Morning Prayer: Tom Lyda Choral Amen Hymn of Unity *Become to Us the Living Bread* Witness of Scripture: John 17: 6-21a Anthem *Joined Together as One Body* James & Mailyn Biery. Chancel Choir Sermon *That They May Be One* David Spain
Recorded on May 12, 2024
There are all kinds of books that chronicle peoples’ last words. There are collections of humorous quotes, an anthology of 354 final words from a variety of people, and more substantively books like Tuesdays with Morrie or The Last Lecture or Being Mortal.Whatever the format, the effort is the same, people conveying what matters most in life, offering the wisdom of last words, words that last, words meant to carry people forward.
A long time ago Jesus offered last words, living words to his disciples. As we heard from this reading in John’s gospel, Jesus is offering a prayer, and it is a stunning prayer. We repeat one of Jesus’ prayers every Sunday as we worship, and it is a very fine way to pray. But, the Lord’s Prayer as we call it is far from the only prayer we heard from Jesus. At times Jesus got exasperated with his disciples and he prayed “How long O Lord,” and most of us have started a prayer or two like that. Sometimes Jesus prayed with a tender fervency as he cared for people who were suffering or who had endured a loss. Sometimes Jesus prayed in anguish reminding us we can always pray our emotions and our sadness; and sometimes Jesus prayed until he broke out in a sweat. Sometimes Jesus prayed with deep gratitude for a meal or for friends. Sometimes Jesus would go off by himself to pray and while we don’t know the content of those prayers, we see that in so doing Jesus valued Sabbath moments of rest and recreation.
In the prayer we overhear today, Jesus does not go away but stays close to the disciples, praying for the disciples then and by extension praying for disciples now. This prayer is Jesus at his loving, tender, intimate best. We are seeing, we are hearing into the heart of Jesus. We often think of prayer as our meditating on or about Jesus and his words, and it certainly is. Here, as John’s gospel tells us, the One called Word is meditating on us.Powerful, comforting, humbling to think of Jesus praying for us.
Remembering when Jesus offered this prayer makes it even more astonishing. He and his disciples were sharing a meal just before the festival of Passover and only a few days before he was arrested. He had washed the disciples feet as a model for how to embody ministry in his name; he assured the disciples that even though he was going away, he would come back and bring them to himself; he reminded them that the kind of peace he gives is different from how the world talks about peace; he promises that his going away would not mean they are orphans because the gift of the Spirit would abide and encourage the disciples to continue to share the kind of ministering that Jesus has done. Jesus gives the disciples an illustration when he said “I am the vine and you are the branches,” which is to say they need each other and are interdependent with one another; he tells them that living and loving in his spirit is both joyful and perilous because there will be some who don’t want Jesus’ way to guide the world’s way, preferring that the kingdom of heaven stay in heaven rather than coming on earth. Jesus was doing everything he could with these last words to impart and prepare his disciples—and then he prays for them.
We are at that poignant time of year—graduation time, moving time, transition time—it is all wonderful as a new generation begins a new adventure. It is natural for family members, teachers, church family to pray good tidings on those whose lives will be different going forward. Graduation is fun and joyful, but just underneath the smile there is also a tear.So it is with passage moments in life, and Jesus does what so many do who love those about to move into a new phase of life—he prays for them. Jesus reminds the disciples that he has told them all he has to say about God—they know what they need to know in order to live a loving life. And yet, Jesus also knows that when you share God’s kind of love in a world that is susceptible to division, hatred, and discord, there will be those who push back, who ridicule, who denounce, who reject often in the name of common sense and conventional wisdom. Jesus says to his disciples then and his disciples now that God’s love is to reign supreme through them and for the world that God so loves. Be of good courage, don’t lose heart even though powerful cynicism and cynical power claims to be the only way to work the world—the way of dominant, loveless power that many do in fact follow.
