The Seventh Sunday of Easter

Seventh Sunday of Easter
Text: John 17:20-26
Sean C. Kim
St. Mary’s Episcopal Church
29 May 2022 
 
         After three years of preaching, healing, and proclaiming the Kingdom of God, Jesus concludes his ministry with a farewell supper surrounded by his disciples. Today’s Gospel from John is part of what is known as the Farewell Discourse, the final words of Jesus before his arrest, trial, and execution. The portion that we just heard is actually a prayer. As Jesus gets ready to leave his disciples, he prays to the Father that he would keep his followers united in love.
         The unity of the faithful is an extension of the unity that exists between the Father and the Son. Jesus prays, “For you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us…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 17:21-22). Just as the Father and the Son are one, we, too, are to be united with one another and with God, and flowing through in all directions is love.
         Jesus’ prayer for unity is grounded in the doctrine of the Trinity, but there is a practical dimension as well. The disciples have been following Jesus as their leader for three years, but now he is going to leave them. What will happen to the fledgling new movement that Jesus has begun? Jesus anticipates the challenges and problems that his disciples will have after his departure, and he has even warned them of the trials and persecution to come (John 15:18, 20). If the disciples don’t hold together, the movement has no chance of survival.
         And what, in fact, happens after Jesus’ arrest? Far from holding together, the disciples scatter for fear of their lives. In spite of all the teaching that they have heard, the miracles that they have witnessed, and Jesus’ explicit instruction to remain united, their instinct in the face of danger and persecution is to disperse.
But we know that is not the end of the story. Following the resurrection, the disciples come together again. In the end, they fulfill Jesus’ prayer for unity. Becoming one in love, they renew their commitment to the Lord Jesus, and they continue his ministry of proclaiming God’s Kingdom to the world. Without their unity, the apostles could not have laid down the foundations of our Christian faith.
         When Jesus prays his prayer for unity, it is not, however, just for his disciples: “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” (John 17:20). Two thousand years later, we are the ones who are believing through their word, the testimony of the apostles, the Gospels. But we are far from united. Not only are there countless different denominations; we are also divided over theological, social, and political issues. Some of these divisions are not necessarily bad. For instance, we here at St. Mary’s prefer our rich liturgy, while others like Protestant simplicity and emphasis on the preaching of the Word. There are also local expressions of Christian belief and practice, influenced and shaped by indigenous cultures. We celebrate such examples of diversity. Unity does not have to mean uniformity. Then, there are differences over theology or social and political issues. Ordination of women, gay marriage, abortion, and other issues have divided the church in recent years, and many Christians may never come to agreement on them.
         Controversies and disputes are nothing new to the church. We find many instances in the history of our faith. But, as Christ’s followers, we are called to love and unite in spite of our differences. One of the things that I have recently begun to hear in churches and seminaries these days is the need to adopt an attitude of humility toward people of other religious traditions. This is to correct the sense of superiority and arrogance that Christians have often had in the past. But the irony is that we do not practice the same humility toward those in our own faith with whom we disagree. We often diminish or dismiss those in our own fold. I have to confess that I am just guilty of this as well as anyone else. We do not practice the love that Jesus preaches.
         An area in our nation’s life today that demands that we set aside our differences and divisions and come together in united witness to our faith is gun violence. It is one of the most critical problems facing us. We live in a society in which children are massacred in their schools. We live in a society in which a hate-filled racist guns down ten people in a supermarket. We live in a society in which our cities are plagued by daily reports of murder.
This past week our Bishop Diane Jardine Bruce issued a pastoral letter on the shootings at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. I hope you’ve had a chance to read it in our newsletter. In the letter, she asks, “How long must we wait for an end to senseless gun violence against another beloved child of God” How long must we wait for an end to the slaughtering of innocents? How long, Lord, how long?” And the bishop calls on us to pray. She invites us to pray a Novena, the ancient practice of nine days of prayer, from now until Pentecost. There is also a prayer vigil at the cathedral on June 21. In addition to the prayers, Bishop Diane calls on us to “come together and work together as a community to address the causes of this plague on innocents.”
         In the history of our faith, our forebears have often come together, in spite of their theological and other differences, to commit themselves to common causes. In the nineteenth century, Christians were at the forefront of the movement to abolish slavery and to reform the prison system. And in the great missionary movement of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, missionaries from all across the denominational divide fanned across the globe to proclaim the Gospel and to build hospitals and schools, and to carry out reforms, such as the eradication of infanticide. In united witness to our faith, our predecessors confronted and overcame the social evils of their day with the Gospel. We have done it before, and we can do it again. We can “eradicate this scourge on humanity.”
         Dear sisters and brothers, we live a world filled with violence and hate. As followers of the Lord Jesus, we are called to a religion of peace and love. Let us join Jesus in his prayer for unity. Let us pray that we can transcend the divisions and differences that afflict us and come together to work for peace and love, the work of God’s Kingdom.  Amen.