"Complete Unity"

“Complete Unity”

Robert M. Thompson, Pastor

Corinth Reformed Church
150 Sixteenth Avenue NW
Hickory, North Carolina 28601

828.328.6196   corinthtoday.org

 (© 2011 by Robert M. Thompson.  Unless otherwise indicated, Scriptures quoted are from The Holy Bible, New International Version, Copyright 2010 by New York International Bible Society.)

Praying is not doing nothing.

I have been compiling a list of Bible verses everyone likes to ignore.  Before I list them, let me give you some examples of what I’m not talking about –

• Old Testament laws most Christians agree have been set aside (“keep the Passover” or “don’t wear clothing of mixed fibers”),
• Disputable matters among Christians (women in leadership),
• Verses that are misused when ripped from their context (“eat everything set before you”),
• Commands that are clearly figurative (“cut your right hand off if it causes sin”),
• Passages that tell us to do something most of us want to do, but just can’t seem to stay with it (“be quick to listen” or “be content”).

What I’m talking about are perfectly reasonable commands and principles that are straightforward in their meaning and application.  Yet almost all of us ignore them because we don’t like them or we think we know better.  For example –

1.      Do not worship if someone has a grudge against you.  First be reconciled (Matthew 5:23-24).

2.      Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth (Matthew 6:19).

3.      Invite strangers into your home (Matthew 25:35).

4.      Visit prisoners (Matthew 25:36).

5.      Lend money to your enemies without expecting repayment (Luke 6:35).

6.      When you host a meal, do not invite your friends and relatives.  Instead, invite the poor and disabled (Luke 14:12-14).

7.      It’s better to be cheated and wronged than to take disagreements between believers into the civil courts (1 Corinthians 6:7).

8.      Keep giving to the poor until there is equality (2 Corinthians 8:13).

9.      Submit to one another out of reverence for Christ (Ephesians 5:21).

And my personal favorite –

10.  The best way to evangelize the world is to live in “complete unity” with other believers (John 17:23).

We have come up with a lot of excuses on that one, with most of them sounding something like this – “We can’t have unity because I’m right and you’re wrong.”  Am I right?  If you don’t think so, you’re wrong and we can’t have any unity until you admit it.

In our sermons on the prayers of Jesus, we come to the last third of the longest prayer of Jesus recorded in the Gospels.  Last week we saw how Jesus prayed for himself, but his prayer for himself was really a prayer that others might share eternal life with him.  Then he prayed for his disciples, that God would so protect their hearts that they would know they are in the world but not of the world.

In vv. 20-26, Jesus widens his prayer circle even further.  Hours before his crucifixion, he prays for you and me.  Let me say that again, lest you miss it.  The next twelve hours for Jesus will include an agonizing prayer in the garden, betrayal, desertion, and denial by his disciples, a series of mock trials, a brutal whipping, and crucifixion.  Yet as he prays, he’s thinking across two thousand years and more to all the believers who will ever turn to God through him, including you and me. 

The one request he makes for us has made it to the top of the list of Bible verses we ignore.

Jesus’ first concern

Hear again what Jesus prayed – and the different ways he said it –

• “I pray also for those who 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” (20-21).
• “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one” (22).
• “I in them and you in me.  May they be brought to complete unity” (23).

“Complete unity” is the phrase I borrowed to title this sermon.  The literal translation of verse 23 from Greek is this:  “I in them and you in me, in order that they might be perfected into one” (emphasis added).

I am well aware that there are many instructions and principles in the Bible I personally prefer to ignore, but finding ways to fulfill this longing of Jesus is one of the great passions of my life. 

It is why I remain a pastor in a denomination that regularly frustrates me.  I am not a “progressive” or a “liberal” in the sense that the United Church of Christ prides itself in being.   Even though John 17:21 is the UCC’s motto, I have seen the denomination act in ways that are completely counterproductive to unity – that have the effect of chasing away dissenters. 

One reason I think I need to be in the denomination is that I need to be around people who think differently than I do.  The amazing result I’ve found is that my faith has been enriched and deepened by being around Christians I thought were wrong.  And I think they need my “evangelical” or “conservative” presence as well. 

It’s the reason you have a bulletin insert with upcoming events in the wider church.  I keep dropping hints that I really believe it’s good for all of us to hang out with Christians outside our familiar, comfortable circle.  For the same reason I stay active in the Hickory Area Ministers and regularly engage with and read a wide variety of Christian thought.

