7 Easter
May 16, 2010

"And Jesus prayed for his disciples, saying: As you, Father are in me, and I in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe 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..." John 17:21-23

Whenever we read scripture, it is like entering a great and beautiful temple, full of secret rooms and chambers. When we come to the Gospel of John, it is like we are taken into the internal sanctuary of the temple, where the mystery of the divine life and our own shines forth. And as we move further into the depths of this Gospel, we come to chapters 14 through 17, from which we have been reading throughout this Easter season, and it is like entering the holy of holies. This section of John, known as the farewell discourse of Jesus, and hearing it draws into the very heart of the life incarnate.

Today, in our reading, Jesus prays for his disciples. He prays that they may be one, as he and the Father are one. He says in his prayer that the only way the world will know and believe in God is when this oneness becomes a reality. It is the unity of those who follow Christ who bring God's glory into the world.

Jesus' great desire is for us, his followers, to be one as he and God are one. That Christians for 2000 years have been anything but, however must be Jesus' great heartache. For from day one, the first disciples were jostling for bragging rights, for control, for a corner on the truth. And as Christianity spread in the diaspora, throughout the Mediterranean world widely divergent sects and communities grew up independent of each other. They fought and argued, excommunicated and executed each other.

Time went on, and calls for unity rose and fell. The Christian Church split into West and East, Catholic and Protestant, orthodox and heretic alike rent asunder by warring dogmas and doctrines and schisms.

And, friends, here we are today, still trying to discern what Jesus meant in his heart of hearts in praying that we may be one as he and God are one. Here we are, representing the largest religion in the world, with over 2 billion adherents, and we are splintered into some 38,000 denominations, at last count. Here we are as Episcopalians, and we don't even talk seriously with Roman Catholics on Cape Cod, or Unitarians, or Evangelicals. Gosh, we don't even talk to those who differ from us in our own communion, and they don't talk to us.

What is our problem? Why is it so hard to take Jesus at his word and embrace the very oneness that flows from his heart to ours? When are we going to learn?

Well let's keep it plain and simple this morning and start right here at St. Mary's. We are a community. We come together for worship, fellowship, mutual care, and outreach. We are Christians. We share a common cup, a common creed, a common legacy. And friends, we're blessed in this. On most days, we work well together. On most days, we stand shoulder to shoulder. On most days, we even like each other.

But, friends, we share the fate of the larger church in this respect. We are one but we are different from each other. We have different backgrounds, different temperaments, different agendas and perspectives. Sometimes these differences conflict and collide. Sometimes, they turn us on each other. Sometimes, we forget, or neglect, or regret that we are one, and we go our separate ways.

We can only be in microcosm what the Church has always been, fallible, human, and always in peril of losing what unity we have by competing interests.

In like manner, if we ourselves are not vigilant about the unity we share, right here in Barnstable, right now at St. Mary's, how then can we expect the Church at large to become unified. So how do we do this? How do we more fully embrace our common faith, our common life of prayer, our common endeavor?

First, friends, I believe we must keep our eyes on the prize. Our unity is a gift from God. It is the fruit of the Holy Spirit given to us to guard and cherish. There are always threats to our unity. These arise whenever we become lost in negativity, or anxiety, or self-serving agendas. They arise when we gossip, or talk behind each other's backs, or resort to petty grievances. They arise whenever we put our own interests over and above the interest of the whole. To share in the oneness Jesus envisions for us, we must be prepared in all things to make our unity the sine qua non of our life together.

Unity, however, does not mean uniformity. In order for us to become more complete in our oneness, we must affirm and uphold our diversity. Let me borrow the words of that great modern theologian cum rock star Bono of U2: "We are one, but we are not the same. We have to carry each other." Diversity is the life blood of our unity. We affirm this in our affirmation of the Trinity, that we experience God in three persons. We affirm this by embracing anyone and everyone who comes to St. Mary's, no matter how different, how strange they may seem to us.

Finally, friends, we can't rest on our laurels. What Jesus implores of us in his prayer is that we become completely one, and this means that there is still lots of room for growth. This means, to me, that we must work diligently to widen the circle of unity we enjoy as a parish. It means we cannot simply be content to take care of ourselves and live within the familiar confines of our spiritual community. So much of our effort at St. Mary's, so much of our work is devoted to keeping ourselves afloat, to keeping ourselves thriving. That is not a bad thing in itself. That is, after all, what institutions do. But we are more than an institution. Much more. We are Christ's body, created and redeemed and sanctified to be One as Jesus and God are one.

Let me end today with some words given to me by one of my best sources of new material at St. Mary's, our own Dot Pettibone. This past Thursday, after we had reflected on this week's Gospel in our morning breakfast group, Dot came into my office with the writings of Bishop Charles Brent, one of the great leaders of the Ecumenical Movement in the 20th Century in the Episcopal Church. Here is what Bishop Brent said about Christian Unity: "The purpose of Jesus Christ is to unity his Church. We must have unity, not at all costs, but at all risks. A unified Church is the only offering we dare present to the coming Christ, for in it alone will he find room to dwell...The unity of the Church is not a luxury but a necessity. The world will go limping until Christ's prayer that all may be one is answered." Amen and amen.