John 17:20-26

 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, ²¹ that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us,^[f] so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²² The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one,²³ 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. ²⁴ Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

²⁵ “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. ²⁶ I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

We are seven weeks into the Easter season, just a Sunday away from the great celebration of Pentecost, and the lectionary appoints for us a story that takes place on the night before Jesus is crucified. It’s a bit strange I know. But it makes sense when we realise two things. One is that this passage is part of a prayer that Jesus prays, not just on behalf of those gathered around him for the Last Supper, but for every believer that followed those disciples – so this prayer is a prayer for us. The other thing to note is that of all the gospels, the gospel of John shines with the resurrection in every verse. The resurrection is always there, saturating every scene, every interaction, every conversation. The resurrection is encoded in the opening verses… “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God… What has come into being in him was life, and the life was the light of all people”. The resurrection is behind John the Baptist’s description of Jesus, yelled out as he passes by: “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” In John’s gospel, the resurrection informs the content of every miracle, whether Jesus is turning water into wine at a wedding, providing the revellers with a foretaste of the heavenly banquet, or he is raising a man from death to life, a tantalizing foreshadowing of his own rising. Everywhere, in virtually every verse, the gospel of John whispers, speaks, shouts, sings joyfully of the resurrection.

And so, the resurrection is right there, even on the night Jesus is betrayed into the hands of those who will kill him. We have wandered into a powerful, private moment here. Jesus is saying goodbye to his friends. In fact, John’s gospel devotes four chapters to Jesus’ words of farewell, and they are modelled very much after the ancient farewell speeches of Greco-Roman leaders: the speaker announces his imminent departure, recalls his life, urges his audience to follow in his footsteps, perhaps even surpassing him in their behaviour, and consoles them in their sorrow. Our passage constitutes the very end of this lengthy goodbye, a moment in which Jesus has moved into a prayer on behalf of his followers—and again, he is not only talking about the ones in the room with him, the men and women who have followed him, and learned from him, and sat at table with him, and allowed him to wash their feet; he is also taking about us. He mentions us almost by name, we who have heard of Jesus as a result of a long and ancient chain of storytellers and preachers, from the people in that room, all the way down to our grandparents, and our parents and our ministers and our Sunday school teachers, to us.

Jesus is praying for us. He prays, “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”. This is Jesus’ prayer: that we may be one, even as Jesus and God are one.
The logical question follows: how can we be one?

This might seem obvious, but when Jesus prays for our oneness, he is also recognizing and then rejecting the boundaries and differences that divide us. There are divisions within ourselves, our families, our churches, our country. We live in a society full of divisions: male or female, rich or poor, white or non-white, straight or gay, Christian or Muslim, conservative or progressive, educated or uneducated, young or old, traditional or contemporary, sinner or saved, orthodox or heretic. We could go on and on, listing the boundaries that we encounter, and all too often establish or promote. These are not just divisions; they have become oppositions. These divisions exist not only out there in the world, but primarily and first within each of us. We project onto the world our own fragmented lives.

We often forget though, that for every boundary we establish, there is a human being. Ultimately, boundaries and divisions are not about issues. They are about real people, with names, lives, joys, sorrows, and needs just like us. It is easier to deal with an issue than a real person, sometimes.

Whether or not we admit it, the boundaries we establish and enforce are usually done in such a way as to favour us; to make us feel ok, to reassure us that we are right and in control, chosen and desired, seen and recognized, approved of and accepted. In order for me to win someone must lose, in order for me to be included someone must be excluded otherwise winning and being included mean nothing. So the divisions of our lives in some way become self-perpetuating.

So how do we change this story? How do we become one? Jesus prays: “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.” There are two separate themes in theses verses. First: Jesus’ desire that we be one. There is a belief that tends to make its way into our common life, that unity must equal unanimity. Or, to put it another way, to be “one,” we must be of “one mind.” But our examples from the news show us another way. They tell us stories of those who may have strong, principled disagreements—like those from very different denominations or faiths or traditions, who suddenly recognize the imperative that they must come together, right now, for the sake of bigger and more important causes than their disagreements – like climate change, or asylum seeker policy, or relationships with other faiths.