On the other end of the spectrum, I deliberately read, listen to, and interact with people who are more conservative than I am, and who believe separating from more liberal Christians is the right response.  I love them; I learn from them; I stay more grounded because of them.  I need them.  My involvement with the Association for Church Renewal keeps me in contact with many conscientious objectors to the mainline church who express their objection in ways I find somewhat objectionable.  But I love them as my colleagues and partners in the passion for the purity of the church.

I hope it’s not just about what “I love” or “I need” or what “the UCC needs” from me.  I hope it’s because of Jesus’ prayer.  I simply cannot let go of what was so clearly at the center of Jesus’ attention as he prepared to leave his disciples.  “Oh, Father, above all I pray that all who believe on my in the future will be one as you and I are one, will live in perfect unity, will love each other more than they love themselves.”

Can’t you hear Jesus weeping over all the excuses we make for why this quest for unity is impractical or preemptable?  Think of all the prayers that could have passed through our Lord’s lips in front of his disciples as he prayed before the group of them for the last time.  He could have prayed that they remember to feed the hungry, that they remain sexually pure, that they preach the gospel all over the world, that they learn to pray, that they endure through times of trial, that they worship well and with heartfelt passion, or any one of a number of other themes in his own ministry.

The first concern in his last prayer was for complete unity in his church.

What does that unity look like?  I’m not fully sure.  As D. A. Carson says, I don’t think it’s necessarily “institutional” unity – as in, we all are part of one giant church.  We tried institutional unity for a long period of Christian history, and found Christians don’t handle centralized power any better than the world does.  But Carson reminds us that the unity must be “observable.”  That’s the whole point, as we’ll see in a moment.  (Carson also warns of seeing unity as simply “the lowest common theological denominator” – that is, that we ignore important boundaries that define our common commitment to the apostolic faith.) 

Whatever this unity looks like in the mind of Jesus, the world has to be able to see it.  Maybe I’m wrong, but for me that means at minimum that community worship (Thanksgiving, Easter, MLK), interdenominational Bible study (Bible Study Fellowship), shared outreach and service (Safe Harbor, Soup Kitchen), ecumenical offerings (One Great Hour of Sharing), pulpit exchanges (such as ours with Exodus last year), and more are worth the investment of time and money.   It does take time from what feels more immediate and urgent.  But why wouldn’t being part of the answer to Jesus’ last public prayer be worth sacrifice?

The purpose of unity

Jesus’ prayer for unity is not unity for unity’s sake.  Unity is the means toward an even greater goal.

Listen again to Jesus’ words –

• “May they also be in us so that the world may believe you have sent me” (v. 21).
• “…that they may be brought to complete unity.  Then the world will know that you sent me” (v. 23).

I picked up a fascinating book this week.  I often start reading a book on the assumption I can skim through it and absorb its salient points in an hour or two, even if it’s a couple of hundred pages long.  This book is hard to skim. So I haven’t gotten very far into the book. 

Let me tell you what I’ve gleaned so far.  The book is titled Unchristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity…and Why It Matters.  The author, David Kinnaman, must be older than the 20-something kid he looks like in his picture, since he is President of the Barna Research Group.  The book is about why outsiders, particularly the younger generation, are turned off by the church.

Chapter two gives the top ten critical descriptions of the church by Americans ages 16-29 who don’t go to church –

1.      Antihomosexual (91%)

2.      Judgmental (87%)

3.      Hypocritical (85%)

4.      Old-fashioned (78%)

5.      Too involved in politics (75%)

6.      Out of touch with reality (72%)

7.      Insensitive to others (70%)

8.      Boring (68%)

9.      Not accepting of other faiths (64%)

10.  Confusing (61%)

If you’re like me, your defense mechanism immediately rises up.  I have a few descriptions of you too, you young whippersnapper.  You call me “judgmental,” but your generation is “immoral.”  You call me “boring,” but I think you’re “faddish.”  You call me “old-fashioned,” and I don’t know what your world will be like when you’re 50-something, but I guarantee that those half your age will think you “old-fashioned.”  That’s been going on since the dawn of time.

Chapter three examines the “hypocritical” criticism in depth.  Research shows that Christians in general, even those who self-identify as “born-again” Christians, show very little difference with the population at large in everything from sexual behavior to petty theft to substance abuse to helping the homeless.  It’s not that everyone engages in all these activities, but the statistical difference between Christians and non-Christians is negligible if not nil. 

