Will Rice - Sermon #40 - “One”

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

John 17:20-26

Our reading today is part of what biblical scholars call Jesus’ high priestly prayer. This prayer has three basic parts. Jesus prays for himself, for his disciples and for the church universal. What we heard today was from that third part. Jesus is praying for the church, the whole church.

20“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,

This is a transitional phrase from the part about the disciples (on behalf of these) to the part about the church universal (on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word.) I often refer to all Christians as disciples, however, Jesus is praying here for the specific disciples who were his original followers. We are, in this passage, those who will believe in Jesus through the word of the disciples. And Jesus is praying for us. And what is he praying?

20“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one.

There is a temptation to stop right there. Jesus is praying for us, that we may all be one. That sounds really great. Let’s do that. And many of you are thinking, “Yes, let’s do that.” And by that, we are all thinking totally different things. The idea of us all being one is a complicated one and Jesus is about to make it more complicated:

21that 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.

So we should all be one, like the Father is in Jesus and Jesus is in the Father. So the oneness we are to share is just like the oneness the Father and the Son share. But what does that mean? Let’s take a shot at this. Jesus is asking God that we may be one as Jesus and God are one. Does being one mean being the same? Well that doesn’t work biblically or practically. Could you say Jesus and God the Father are the same? In a limited sense you might get away with it, but you would have to leave out all those little details about Jesus, like being born in human form, walking in human form, and dying in human form.

To quote from U2’s Bono, “We’re one, but were not the same.”

“Same” would also be a hard word to use to describe any two people. We may be united in some way, we may be similar in our humanity, but it would be a limited use of the word to say that I am the same as a young female Christian in Liberia.

Come to think of it, I am not even the “same” as everyone who is sitting in this sanctuary today. We are in many ways similar. We share many common beliefs, but by no means are we the same.

Since it is a little fuzzy how we are to be one, let me move on to why. Perhaps we can understand how we are to be one if we can know why we are to be one. Jesus may answer this in the very same line, “so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

So if Jesus is talking to God and about us, perhaps he is saying that we should be one, so that the world (everybody else who doesn’t yet believe in Jesus through his disciples) may believe that God has sent Jesus. I want to be clear on this that we, the ones who already believe in Jesus through the word of the disciples, should be one so that “they,” everyone else ,may believe that it was indeed God who sent Jesus.

If we are to follow this line, some have suggested that this is a sort of unity of public witness.[1] If we are unified, others may believe that Christ was sent from God. But unified how? Let’s look at two different dimensions of this “public unity:”

First, there is unity of faith, the idea that we hold common beliefs, especially in the areas of worship and confession. And second, there is unity of our love and mutual service for each other and for the world.[2]

Let’s start with that first one, unity in faith. We may think we have that one licked at least as a congregation. We all worship the same and believe pretty much the same stuff, right?

You don’t have to prick the skin very hard to get someone agitated in the church. Church people fight about everything. People got mad when we changed the bulletins from single fold to two fold not to even mention changing the order in which we do service or not serving communion in a service that expects it every week. And let’s not even get started on music. But that is just surface stuff, what if we go deeper? In any one of our three services, I could find people with drastically different opinions on major issues, theological, social, moral, and practical.

Let’s take for instance…

I would guarantee I could find someone in this room who thinks the church should take strong stand against homosexuality, who might say that anyone of a differing sexual orientation shouldn’t even be allowed in our Christian community or at least we should make an effort to change their behavior. I bet I could find someone else who says we say we should go out of our way to welcome gays, lesbians and bisexuals into our community expressing grace and hospitality to all of God’s unique children and embracing them for who they are. I could probably find a few somewhere in between, some wishing we just wouldn’t bring it up and others just asking us to be more tolerant in general.