As Jesus prays for strength for the disciples to face whatever they will face—just as Jesus faced those who stood against God’s kind of love—he prays for the disciples to be one, as he and God are one. Jesus prays for oneness, for unity—not an easy uniformity, but an expansive community—unity with. We hear that prayer and can’t help but wonder if Jesus has been swept up in the moment, overcome by emotion, lost his perspective. It would not be the first time someone thought Jesus had lost it—his own mother and brothers had their doubts at one point. Jesus prays for unity, for oneness with the disciples and for an enlarging circle of oneness in the world, the world to whom Christ has come.Frankly, it seems a preposterous prayer because aren’t there some with whom we would never seek unity; aren’t there habits, actions, animosities, perspectives to stand against, to challenge.Unity amidst adversaries—Jesus had them, most people have them. When Jesus prays for unity, he is not praying for a peaceful, easy feeling. Sometimes when Jesus teaches or preaches or prays, he stirs hard questions rather than provide easy answers. That is not a bad thing—it simply means that sometimes faith is to be challenging; sometimes faith moves us beyond comfort.
When Jesus prays for unity, he is presuming and constructing a different framework for the world—a world too easily categorized by incompatibilities.We know the familiar divisions—red and blue; orange and crimson; east and west; rich and poor; male and female; radical and conservative—labels that are never helpful and are too often defining.Pick a division, any division because they are endless. Jesus prays, aspires, inspires a life transcending convenient polarities, ideological certainties, easy objectifications. Jesus is not interested in everyone liking the same ice cream—he is not interested in like-minded uniformity or lock step agreement. So, Jesus does not pray for certitude but for compassion; he does not pray for similarity but for camaraderie; he does not pray for seniority but for community. As Joanna Harder has written, “Maybe the Spirit doesn’t give unity the way the world gives unity—maybe the Spirit’s unity…is the faithful path, not the warm and fuzzy path; it’s about making us hear one another, not necessarily agree.” (The Christian Century online edition from December 25, 2013)
To pray for unity, for community confronts the all too easy impulse toward certainty that can lead to objectifying the other, that can lead to violence. In the longago BBC documentary The Ascent of Man written and later filmed only one generation past the shadows of World War II, historian Jacob Bronowski reminds us “there is no absolute knowledge, and those who claim it, whether they are scientists or dogmatists, open the door to tragedy. All information is imperfect. We have to treat it with humility…When people believe they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality, [they behave violently, inhumanely]. We have to cure ourselves of the itch for absolute knowledge and power. We have to close the distance between the push-button order and the human act. We have to touch people.” (pp. 353, 374)
Jesus sends his disciples into a world that too often trades in threat, fear, dissension, othering. He reminds them it is the world God so loves and the world that believes there are ways better than God’s love. Jesus sends the disciples into the world to say there is more than what cynics and the dominion makers proclaim. Jesus sends the disciples into the world so that the world will not settle for less than what God intends. It is no easy task, but disciples then and disciples now are carried along by Jesus’ prayers.
Perhaps more than anything, Jesus’ prayer is a reminder of the way God has made the world —yes with wondrous particularity and diversity, yet still as a unity, fibers part of a God fabricated whole cloth. Which takes us back to Tuesdays with Morrie, the book written by sportswriter Mitch Albom who befriended his college professor Morrie Schwartz during the last months of his life. The book’s title is taken from his Tuesday conversations with Morrie about what matters most in life. In the spirit of the words Jesus prayed for his disciples, Morrie made the following observations—“Devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning…if you’re trying to show off for people at the top, forget it—they will look down at you; if you’re trying to show off for people at the bottom, forget it. They will only envy you. Status will get you nowhere; only an open heart will allow you to float equally between everyone.” (127 – 128) And then Morrie said this—“The problem is we don’t believe we are as much alike as we are…If we saw each other as more alike, we might be very eager to join in one big human family in this world, to care about that family the way we care about our own…In the beginning of life, when we are infants, we need others to survive, right? And at the end of life, when you get like me, you need others to survive, right?”Morrie’s voice dropped to a whisper, “But here’s the secret: in between, we need others as well.” (156, 157)
Jesus prays that we would be one, which is to say we would see the foundational unity of life and live out of that. Jesus gives all he gives “that they may be one.” Do we understand what this means, what is possible? We get to be an answer to Jesus’ prayer!