Again, we can hide behind the fact that the church is full of sinners (that’s my favorite retort) or we can say that everybody’s a hypocrite to some disagree.  (We would be right.)

But I don’t think it’s helpful to be defensive, and this book is asking, “What can we learn from the next generation?”  I see a theme spread across these criticisms.  Outsiders see us as arrogant.  We may see them as arrogant as well – after all, they want no part of ultimate truth or of submitting to community or of valuing the lessons of wisdom and experience.

My point is a simple reminder that Jesus had on his heart that night before he died that there is a world out there that needs him.  He came into the world to seek and save them.  He loves them.  He modeled prioritizing time with them.  He wanted to be with them, wanted to listen to them, wanted them to know they are loved, wanted them in the fold.  He cared that what he did and said attracted others to grace.

What we have come to call “evangelism” was a priority prayer for Jesus.  He said the best way for them to know him is through “complete unity” of his church.  The world sees disunity rooted in arrogance, and it’s a huge turnoff.

Glory

Jesus’ prayer was that believers would be one so that the world would know him.

But even evangelism was not the ultimate end.

Let’s look one more time at what Jesus prayed –

• “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world” (24).  St. Augustine wrote 1600 years ago, “Christ prays to his Father that we may be where he is.  Our concern should not be about where Christ resides but that we be found where he is.”[1] 
• “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me.  I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them” (25-26).

Jesus’ prayer intensifies as it comes to a close – “Father” (24), then “Righteous Father” (25).  Its form is not so much petition as it is longing.  That’s a perfectly acceptable way to pray.  “Father I want to see peace in Libya.  I long for a cure to cancer.  I can’t wait for the day when the whole world has an opportunity to hear the gospel of Jesus.”  Are those “prayers”?  Jesus models prayer in exactly that form.

But my point here is that unity is a means to evangelism, but evangelism is a means to something greater still.  It is a means to restoring the world to God’s original purpose.  “Glory” refers to what Jesus had with the Father before the world began, and what God had in mind when he brought this world into being and put human beings on it.  Glory is that state of perfect union of God and Jesus and you and me.

It’s not about “proselytizing” – just getting more people on my side so I can feel better about what I believe.  It’s about eternal life with God – sharing his glory with the whole world reconciled to God and each other.  That’s what’s on Jesus’ heart.  I want things to be as you intended God, and for that reason I want the whole world to know you sent your Son into the world.  And the very best way for the world to know that is if those who believe in me live in complete unity.

All you can do

As is the case with seemingly all of Jesus’ prayers, this one is about “big things” – maybe the biggest of all – the unity of the church, the evangelism of the world, and the restoration of God’s glory.

It is tempting to do what I’ve done, which is to ask how I can be part of the answer to these prayers.  And I think that is at least part of the reason the prayers are in the Bible.

But it’s helpful for me to remember that at the end what Jesus does is pray in John 17 – he doesn’t call us to action.  I’m sure Jesus wants us to pray with him, and prayer certainly changes us and moves us to act. 

Praying is not doing nothing.

One of my favorite sayings is “all you can do is what you can do.”  It’s a helpful reminder not to obsess about things beyond our control.

One of the things we can always do is pray.  I thought about that yesterday when a group of us gathered here in the chancel to pray for Lynn Price, who is having cancer surgery tomorrow at Duke University Medical Center. 

The pastors and elders of this church would be glad to arrange that for anyone who “calls” for us (as James 5 says).  It was a beautiful service, with 25 or so friends and family members of Lynn as well as Corinth members.  It was interdenominational, easily observed in how different ones prayed.  It was intergenerational, and one of the most memorable prayers was offered by a small child worried that this would be the last time she gets to be with her Aunt Nynnie.

There’s a certain helpless feeling when you face a disease which continues to defy a cure, even though medical advances have certainly been made.  There’s not a lot most of us can do for Lynn except tell her we care and pray. 

But again, praying is not doing nothing.  It’s demonstrating a shared humility that Jesus’ followers need in order to live in “complete unity.”  It’s witnessing that humility to the world so that they will believe as they see our shared trust in him is more important than any difference.  And ultimately it’s a longing that the glory of God will be restored in his original intent for creation – no disease, no death, no distance between God and us, or us and one another. 

The night before Jesus died, he wasn’t out preaching or healing or teaching.  He was praying.  It wasn’t because of helplessness – i.e, “I can’t do anything else so I guess I’ll pray.”  It was because he wanted to go out doing what was most important.  Amen.