Well that is a sticky one, how about one we can all agree on? What about salvation? We all agree on salvation right? Will only Christians be saved? Some say yes, some say no. All Christians or only certain Christians? Should we be responsible to convert faithful Muslims to Christianity? What about someone who doesn’t go to church? Are they ok if they live a good life? What about someone who goes to church but doesn’t live a good life? How do you know if you are saved? What does salvation mean anyway? It is about this life or about the afterlife? What happens after death for those who haven’t been saved? If you have a clear answer to any of those, I guarantee there is someone in this room who doesn’t share your answer.

There are so many points of doctrine and belief that we don’t even know each others positions on. What exactly is sin? What about the commandments? What about divorce? Is it ok to drink? What about gambling? How are we to understand the Bible?

There is certainly a “diversity” of beliefs within this congregation, and even more so when you take the United Methodist Church as a whole and even more so when you take the entire “Christian Church” as a whole. As ironic as it may seem, I do not find this passage on unity speaking against that. If the purpose of this unity is so that the world might believe that Jesus was indeed sent by God, then some amount of passionate diversity actually needs to be part of our unity.

A lack of difference of opinion would not necessarily reflect unity, rather, a lack of passion. I mean, how many of you have ever had a heated argument over whether birdseed should be sold by weight or volume? But this stuff is important. Our core beliefs are the basis of our entire worldview. Or at least they should be. If we are Christians and we don’t argue at all about what we believe, it may seem to others that we just don’t care.

Blind lack of diversity, can reflect apathy and even worse, it can lead people to do stupid things. Imagine if people understood unity to me blind adherence throughout the history of Christianity. You know someone had to stand up and say that slavery was not ok because up to a point, the Christian church supported it. Someone had to stand up in the life of the church and say, “you know what? Women ought to be treated as equals to men, especially in the life of the church” It can be our passionate diversity that makes us a strong witness. It tells people that we are committed, not close minded. It tells people that we actually care about what we believe and are on a constant journey to better understand and live out our beliefs.

But…

What about that other dimension of unity of public witness I mentioned: the unity of our love and mutual service for each other and for the world. That’s the one I am hung up on. This passage talks of unity. Jesus asks that all who believe in him through the word of the disciples may be one, like Jesus and the Father are one, so that the world may know that God sent Jesus. Jesus then asks again, that we may be made completely one, so that… and now I am reading from verse 23.

23b“so that the world may know that you have sent me and loved them even as you have loved me.”

So that the world may know that God loves them as much as God loves Jesus. Man, from living in the world day to day, especially knowing young people who are just lost, looking to drugs and alcohol and bad relationships and material possession to fill the emptiness inside them. When I look at people racking up inconceivable credit card debt to buy more things thinking that it will give them some self worth, I tell you people really need to know that God loves them as much as God loved God’s own son.

Let me lay this out again. For the moment, we are the ones that believe through the word of the disciples. Jesus prays that we may be one, just like Jesus and the Father are one, so that the world may believe that God sent Jesus. Then Jesus prays that we may become completely one, so that the world may know that God sent Jesus and that God loves Jesus’ disciples as much as God loves Jesus. So that the world may know that God loves them as much as God loves God’s very son.

I know it drives people nuts, but I actually believe we can change the world. I think one way to begin changing it is to let people actually know that something greater than them loves them. If only we could convince people of that.

Maybe we can. Let me reread for you how this passage ends:

25"Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26I 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."

Jesus made his name known to the disciples and will continue to make it known. Why? So that the love with which God loved Jesus may be in us and in the world. So that Christ may be in us and that God’s love may live in us and through us so that the world may know God’s love. So that the world may know that God loves them as much as God loves Jesus.

This is a radical love that Jesus is talking about. Love like God has for Jesus, love like Jesus has for us. To make it more radical consider where and when Jesus says this. This talk of love comes at the end of his prayer for himself, then his disciples, then us. Jesus prays this prayer at the end of chapter 17 in John’s gospel. The next chapter begins Jesus walks to the cross where his love is expressed through painful humiliation, for us. That’s love.

