Sermon on John 17:20-26

Pastor Jennifer Garcia

On this last Sunday of the Easter season, we’re reading the last of Jesus’ Farewell Discourse, his final teachings to his disciples before being arrested and executed.

He exhorted them to love one another, bestowed his peace on them, and closed by praying for them. Today’s reading is the end of this prayer, and he prayed for unity.

Jesus was about to die. He would not be physically present with his disciples forever to hold together the budding movement.

If, as so often happens with groups of humans, the movement splintered because of disagreements and egos and misunderstandings, what would happen to his teachings? What would be the legacy of the Jesus movement? Would people recognize them by their love for one another as Jesus taught? Would they be known for washing feet as Jesus had done for them that night?

Our reading from Acts gives us a glimpse a little into the future of the Jesus movement. We see an interesting contrast between the enslavers of the woman with the spirit of divination and the Jesus followers Paul and Silas.

The enslavers became enraged once they could no longer profit off of the enslaved woman. It says, they “saw that their hope of making money was gone,” and they “dragged” Paul and Silas in front of the authorities, accusing them of disturbing the peace and advocating unlawful customs.

What Paul and Silas had done was challenge systems that allowed humans to profit off of each other, and they were beaten and imprisoned for it.

Then, when divine provision allowed them to escape, they could have left without risking being recaptured. They would have benefited from another’s suffering, because the jailer was ready to die by suicide rather than face the consequences of having let the prisoners escape. But instead, they admitted they were still there, leaving open the possibility of recapture. And the jailer and his whole household joined the family of God.Theyshowed hospitality to Paul and Silas, and they all bonded over baptism and hospitality.

What a contrast: people who profited off others versus inclusion and communion.

That’s what the Beloved Community looks like.

The jailer and his household recognized God’s love in Paul and Silas for their integrity and respect for his humanity even at personal risk. The rewards were beautiful.

In this story, we see the realization of what Jesus was praying for: that his future followers would be united in their mission to share God’s love with others.

And also, not all the stories of Jesus followers are that positive. Christians are not always known for our love for one another.

Even in Acts, we see great conflict between Peter and Paul and the challenges facing the early Church.

Throughout Church history, Christians have fought wars with each other and against others, have enacted genocide, and have oppressed countless people, just for a few examples.

We’re not very unified, and we’re often not very loving to each other.

The professor of my History of World Christianity class in undergrad framed the course as a constant back and forth between unity and purity. Should Christians stay unified as a movement or choose the purity of theirideals, doctrines, and values?

Throughout the class,I pretty much always found myself rooting for unity and found myself frustrated by many of the things Christians have cut ties with each other over.

But as the years have gone by, I’ve seen some schisms in our own denomination and others. It’s easy for me to judge our ancestors in faith for the disagreements that caused permanent rifts among them, but it’s a lot harder when faced with the controversial conversations of our time.

It’s easy for me to root for unity when it’s not my belonging that’s being questioned.

For example, I was in college and out of my Lutheran bubble in 2009, when the ELCA voted to ordain LGBTQ folks and bless LGBTQ relationships (this was, of course, before marriages were legal).

I didn’t realize what I had missed until 2012, when I moved to the Denver area for a few months and joined a church there that had a gay pastor. It was hands down my favorite part of my life there.

The congregation also hosted a visit from the Reconciling in Christ organization. The representative was a trans woman who described how, early in her transition, she was so afraid, because people perceived her as a “man in a dress,” but church was the one place she felt safe and accepted.If only church were always like that. She’s since been ordained as an ELCA pastor, and our denomination is so much richer for it.

It was easy for me to root for unity when I didn’t see who was being excluded—the gifts we were missing out on.

Unity was impossible anyway. LGBTQ people were already in our congregations, already leaders, even if they so often didn’t get the titles that went with their leadership or had to stay closeted for their safety. “Unity” meant choosing to continue to oppress beloved siblings in Christ.

Sometimes, ironically, we have to choose between the so-called “unity” of the status quo and the expansiveness of Christ’s welcome and inclusion.

All this is to say that unity versus purity is much more complicated than I comprehended as an idealistic college student. The Christian movement has been wrestling with unity versus purity throughout its history, and it’s led to some ugly consequences.

We Christians aren’t very unified, and we’re often not very loving to one other.

Sometimes it seems like Jesus’ prayer was in vain.

And still, there are instances of unity.

The ELCA itself is a testament to branches of Christianity being reunited. Our denomination was born from Lutheran bodies merging, not splitting. Sure, there have been some splits since then, but it’s still encouraging that we have some history of cooperation.

On a larger scale, the ELCA and our Orthodox siblings are currently in conversation about the language in the Nicene Creed that caused the Church to split into Eastern and Western branches 971 years ago. This year is actually the 1700th anniversary of the Nicene Creed, so I’m putting together an educational series about our various creeds for later this year—stay tuned!One of the things we’ll talk about is the split between the Orthodox and Roman Catholic branches so many years ago and the current conversations.

As an example of interfaith cooperation, I had the great privilege of attending a Shabbat and Iftar dinner at Temple Beth Tikvah in Fullerton earlier this year, when they invited a Muslim congregation to break their fast with them one Friday evening during Ramadan. It was so beautiful to see people from the two traditions learning from one another and enjoying each other’s company.

This year, Ramadan and Passover fell pretty close to each other, and our observance of Easter coincided with our Orthodox siblings’. When there’s so much polarization and conflict in the world, those feel like encouraging signs that there’s still hope of cooperation and love in this world.

Jesus prayed for his disciples and followers to be united and for God’s love to be in us. He said this in a prayer, not as a command or exhortation. Love one another was an instruction, but being united was his prayer for us.

What if, as a sort of thank you note for that prayer, we prayed for unity, too?

Not a prayer for easy answers or false agreement or unity at the expense of those of us who are more marginalized, but a prayer for understanding, for deep dialogue, for appreciation of others’ humanity, and the humility to see things from others’ points of view even if we continue to disagree.

This is the final Sunday in Easter, but God’s resurrection power is still at work in the world, now and always. Jesus prayed for us to be unified and instructed us to love each other. We fall short of that all the time, but,

·       God still loves us (and those we disagree with),

·       Jesus is still praying for us,

·       And the Holy Spirit is still working among us to embrace the world with God’s unity and love.

Let’s pray now and let that be just the beginning of our thank you note prayer for Jesus’ prayer for us.

The Lord be with you. Let us pray.

Jesus, our crucified and risen Savior, thank you for praying for our ancestors in faith, for us, and for those who will come after us. Bring us your peace, fill us with your love, and may we be known for our love for one another and all your beloved children.Encourage us toward unity in challenging conversations, andlet us always see and value others’ humanity. Help us to love the world like you do.Bring us new life and true peace. Amen.