May 28, 2006

John 17:11-19

Whatever organization we are part of, we live with rules. It is interesting, even funny, to read sometimes the long list of rules organizations develop. They include everything from the boy friend being required to clean up the coffee table after he finishes his soda and peanuts, to husbands picking up their socks and underwear, to children straightening up their room after playmates have visited and have turned things into a chaotic nightmare. And so it is that sometimes the King or Queen of the house simply imposes the rules, because chaos calls for extreme measures, and while it may be questionable as to whether dictatorships will survive the inevitable revolution, all of us have experimented with varying approaches to discipline, with varying about of success.

It is difficult for us to imagine the kind of chaos which once existed in some areas in the early decades of the Christian church, but current scholarship is attempting to show that scant records outside of mainstream Christianity and the Gospels themselves point to diversity and differences among emerging Christian schools or groups. The Gospel of John, itself a puzzling contrasts to the Synoptic Gospel (Matthew, Mark and Luke), seems either to be based on unique sources or to be providing a corrective to certain perspectives, written long after Jesus’ death, but claiming to be faithful to his intention, as well as relevant to the needs of that time.

In Chapter 17, The Evangelist portrays Jesus offering a long, rambling, rather mystical prayer, somewhat in the fashion of a Last Will and Testament. In these words, probably in the midst of controversy which had arisen in the early Christian church, a good 50-60 years after Jesus’ death, concerns are being raised about chaos in the church.

Fortunately, Jesus doesn’t respond to his new family in some dictatorial way, demanding their obedience. Instead, in the portion of the prayer designated as today’s text, Jesus pleads lovingly for followers who will create the new kind of servant community or which his life was given into death. Interestingly, the four requests Jesus makes in what has come to be called the High Priestly Prayer, can easily be summarized in some well-known words of the Nicene

Creed. Jesus prays that we might all be "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic," as we live out our lives together, far removed from Jesus’ time, but very much a part of Jesus’ spirited community.

So that they be united just as we are:

This first petition is for unity. As his followers struggled to understand not only what he was calling them to be, but also who he was, there were many points of view. Some thought he only seemed to be divine; others said he only seemed to be human. Others had notions that he represented a good side of God, and Satan the evil side. These groups wrote down their various theologies and circulated them. Debates arose as to who was right and who was wrong. People wondered what Jesus would have said about this. As they remembered the stories of what he was like, they knew that he would have prayed for them to focus on unity rather than on controversy....just as he was one with his Father in heaven, he would have sought that they seek unity among themselves.

The story of denominations is a fascinating one, and also depressing. According to Frank Meade’s Handbook of Denominations, there are hundreds of Christian groups. When this diversity leads to rich conversation about the many facets of the faith, it is stimulating. However, when this diversity becomes controversy, as each group explains the errors in the other, then it is hurtful, perhaps denying the Christian character in the other.

For that reason it is important for us to hear, almost 2000 years later, this plaintive plea, "Holy Father, keep them in your care, so that they will be united just as we are." And it is just as important that when we confess the Nicene Creed, we reflect on the meaning of one of those words, as we say, "I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church." When children are baptized at Zion, they are baptized not into the Lutheran church, but into the one universal church, around globe.

Make them pure and holy through teaching them your words of truth.

Next, the community remembers Jesus calling them to be a holy community, one set apart, and specifically, set apart by their being rooted in the Word of God. After all – the community remembers – Jesus was not a part of this world – it rejected him. They, also, as they seek to live the new life, centered in the Word of God, will find themselves rejected. Already, Jesus’ followers found this to be true. They were being thrown out of the synagogues. The Romans regarded them as atheists, because they did not express loyalty to the Roman divinities. Rejected by the Jews and Romans, they became for Christ’s sake, what Paul himself had called refuse, rejects.

To what degree is this true in our society today? Surely, it is true in parts of the world. In Sudan, it can be dangerous to be a Christian. In some parts of India, it can be dangerous to be a Christian. However, in the United States, we have made peace with the powers that be. Sometimes, misinterpreting the constitution, we claim that this is, and has always been, a Christian nation. I believe, however, that a nation cannot be a Christian, nor un-Christian. Onlya human being can have faith in Jesus Christ,. except a human being.

Remember that Jesus called us to holiness, resulting only from faithfulness to God’s word. If we are in fact a "holy" people, we are set apart from the common culture. Our lifestyle

should challenge, even at times reject, what many consider popular, acceptable, true. As Christians, we should suspect a culture that implies that affluence, style and class are valued more than servant-hood and stewardship. In our time and place, as well as in the early church, followers of Jesus are called to center their lives in God’s words of love and justice and peace. Only through such focus are we truly set apart. Only with such perspective do we understand the meaning of the second word of the Nicene Creed when we confess, "I believe in one, holy, catholic and apostolic church."

I have told them many things...I have given them your commands.

Next, the Johannine community remembers the teachings Jesus passed on to his followers, the very truths that allow them to claim identity.

I remember worshiping in a Greek Orthodox church. I understood not a word. The language was modern Greek, of which I understood zilch. It was a strange environment, no pews for sitting, we stood the whole service. At only one point did I understand what was happening, when suddenly they all turned around and began to "pass the peace." It was very moving to me, because suddenly, I knew I belonged; they greeted me in love. I knew we had a common identity.

On this Memorial Day weekend, when we remember those who have served their country faithfully and had often died to preserve freedom, we need to remind ourselves about what it is that unites us as a church. It is not nationalism and patriotism. We happen to have an American flag in our Lutheran/Christian Church; Lutheran Christians in Australia perhaps have the Australian flag in their Christian church; churches in all different countries may have in their church buildings flags that represent their respective countries, so that cannot be what unites us.

You and I, in the quiet of our confession, can say together with millions of people around the world, in all languages, people whom we have never met, that we share a common identity called Christian. We can say that we believe in one, holy, catholic (the church’s word for "universal), apostolic church, and that this church, although shocking to some, supersedes all our national and political allegiances.

As you sent me...I send them:

Finally, the earliest church struggled against the problems with "naval gazing," pre-occupied with self, an "inner-directed-ness." Very popular in religious circles today is a return to mysticism, which allows one to focus on internal concerns – and sometimes to get stuck there.

The Greek word apostelein means "to send out." Mark and Paul and Barnabas did not have those titles as first names, as in "Apostle Paul, Apostle Mark, Apostle Barnabas." The word "apostle" designated their status as emissaries or ambassadors for Jesus. They were the sent ones! They did not stay at home and pray. They hit the road.

This kind of stewardship, active stewardship, is good for the whole body. ... working on church grounds, serving as a counselor at a retreat, delivering meals on wheels.

The Johannine community is remembering how easy it is to stay at home. They are all too aware of the legendary stories told already in their lifetimes of men and women sent out to share the Good News in unknown lands. They remembered that Jesus himself had sent out hisfollowers, and now he was sending them too.

In our own times people from our church, two women teachers, have gone to our sister churches in NW diocese of the Lutheran Church in Tanzania, to work for two years that as teachers in Kibeta grade school. They are the second team to live there for extended periods of time on behalf of the Gospel of Jesus. Some people may consider it crazy to give up two our more years, live in a distant land in a different culture, but perhaps they got tired of just saying, "I believe in one, holy, catholic, and apostolic church," and wanted the personal assurance that that last word, "apostolic," really applied to them.