We are supposed to let that love live in and through us? Well, yeah. If this passage doesn’t make it clear, back up. John 13:34, where Jesus says,

34I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another.

But you know, I think we still get hung up that other dimension of public unity. Some Christians spend a lot of time thinking about other Christians to determine if they measure up. I hear phrases like, “he’s not very Christian,” or “she is going to hell.”

There is a really fine line here. It is ok to disagree. I am not saying “lets just all get along.” It is ok to actually work through our differences. I mean if someone walked in here and said, “I want to join your church but I like to murder people, is that ok?” We would say, “We are glad you are here, but no it is not ok to kill people.”

Our unity of belief is something we should work on and that is hard. It means we have to argue over points of belief over what it looks like to be a Christian, over what our stance on issues facing society should be. But that should add to and not get in the way of our unity of love and support.

You see diversity, debate, delving into the depths of our understanding these are good things. It is when it turns into petty bickering and gossip that the bus stops.

Dan Dick and Evelyn Burry write in their book, A New Kind of Church:

Judging the activities of individual members of the community of faith, while interesting and enjoyable to some, does nothing to transform the world into the kingdom of God. When we perpetually lift up the mission of the church, we help people see what they are saved for, instead of what they have been saved from.[3]

You may not realize this, but the perception people have of the Christians church is not always pretty. If you read the paper and watch the news the picture that is painted of us Christians is of a bunch of bickering spoiled brats.

This past week The Reverend Jerry Falwel died. I must admit I was never especially fond of the man because he said some very hurtful things including blaming feminists, the ACLU and other groups for bringing God’s wrath upon America and causing the September 11th attacks and hurricane Katrina. However, the reaction to his death among Christians was not helpful. On one side, there were liberal Christians publicly shouting “hurray.” On the other hand a fringe Christian group was immediately sharing plans to demonstrate at Falwel’s funeral because they perceived him as being too tolerant.

If the Christian church really wanted to make a strong witness about the life of this man they would ignore the politics and the theology and anything we didn’t like about him and talk about love and mutual service for the world. We should be constantly lifting up the mission of the church and even Falwel did that. Forget for a moment the Moral Majority and lets talk about Liberty Godparent Parent Foundation a Falwel ministry that moved from condemning unwed mothers to giving them a place to live and options. Or what about the Elm Home to help people with substance dependency issues put their lives back together?

I am by no means supporting these specific ministries or anything about Falwel except to say that where our unity lies is in the mutual understand of our need to change the world in the name of God.

I am telling you all, our way of being Christians right now is affecting the future of Christ’s church. We may be killing the chances of inviting a whole new generation to know the love of God through Jesus Christ and the unity that can only be found in God We have a choice as Christians, shrinking or growing. We can be bicker about conformity or morality or we can get to work changing the world and opening the doors to a new generation of Christians who are much more interested in knowing what they have been saved for, what they are called to do than what sin we are saving them from.

Ok, but I hate to leave you with lofty big picture stuff. What are you supposed to do about this tomorrow? There is a piece that I posted a link to on my weblog called “Saving the Darfur Puppy.” It is about our human tendency to get overwhelmed by big problems and do nothing while we react intensely to much smaller problems. We are enthralled when a lost puppy falls in a hole and rescuers work for hours to get her out, yet we flip the channel when the story comes on about the hundreds of thousands of dead in Darfur. So, let’s make a big problem a small problem. How can you change the world one life at time? I challenge you to take a week off. Not from work, not from your diet. Take a week of from judgment. Give yourself a break. For a week, don’t worry a lick about who is a Christian, who believes like you believe, who is not morally upright, who might be cheating on their taxes, who hasn’t been in church for a while. Take a week off. Here is what you can do with all the free time. Convince one person that the God of all creation loves them. Just one. I don’t care if it is your neighbor or an orphan in Rwanda. I don’t care if you have a conversation or send someone a million bucks. I don’t care if it is your kid or a perfect stranger.

