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Seventh Sunday after Easter
May 20, 2007
Delivered by Reverend Sandra Stayner
Acts 16: 16-34
Rev.22: 12-14,16-18,20
John 17: 20-26
In our gospel passage today Jesus prays the most profound, beautiful prayer for his beloved disciples as he prepares to leave them and not only for the twelve but for those who would come after those twelve as well. "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, 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. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." (John 17:20-23)
Jesus was about to leave. He knew his disciples needed prayer. He was sending them out in his name with a message that was a direct challenge to the values of this world. He was sending them out as lambs among wolves to love with the same selfless, compassionate love that he had shown towards them. But first he prayed that they would find comfort in the very same unity that he had with his father in heaven. His prayer is confident, insistent, repetitive, almost like a woodpecker drilling a tree. It is as if Jesus needs these words to be drilled into his disciples for all times. It seems to be imperative for Jesus that his disciples realize how important it is for them to seek unity in their relationships with one another, with the Father and the Son through the power of the Holy Spirit that would fill their lives.
In her book "A wrinkle in time" Madeleine L"Engle imagines a planet on which everything is controlled by an evil power called IT. Every person"s thinking and acting is completely controlled by IT. Children even bounce their balls in a rhythm set by IT. On the surface all is peaceful, but are these people really alive" How different is the world controlled by IT, to the vibrant world created by God, full of diversity at every level, a place where no two things are ever completely identical, no two people really alike.
When I went to school in England we all wore school uniform. The uniforms were all bought at the same store called "Steary Geery". There were only a few choices of shoes, all the same brand. Every effort was made to ensure that the uniforms we wore were exactly the same, yet one girl ever looked like another because our body shape, our personalities and the way we wore our uniforms was completely unique.
In God"s eyes unity will never mean "sameness" as it was in Madeline L"Engle"s new world controlled by the evil IT. The unity God offers comes not from everyone looking, thinking, or being the same. It is a unity that is born of love. The unity of the Godhead, the unity between Jesus and his Father is the result of the way they love each other, the way each one is constantly turned towards each other. What God asks us is to begin to love God and each other so deeply that we find ourselves drawn into God"s mission, God"s purpose and so begin to experience a unity of purpose, of intention and of behavior towards one another.
As Christians we have over the years failed in so many ways to live into the unity that God has given us that Jesus so deeply longed for us to experience. There are separations among Christians. Roman Catholics are not allowed to share the body and blood of Christ in a Protestant church. We experience dislocation in our own church as some Primates refuse to sit at the table with our own primate Katherine Jefferts Shiori because she is a woman. Six parishes from this diocese refuse to allow our Bishop to pay pastoral visits to their churches because of his solidarity with our brothers and sisters who are homosexual. We are so busy fighting over issues both inside and outside our churches that we have failed the call to love. Yet if anything good can come out of the terrible schism within our church, perhaps it is a renewed commitment to love and serve our brothers and sisters around the world who because of the place they were born find themselves mired in poverty. Several years ago Archbishop Eames chair of the Windsor Report, a report put together at the request of the Archbishop of Canterbury after the schism that occurred as a result of the ordination of Bishop Gene Robinson encouraged the members of the Anglican communion to focus not on their differences but on their common mission to reach out in love to people all over the world who were suffering from poverty and disease.
The unity we must continue to seek is a gift from God. We cannot manufacture it. We will only begin to experience it as we fall deeper and deeper in love with God and learn to love as God has loved us. "Little children let us not just say we love, let us begin to love with our actions" says the writer of John"s letter. One of the ways we love God is by worshipping together. As we come together to praise and adore God. As we allow God to touch us with the words from scripture. As we enter into the prayers of the people we will find ourselves changed little by little, becoming more God like. Our hearts will be open to love.
Another way for us to seek the unity God offers is to take a tenth of all we have and give it freely to God. This principle of giving which God asks of his people is one way for us to develop a deeper relationship of trust for God who promises to take care of all our needs. It is a way for those of us who have so much in comparison to the rest of the world to begin to experience that in the end we actually depend on God not only for what we have but also for life itself. Tithing allows us to take our eyes of ourselves and give freely to God who gives to those in need. Unity will be found wherever people are able to listen to the other.
It is God"s desire that every single person in this world should "come within the reach of God"s saving embrace." That will happen as we reach out in love to our brothers and sisters across the world suffering from poverty and disease. In one of her addresses our Presiding Bishop talked about people she had met who were making a difference in their communities as they responded to the needs of those around them.
"I met a woman last fall who touched me and many others with her story.ÿ Somaly Mam was sold into sex slavery as a young girl.ÿ When she finally emerged from her chains and found some healing herself, she went back into those dungeons and brought other girls out of their bondage.ÿ She bought them, redeemed them for life, and took them to a refuge where they might begin to heal." She continues that work today, one girl at a time.
I met another woman who equips women in Afghani villages to better themselves and their families.ÿ Connie Duckworth, through an enterprise called Arzu,ÿ has helped women weavers to improve their product, and pays them 150% of the going rate for their rugs, but only if they agree to send their daughters to school. ÿ
I know a woman in this country who looked at her community 15 years ago, a community depressed by the failure of all its traditional industries.ÿ She could see that women needed to go back to work and to school and that they had no childcare.ÿ She went to her church and said, I want to use our Sunday school rooms to start a daycare.ÿ It will work if I can find 7 children.ÿ Today that daycare is the center of community life, the third largest employer in the county, and a source of hope and healing to women and men, girls and boys of all ages."
What will we do as a community so that people around the world who are suffering from poverty and disease will experience God"s love for them" How will we seek the unity God promises" As we give our lives to love a little deeper every day with the agape love of God we will find ourselves drawn into community with people all over the world. The unity we seek is a unity made possible only as we open our hearts to the extravagant and abundant love of God for us and for this world.
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