Previous Sermons
10/22/06
10/15/06
Divorce
10/08/06
09/17/06
09/10/06
09/03/06
08/27/06
08/20/06
08/06/06
07/16/06
07/09/06
07/02/06
05/28/06
05/21/06
05/14/06
05/07/06
04/30/06
04/16/06
04/14/06
04/09/06
04/02/06
03/19/06
03/05/06
03/01/06
02/26/06
01/15/06
1/1/06
12/25/05
12/24/05
pageant
12/18/05
12/11/05
12/04/05
11/27/05
|
Seventh Sunday of Easter
May 28, 2006
Delivered by Reverend Sandra Stayner
Acts1:15-26
I John 5:9-15
John 17:11b-19
"Holy Father, protect them in your name, so that they may be one, as we are one."(v.1)
This was the prayer Jesus prayed for his disciples on the night of his betrayal, knowing that the coming day would bring his crucifixion. You have to think that his last words to his Father must contain the most important thing on his heart at the time.
"That they may be one" these were the words that came to his mind as he prepared to sweat blood, suffer the most horrible humiliation and eventually die a terrible death.
He prays for his disciples, that they may have the kind of joy that he experienced in his total love for his Father. He asks the Father not for what is, but for what the Father will do for the world through Jesus and the church. He doesn't leave them with a list of instructions about how that unity will be experienced, but he prays that they will be protected from anything that would diminish or destroy the unity that is theirs by virtue of his love for them, a love that caused him to give up everything he had that they might know love.
I have never been able to get these words of Jesus out of my mind. The desire for and the need to work towards unity among all people has been a guiding principle in my life for years, because it seems to me to be a basic tenant of the way Jesus lived his life. "Let the little children come to me." "Let the woman do what she has to do." "Heal the sick, even on the Sabbath." Jesus' whole life was spent reaching out and drawing in any who sought inclusion in God's kingdom, no matter how unacceptable they may be in the eyes of those who considered themselves, "already in." When Jesus erred in the eyes of the religious leaders around him it was always on the side of who he invited in, rather than who he left out. "Holy Father, protect them in your name, that they may be one, as we are one." How important it is for us to take hold of this principle for ourselves, the desire to seek unity with one another at all costs, because that's what Jesus longs for us to experience. To become part of Christ's community of faith is to join an enormous, diverse group of people from all ages, nationalities, color, size, shape, people with all sorts of ideas about how to live the Christian life, but who are trying as best they can to be faithful to God.
When we are baptized, we become part of a community of faith, a local group of Christians who promise to walk with us on the journey upon which we are about to embark. This Christian community is essential to our growth as Christians just as human community is essential to our human growth. But the importance of community to our very souls is fast being lost in our society. Professor George Lodge of Harvard says that there are two conflicting ideologies in the world at the moment: Individualism and communitarianism. Lodge states that the United States is one of the purist examples of individualism as an ideology that influences our country's institutions, actions and self-understanding. However he feels that too often individualism results in an unhealthy narcissism and preoccupation with the self that leads to an idolatry of self. If what he says is true, then it is possible that we are in fact creating an idol of something that was extremely important for our survival as our nation came into being. We guard jealously the rights of the individual, but in so doing it is possible to overlook the needs of the whole community. The early Christian communities were marked by the way they shared what they had. Yet so many of us are afraid to give freely, in case we end up without enough for ourselves. Ours is a generation with more things than any generation before. There are cures for more illnesses than there have ever been. We no longer have to worry about where our food will come from, because most of us have more than we need. But how many people in the words of Margaret Wheatley "find life more stressful, more disconnected, and less meaningful than it was years ago." We do not seem to be experiencing the joy of living in unity with each other that Jesus experienced with his Father - that he longed for his disciples to know.
In her book "turning to one another" Margaret suggests that what our society is suffering from is an increasing inability to find time for simple human conversation. This lack of communication with one another can lead to a deep sense of isolation, and fragmentation, something Desmond Tutu calls "a radical brokenness in all of existence." We move at a frantic speed, from one activity to another. We seek consolation in anything except one another. We wonder why so many people are stressed out, needing pills at night to sleep and caffeine during the day to keep going. "The entire world seems hypnotized in the wrong direction - encouraging us to love things rather than people, to embrace everything new without noticing what is wrong. We've forgotten the true source of our contentment and well-being." And perhaps the fastest way to break this cycle in which we have become involved is to give ourselves time again for simple conversation with people we know and people we don't know, perhaps even those we have called our enemy. We shouldn't engage in fear-filled gossip, instead we should open our hearts to learn about the other, reach out to them as Jesus did with hearts ready to receive them just as they are.
One of the things I miss most from the time we lived on a little island off the West coast of Scotland was the time that seemed to be built into life for unhurried conversation between people. Standing at the bus stop on the sea front waiting for the bus to take me to the ferry provided an opportunity for conversations with all kinds of people, mothers taking their child to the mainland for a dentist appointment, an elderly person going over to visit a friend for the afternoon, day trippers from Glasgow returning from a bicycle trip around the island. As we stood waiting for the bus we became a part of each other's lives as we shared what we were doing and where we were going. I remember on the farm that David ran on Cathedral property how every afternoon at three there would be a tea break. Everyone working on the farm that day would meet in the barn and a pot of tea and cookies would arrive from the kitchen. There was a man in town called Stanley who had serious psychiatric problems and saw visions and heard voices. He would arrive every day at three to share a cup of tea and join in the conversation.
If we are to receive the gift of unity that has been given us by our Father God, we must learn to listen as Jesus listened to those who came to him - the poor, the elderly, the sick, the lonely and the left-out. We must learn to turn away from the idol of rugged individualism and regain a respect for the importance of community life, making time for the kind of conversation that will allow us to engage with one another's unique expression of their humanity.
Jesus prayed for his disciples, "Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one." Let us pray for the grace to receive the gift he so longs for us to have.
In Jesus' name , Amen
|