20“I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21that they may all be one.

25"Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26I 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."
[1] Bruce D. Marshall, “The Disunity of the Church and the Credibility of the Gospel” in Theology Today, Vol. 50 No. 1, April 1993, online at: http://theologytoday.ptsem.edu/apr1993/v50-1-article8.htm, accessed 6 September, 2003; internet
[2] ibid.
[3] Dan R. Dick and Evelyn Burry A New Kind of Church, A Systems Approach (Nashville: Discipleship Resources 2000-2006) 56-57

Will Rice - Sermon #39 - “When You’re Tempted to Go Back to Your Old Life: Living as an Easter Person in an Ordinary World”

Rev. Will Rice
Grace United Methodist Church
Corpus Christi, TX
pastorwillrice@gmail.com

John 21:1-14

Our passage today starts out:

21After these things Jesus showed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias

After Jesus called them to become fishers of people, after all the teaching and the healings and the miracles and the parables and the arrest and the crucifixion and the resurrection the post resurrection appearances including the one where even Thomas’ doubts were overcome, here they are back doing exactly what they were doing before these things.

But I can’t be too overly critical. They were fishermen right? That was how they earned their living and we all have to earn a living, right? I mean when service is over on Sunday, I get to hang around here, but most of the rest of you have to go back out into the world and go to work or take care of the kids. You have to do some things you don’t like and some things you are not proud of. At times, the things that you learn and experience here come into conflict with the world and you have to make decisions that might not always jive with your faith.

So these disciples, just because they have gone fishing after the resurrection, may not have totally blown it, but, at the same time, I am disappointed in them.

After these things, here they are back doing exactly what they were doing before these things.

This story sort of paints of picture of them as saying, “Well all that Jesus stuff was nice, but lets get back to normal.” I remember feeling like that was going on early in my Christian journey. It may have been my first Easter. I was really into all this stuff, so I went to all the Holy Week services and we had an Easter Vigil on the night before Easter. And I got up on Easter morning and went to sunrise service and then to the service in the sanctuary. When it was all over, I was totally psyched. Christ is risen! Now I was still pretty new to church so I didn’t have any church friends at the time, so when it was all over, I just sort of stood there and watched as everybody just go back into their cars and went home. And then I did the same, and made some lunch and took a nap and then walked the dog and read a book and had dinner and went to bed and got up the next morning and went to my job and went home, etc. The whole thing was just sadly anti-climactic to me. It kind of made me sad.

And it really made me sad the next week when I went back to the church on Sunday, a week after the place was packed to overflowing, to see that the place was nearly empty. I felt, at first, disappointed in my fellow worshippers. Then I thought I was disappointed in myself. Then I realized I was just disappointed. Because in that moment of Easter, everything had changed. What I realized was yes it had, but no it hadn’t.

Things had changed, in that I was already beginning to be transformed by the power of the Gospel, but they hadn’t in that I wasn’t seeing the results in my day to day life. Part of that is the assumed boundaries we have been the sacred and the secular. Culture teaches us that it is actually ok to have a religious side and a secular side, acting one way at church and another way at work. Culture says that, but not the Gospel.

So here is the tension we all live in. At some point on Sunday, whether you like it here or not, we throw everybody out. We send you back into the ordinary world. You have to go back to fishing, or refining or teaching or whatever, but remember that your occupation is not who you are because who you are is defined by your relationship to God in Christ.

But let’s go back to the text.

3Simon Peter said to them, “I am going fishing.” They said to him, “We will go with you.” They went out and got into the boat, but that night they caught nothing.

I just love the metaphor there. They go back to work but they get no results, because something is missing. You see, no matter what we try to do, not matter how we try to engage the tension of living as Christians in an ordinary world, we aren’t going to get very far without Jesus.

4Just after daybreak, Jesus stood on the beach; but the disciples did not know that it was Jesus. 5Jesus said to them, “Children, you have no fish, have you?” They answered him, “No.”