And that brings me to the second theme: the reason Jesus wants us to be one. His reason is simple: “…so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” Ah. There’s the catch. If there’s anything we Christians do well, it’s argue. The testimony for this is present right in scripture—just read 1 Corinthians for a rip-roaring account of a church with seriously dysfunctional relationships—I mean, people who are seriously at one another’s throats. Ironically, that church is at one another’s throats about who is most perfectly following Jesus – when the truth is that none of them were particularly good at it. And fights like that pretty much throw out our opportunities for showing the world the wonders of our faith.

Martin Luther’s definition of sin is: “the human curved in upon himself (or herself).” When we compete with our faith—when I claim my faith is better or truer than your faith—I am embodying that definition of sin far more successfully than I am following Jesus. I am looking inward at myself and ignoring the whole beautiful and broken world God to which has called every one of us to bring the Good News of God’s love. And just look at the state of the world today. We have every conceivable reason to put aside our differences, for the sake of the gospel. We have every conceivable reason to show to the world that the followers of Jesus are “one,” because it is a world that is aching for repair and restoration and hope.

Our oneness with each other is not simply enacted by writing covenants, treaties and legislation that govern how we will behave in the midst of our differences. Jesus does not pray for our tolerance, our getting along, or just being nice to each other. He does not even pray that our differences would be eliminated. Instead he prays for our oneness. He prays that we would be one as he and the Father are one so that our oneness would be the revelation of God’s presence to the world. Oneness in the midst of difference becomes a sacramental presence of God’s life in the world.

That does not mean, however, that we lose our identity or individuality. Jesus does not stop being Jesus and the Father stop being the Father because they are one. Oneness is less about numbers and quantity and more about relationship and quality. Jesus and the Father are one because they love and give themselves to each other. Oneness is a quality of life – God’s life. Jesus’ prayer for oneness is ultimately that we would be and live like God.

Jesus’ prayer for oneness is not about eliminating differences. It is about love. Love is the only thing that can ever overcome division. Over and over Jesus tells us that.

Love God. Love your neighbor. Love yourself. Love your enemy.

Our love for God, neighbor, self, and enemy reveals our oneness, and the measure of our oneness, our God-likeness, is love. In love there may be differences but there is no division.

The gospel truth is that God’s love knows no boundaries. God loves male and female, rich and poor, gay and straight, white and non-white. God loves Christian and Muslim, conservative and progressive, educated and uneducated. God loves young and old, sinner and saved, orthodox and heretic.  All are loved fully, completely, and uniquely as each needs.

God does not even draw boundaries between Jesus and us. If we think God loves Jesus more than anyone else, we have missed the point of the Gospel. God loves you the same as he loves Jesus. God loves your neighbour the same as he loves Jesus. God loves your enemy the same as he loves Jesus. If that is how God loves how can we do anything less and still call ourselves Christians?

In 1991 the band U2 was recording “Achtung, Baby,” their seventh studio album. They were using as their theme the reunification of Germany; the Berlin Wall had fallen less than two years earlier. While they were in the studio, however, conflict arose among the members of the band over their musical direction and the quality of their material. After weeks of backbiting and slow-to-no progress the band began to rally, around a song that came about, largely, through improvisation. The song contained lyrics like “one love, one blood, one life, we get to carry each other.”

We get to carry each other. In order for us to be truly one, we are called to take turns to be Jesus for each other, carrying each other’s burdens, so that when one of us lacks, all of us lack, and what one of us has, we all share. Not only that, we get to let God carry us. Jesus is praying for us. And that means Jesus has placed the notorious problem of our failure to be one in God’s hands. Our job is to follow Jesus, so that probably means we should put our “oneness” problem in God’s hands. And that would suggest that, in addition to working hard to set aside our differences, we should probably be joining Jesus in his prayer. It really is true that, if you have a complaint against someone, a resentment, the best possible thing you can do is to pray for them. Nothing about smiting, mind you. Take that person—or that group of people—you have trouble with and pray for them exactly as you pray for the people you love most in the world. Pray for them joy and success. Pray for them wholeness and peace and every possible blessing from God’s generous heart. Do this without reserve or tricky clauses. Do this for a month, and see what happens. Do this, and be surprised at God’s amazing capacity for healing. Do this, and behold the power of Jesus’ prayer.

Though Jesus is praying to the Father, you and I will in large part be the ones to answer Jesus’ prayer. We answer his prayer every time we choose how to love, who to love, where to love. It is time we answer Jesus’ prayer and deal with one another in love. So I wonder, who are the people who await our love? “I ask… 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.” We are one, and we get to carry each other. Thanks be to God. Amen.