The "One" Prayer

DWELL. John 17.

⁶I have made your name known to those whom you gave me from the world. They were yours, and you gave them to me, and they have kept your word.  ⁷Now they know that everything you have given me is from you;  ⁸for the words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me.  ⁹I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours.  ¹⁰All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them.  ¹¹And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.  ¹²While I was with them, I protected them in your name that you have given me. I guarded them, and not one of them was lost except the one destined to be lost, so that the scripture might be fulfilled.  ¹³But now I am coming to you, and I speak these things in the world so that they may have my joy made complete in themselves.  ¹⁴I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  ¹⁵I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one.  ¹⁶They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world.  ¹⁷Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  ¹⁸As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.  ¹⁹And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

REFLECT

The gospels record two prayers that Jesus prays.  The Lord’s prayer is recorded in Matthew and Luke.  Short, simple, repeatable, packed with meaning.  Sort of like a tweet.  I’m not saying that Jesus was the founder of Twitter.  The other prayer is John 17.  The entire chapter.  Its not short or simple or repeatable.  It is more like a rambling soliloquy than a prayer.  It is speech directed to the Father from the Son.  Sort of like a long letter or email.  How did the church inherit this intimate conversation? Whether or not these were Jesus' actual words, the importance is the message that it conveys to and for the church.    

In today’s portion of the prayer, Jesus prays for his disciples---the church.  And in the prayer he prays that the Father would protect them from the evil one, because they will be in the world.  He prays that God would not take them out of the world.  As I’ve said before, church is not an escape or evacuation plan for the faithful.  There are churches that create a kind of refuge or buffer between its adherents and the world. So that all they see and hear is "christian".  The anabaptist community around us demonstrates a kind of "in the world, but not of the world" practice. 

The gospel depicts another kind of church experience though.  It is more like deep immersion in a combat zone.  So Jesus prays that God protect the church.  Now in the west, we are and have been protected.  At least we are free to practice religious faith without fear of government persecution or interference.  That is not so for Christians globally.  And in some parts of the world violent persecution does exist.  We too should pray for their protection.  Throughout the church’s long history, there have been seasons of persecution and violent oppression.   The first 300 years of the church’s story was a dangerous time, through which the church flourished and grew against the odds.  And when Constantine baptized the empire and endorsed Christianity, the western church entered into a relationship of power that gave them the means to persecute others---Jews, Muslims, pagans, Native tribal religions. Christians went from being the hunted to the hunters.  We must apologize for the ways the church adopted and benefited from colonialistic power.  The height of the church’s reign of terror may have been the middle ages, but the American church has maintained a kind of conquest mentality---building churches in every location, often the tallest structure in a town as a sign of domination and authority.  Using language of winning people for Christ or language in hymns of marching to victory and conquest like an army that overcomes its enemies.  Jesus did not presume his church would become an army.  He presumed they would be threatened by armies. 

There is, however, another way in which the church in the west suffers.  And it is also related to Jesus’ prayer.  The conquest of imperialism over the church has divided the body into thousands of tiny, isolated congregations.  Every horse and buggy town needs a church or 7, in Akron.  There are 800 churches in Lancaster county.  Jesus prays that the church be one, as he and the Father are one.  A relational unity in mission and in truth.  But the truth and the mission are divided and diminished now.  Either Jesus' prayer failed or the kind of unity he intends is not possible.  

So how do we embody, become an answer to Jesus’ prayer for oneness?  How do we express this oneness as a church?  As Lutherans we have built synods.  Synod means on the way together and it is a way that the church is expressed through relationships between congregations, leaders, and baptized disciples.  We meet annually as a synod in assembly in June to be the church together.  Over 700 Lutherans will attend.  Jeff and Sue Neikirk, Jennifer Heckman and I will be there June 5,6,7.  And we will both worship and serve during the assembly.  Last year as a synod we assembled over 300,000 meals to feed hungry Pennsylvanians. And we distributed some of those meals at Peter’s Porch.  Since synod worship is Sunday morning, we will not have worship at Zion.  You may carpool to the assembly---all are welcome.  You may worship at another congregation.  Most of the other Lutherans will have morning worship in their respective congregations---a sign that we are far more divided than Jesus intends.  Their leaders cannot give up Sunday morning worship for one day.  I can.  I trust Jesus.  And I believe in his prayer. So yu may visit somewhere else.  You may worship at St. Mattress of the Springs, if a day of rest is needed.  And you may return for dinner and worship here at 5 pm.  We will let go of our need to be bound by allegiance to a single congregation.  Our allegiance is not to Zion, Akron.  It is to Christ and the church in which we are called in baptism.  And in baptism we are one with the church of every time and every place.  Near and far away.  And its time now that we get our act together and come together to share the gospel and its calling on our lives to love our neighbors.  We know that tensions between churches and denominations has diminished our witness.  We know that, though the reformation age multiplied the church, it also divided us deeply.  And we must more fully recover stronger family ties than the things that divide us. Your church council has heard God say that we are called to pursue partnerships and cooperative relationships.  There are many opportunities to do so.  Jesus' prayer of protection includes the promise of provision.  Perhaps we will be a gift of provision to another congregation or congregations in need.  May we practice unity, build faithful relationships with our brothers and sisters, and serve together with gladness until all come to see and know the love and grace of God.  Amen.          

PRAY

Lord, how can your church embody the sort of unity you prayed for?  What must we give up and what must we take up to do so?  Create opportunities for us to practice deeper unity as a church in mission where you have placed us.  And give us courage to go where we have not yet gone, trusting in your holy protection.  Amen.