I love that Jesus doesn’t say, “What the heck do you think you are doing? Why aren’t you out spreading the gospel?”

6He said to them, “Cast the net to the right side of the boat, and you will find some.” So they cast it, and now they were not able to haul it in because there were so many fish. 7That disciple whom Jesus loved said to Peter, “It is the Lord!”

Jesus doesn’t criticize them for going back to fishing. Neither does he remind them of all the other stupid things they said and did before the crucifixion and after the resurrection. What he does is appear to them to remind them of what they already know. And historically we know this worked. The disciples got to work spreading the good news.

But what about us? What are we supposed to do? We come here, we hear the Easter gospel proclaimed and then we are politely asked to leave. And some of us take with us the idea that there is a separation between the sacred and secular. In other words, we deal with the tension by saying “church is church, but life is life.”

Others of us struggle with trying to be a Christian in the world.

It is not very realistic to think that most of you will leave here today, quit your jobs and become full-time Jesus followers. Actually, not only isn’t it likely, it is probably not a good idea. Even for me, it is not that simple. I am not a full-time Jesus follower. Let me explain. Jesus asked his disciples to drop everything and follow him. And, at least in scripture, none of them asked about tenure, salary, retirement, or the health benefits that the Jesus Company offered. But even for me, a full-time clergy person, I think about those things. I originally wrote that as, I have to think about those things. No, I choose to. And because I choose to live with security and stability, I have to earn a paycheck from a religious institution and I am not necessarily free to drop everything and follow Jesus.

I need to say that again in case you missed it. Because I earn a paycheck from a religious institution, I am not, necessarily free to drop everything and follow Jesus.

Some people say, “But you work for God.” That is not necessarily true for me any more than it is for most of you. I work for the church. I have a boss and expectations. I work for the church. That doesn’t automatically make me a true disciple of Jesus Christ. Sometimes, in my case those go together well, other times, not as well. I believe that the church is doing the work of God in making disciples of Jesus Christ. Fortunately that goes very well with I feel called and empowered to do which is lead and train and empower people in making disciples of Jesus Christ. But say that I feel called and led to follow God in ways that don’t go with the perceived mission of this church. What if I wanted to invite groups of people to come and worship with is that would make you all uncomfortable or even drive some of you away? Or what if I feel called and led to follow God in ways that you may agree with but don’t fall within my job description? What if I feel called to head to Darfur to bring relief to the 2.5 million people who have been driven from their homes or help to stop the genocide which has killed close to a half a million people.[1] Would the church want to keep paying my salary, even if I wasn’t here?

Also, even though my full-time vocation involves the church, there are other parts of my life. Being a full-time Jesus follower, being a true disciple of Jesus Christ would mean that my identity as a disciple would not end when I punched out at the end of the day, it would be reflected in everything I do.

You can work for nearly anybody and be a follower of Jesus Christ. And you can work for nearly anybody, including the church, and not be a true follower of Jesus Christ. I know refinery workers who are true disciples. It doesn’t even mean that they are evangelizing at work or necessarily trying to change the world through their work, it is a question about the totality of their lives. Are they reflecting the Easter gospel? I have met pastors who might raise some questions about whether or not they are true disciples. I am not even talking about the ones who get on the television news with some scandal. I am talking about pastors who may be good pastors, may be good leaders, but, in the totality of their lives have not decided to be a true disciple of Jesus Christ.

It is easy to get too narrow focused about this and get frustrated. People come to me and say, “Well I can’t be a Christian at work, they won’t let me.” Maybe they won’t let you hang up scripture verses, maybe it is even deemed inappropriate to talk about your faith, but you can always be a Christian, you can always live out the Easter gospel in your life. I mean just think about the power of this message and how it can shape your life.

