty Father, whose blessed Son, before his passion, prayed for his disciples that they might be one as you and he are one. Grant that your church, being bound together in love and obedience to you, may be united in one body by the one Spirit, that the world may believe in him whom you have sent, your Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever. Amen.