Seventh Sunday of Easter: Unity With God, And Others

Sermon: Seventh Sunday of Easter. Unity with God, Unity with Others.

It’s the seventh Sunday of Easter, so I’ll begin with the truth this morning; I intended to preach from the Acts lesson about Paul and Silas in jail. “He’s in the jailhouse now.” was a great title! Then I would make a suitable joke about solidarity with Paul because both of us didn’t care for a jail cell.

But there was a persistent nagging I couldn’t ignore. I couldn’t get away from the John passage about unity with God. So, I’m preaching about Christian unity. I want to focus on the central idea in the Gospel reading; Jesus said, “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.”

We don’t know what this solidarity is, but we know what it’s not. It’s not technological connectivity. We have plenty of connections, but technology can’t unify us in love. The Gospel reading hints at a more in-depth idea. Jesus said his followers should “be one.”

It’s frustrating that the Gospel writer doesn’t spell it out. He leaves the work to us. We must do the hard work of digging deeper to see what Jesus meant by unity, and how we live into that oneness with God and one another. 

Let’s look at both.

What is Unity? 

Some would say it’s theological and social union. I don’t think the identity Jesus spoke about was doctrinal agreement or political certainties. His message was a more profound idea, he spoke of a union between God and humanity.  “May they know that you, God, are in me, and I am in you.” 

Jesus had a different message than all his predecessors; God is relational.  He said God is his father, then he invited his followers to call God “father.” This was a radical reimagining of the divine. 

This must have scandalized the disciples! The only god they knew was a transcendent male who lived somewhere in the sky. The religion of the day removed God from humanity. They said God needed appeasement for his anger through animal sacrifices. 

Jesus didn’t allow them to define themselves by an angry god. He told them that God wanted relationships. For Jesus, God was in a parental role with humanity. God was not, as some thought, carefully separate from humanity.

So what is unity in John? I think Jesus means a relationship that allows us to live in God’s love. If we live in God’s love, then compassion to our sisters and brothers becomes compassion on ourselves. 

Spiritual union in a relationship.

That still leaves us with the question of how: How do we embrace such unified relationships?

Relationships are hard, but the secret is defining it.

The first suggestion offered in this passage is to accept that we’re already in a relationship with God and, because of our shared humanity, everyone on earth.

That’s easy to say, it’s hard to accept. Religious institutions often shame us and tell us that our mistakes and shortcomings make us unworthy of a relationship with God. 

I can’t find anywhere in today’s passage where Jesus said, “Your relationship with God hinges solely on your behavior.” Instead, he says, “Father, let them realize they are one as we are one.” 

The message is clear, accept our relationship with God and one another. That is Christian unification. We can run from it, deny it, suppress it, and even renounce it, but God is still with us. And God wants us united in love.

How do we embrace unity? We begin with acceptance.

It seems the second suggestion is to follow the example of Jesus. 

That is a theme in Jesus’s prayer. He said, “Father, may they be where I am.” Jesus prayed that his disciples would be as he was, unified with God. He prayed that his disciples would follow his example.

When I look at the life of Jesus, I see many examples of ways to follow him. Two stand out to me. Jesus was a person of prayer. He intentionally practiced holy rest, where he spent time alone with God. He didn’t stop there, Jesus also made time for community! 

It fascinates me how some people experience a spiritual awakening, then isolates themselves afterward. It is as if they are suddenly too holy for the physical world. Jesus was different. He drank wine with his disciples, and he even broke bread with sinners, yet he prayed in solitude. If we want to follow Jesus into a relationship with God, it begins with solitude and community. Prayer and community are the keys to following Jesus’s example. 

Unity isn’t a given!

Last week I read a fascinating story about the church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Tradition says the church sits over the supposed tomb of Jesus. A few years ago, a fight broke out among the monks in charge of the church.

Apparently, the conflict began when a Coptic monk sat on a rooftop and moved his chair from the sun into the shade. This was unforgivable to the Ethiopian monks who claimed that section of the roof.

I learned that the Coptic and Ethiopian monks have argued over the rooftop of the church for centuries. Nothing represents Jesus like a good argument over a church rooftop. 

The monks have a history of relational problems. In 1752 the Ottoman Sultan couldn’t handle the fighting between them, so he made an edict that each of the six Christian groups (the Latins, Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, Syrian Orthodox, Copts, and the Ethiopians) would each own a piece of the church. 

Why not divide the church? It seems like an idea fully supported by Jesus in this Gospel reading.

Ethiopian monks seized the rooftop while the Coptic monks were on a retreat in 1970. 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, an Ethiopian monk remains on the rooftop to assert their rights over the Coptic monks. So, as a fine example of Christian charity and unity, the Coptic monks followed the example, and one of their monks remains on the rooftop too.

And the tension finally bubbled over a few years ago when the Coptic monk moved his chair into the shade. It led to a verbal fight, then pushes, then shoves, then punches, and then an old-school wrestling tournament where monks threw chairs and construction materials. 

At the end of the uproar, 11 monks needed medical care, including one in the hospital unconscious and others with broken bones.

It made me wonder, how would Jesus pray for the monks? Would it be, “Father, may they be one with you, as I’m one with you.”?

Unity worries less about buildings, territory, or who is right. Instead, unity focuses on love and relationship. 

Love God, love yourself, love others, don’t act like crazy monks. 

Amen. 

Seventh Sunday of Easter: Unity with God, Unity With Others

Posted by Rian Adams. Sermon page here.