Christ was born and lived among us. God wanted a relationship with us so bad, that God came here. Our God is not some far off God disinterested in the affairs of us human beings. God knows and loves us intimately. I can live that out by finding ways to let others Christians and non-Christians alike, especially others that are in need, know that they are loved. I don’t even have to even necessarily tell them about God or Jesus. I can reflect the love of God through my actions. Is there someone where you work or where you shop or where you eat or where you take your kids who needs something that you can give? Maybe that is just kindness. When I got out to eat with church folks, they often like to pray at the table. Prayer is always a good thing. A lot of time people will say that it is their way of witnessing. Ok, not bad. But you know what blows me away, is when I am at a restaurant with someone and they talk to the servers like they are important. When you look someone in the eyes and say, “How are you?” and really wait for a response. You may be the only person who has cared about that person all day. That is an Easter moment.

Christ taught us. Scripture gives us lessons from Jesus about love and tolerance and peace. Jesus taught us how to live, not out of rules, but out of grace. I can live that out in my life by learning, reading scripture and then, not hurling scripture at others, but by following it myself and letting others see Jesus through me. Is there a situation where you work or where you shop or where you eat or where you take your kids that could be better handled by you based in the teachings of Christ? Some people remind themselves of this with those cute little WWJD bracelets. Let me give you a little tip though. If you wear one and people can see it, please try to do what Jesus would do. Otherwise you give us all a bad name. Perhaps you want to tuck that bracelet up under your sleeve and let it remind you to treat others with grace and dignity and respect even when they have wronged you. How about living out Matthew 5:38-41:

38“You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ 39But I say to you, Do not resist an evildoer. But if anyone strikes you on the right cheek, turn the other also; 40and if anyone wants to sue you and take your coat, give your cloak as well; 41and if anyone forces you to go one mile, go also the second mile.

Christ Died for us. God’s desire for reconciliation with God’s people is so great that he allowed himself to be tortured and killed. I can live that out in my day to day life by just trying to live into that kind of love from my creator. If God is that interested in reconciliation with me how much more interested must God be in reconciliation with the whole world. That doesn’t always mean, in my life, winning people for Jesus, it means trying to create a world of peace and love around me. Is there someone or some group of people in your life that you need to love in such a way that reflects a God that loves us all so much that he would die to make sure we knew?

Christ overcame death itself. Therefore I can have hope and peace in any situation and I can try to share that hope and peace with those around me who are suffering and mourning. That doesn’t mean that I say to someone who has just suffered loss, or has just begun to face a horrible reality, “Don’t worry, God loves you.” It sometimes just means that I get to be the calm presence in a stormy sea. It also means that I can believe in the power of resurrection in any situation whether I am standing with someone facing addiction or imprisonment or poverty or hopelessness that I believe that God can prevail. Is there someone where you work or where you shop or where you eat or where you take your kids who needs you to be that calm in the storm who needs the calm reassurance that comes from understanding the Easter Gospel?

Christ will return in the ultimate representation of God’s grace, the Kingdom of God. Meaning for me, no matter what, there is ultimate hope and that while I will work and serve God, God is the ultimate author of the story and I can live in the confidence of that. Is there someone where you work or where you shop or where you eat or where you take your kids that needs that kind of hope? Can you find a way to share it with them?


When the service is over all of us are going to go back to fishing in one way or another. Some of you will go back to your jobs, others back to taking care of kids and parents. Some of you will go back to jobs that seem to clearly reflect your beliefs other that seem to be disconnected. I will continue in my job as pastor but still, live out other parts of my life as a parent and husband, as a consumer, as a friend and a son and a brother. We have to go back to the ordinary world, but we never, ever have to go back to our old lives. We are Easter people, people who are being changed more and more into the image of Christ through the power of the Easter Gospel and that will be reflected in the totality of our existence, not just here on Sunday morning.

Amen



[1] "Hundreds Killed in Attacks in Eastern Chad", Washington Post, 2007-04-11. online at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/04/10/AR2007041001775.html