Unity in the essentials

“…that they may be one” (John 17:11)

John 17:6-23 (Year B: 7^th Sunday of Easter 2018)

The evangelist John opens his Gospel by declaring:

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.(John 1:1)

And he closes the gospel by confiding the following (John 20:31):

But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah,[b] the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.

Mid-way between the introduction of the Logos (Word) and the end (the promise of eternal life) is prayer for unity found in Chapter 17. The whole point of this chapter and what has come before and what is yet to happen – death and resurrection – is unity; unity of God in the trinity and unity of us in the family of God.  It is a call to communion with others and for God in us. We can confuse this as a call to unity under and against. Unity in an imbalanced hierarchical structure of power misses the point. Unity of some against others for the sake of conflict and domination is not desirable.

Jesus’ prayer ‘that all may be one’ can be misunderstood as a call to homogeneity and dullness. It is most definitely not a case of saying that we can have any colour car as long as it is black! To be one is the point of salvation in Christ.  The disciples of Jesus who experienced his transforming power in the months, years, decades and centuries following the events recounted in the gospels knew a unity of purpose and living that astonished the world. This, more than anything else, drew many others into the family of God.

What does it mean to be one?

Does it mean having the same ethnicity, political views, social status, theology and liturgical practices? Most certainly not!

Does it mean blind obedience within a hierarchical structure? Definitely not. God invites us to love him with ‘all our minds’ while not breaking unity in what is essential.

Unity is about a balance of respect, inclusion and sharing of common purpose and values. In matters of doctrinal belief it requires discipline on what is essential and charity in everything else. In matters of ‘church discipline’ it requires respect, tact and loyalty combined with courage, flexibility and initiative where questioning and change is required. If people stood still in the 1^st century or in the 19^th century in matters of how to articulate their beliefs and work then the reality of gospel would be greatly diminished and denied to countless numbers of people. We must work within the complex cultural and social environments of their time

‘For God so loved the world ….’ (John 3:16).

We only have to think of the question of the role of women in the Christian churches to realise (i) how much distance has been travelled in recent decades, and (ii) how much distance remains to be travelled.  The paradox facing many is that in order to maintain unity of the Christian family it is necessary to suffer disunity for a time and with some others in order to move forward. However, it is not the case that anyone can presume or take it upon themselves to innovate without a lengthy period of reflection, study, debate, consultation and deliberation. At the same time, there is an urgency of proclaiming the good news and witnessing to a world that views the messengers of this good news with some criticism and distrust. Trust needs to be rebuilt, gradually, on the basis of a genuine and sustained concern for that which is true and in the common good.

But, we need to be wary of those who claim certainty on many questions. In claiming certainty about the meaning of scripture or tradition we may risk ending up hijacking the message and basing our lives on a false premises of self-confidence. In practice, people who appear to be most certain are – if the truth be told – deeply insecure because they desperately do not want their comfort zones disrupted and opened up to critical scrutiny. Deep down they are unsure and they crave certainty in signs, miracles, proofs, cut-and-dry answers to set questions and creedal type formulae that admit of only one set of language and philosophical framework.

And lest we think that we are immune from all of this we should reflect on how our values are constantly challenged and how, perhaps, in the course of a lifetime we have had to review, modify or enlarge our understandings and views on various matters of personal, spiritual, theological,  social and political concern.

But unity comes with a price

Unity comes at a price – we have to be ready to listen to others including the wisdom of those who came before us and we have to be ready to use our own God-given reason and life-experience to ‘work things out’ in harmony with the scriptures and the broad thrust of tradition. But tradition – or if you like the lived experience of the Christian community – is not static. It evolves and is re-expressed in every era.

It may help and it should help to share this process of critical engagement with other whom we can trust in the various walks of life.

At this time, some Christians in Ireland experience the pain of disunity within and across churches on what may be considered a fundamental moral issue underpinning many or all of our human values. This concerns the right to human life in all its breadth, depth and complexity. We must hold fast in patience and love to the truth as we understand it and as scripture and Christian tradition has established it while respecting that fundamental differences arise, even within closely knit families, communities, organisations and churches, in how to approach the choice to be made by voters on the 25^th May in the Republic of Ireland. This is painful and it is part of our learning and growth in discipleship.

Jesus’ prayer for us that we might be one in the love of God-who-is-love. His Name or Word is revealed for what it is; ‘He-who-saves’ because God-who-is-love is alive and working and united with ‘He-who-saves. By choosing to live openly and courageously in this love there is every possibility that others will join us in a larger community of witnesses and believers. This is the point of chapter 17 of St John’s Gospel. Amen!

(words above = 1,062)

WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

Further reading: notes and questions, verse by verse

Preliminaries

The prayer of Jesus for his disciples is a long one. However, it packed with meaning, depth and relevance for you and me and all of us today. We can never tire of slowly reading this, chewing it over and letting it sink deeper and deeper as it unfolds new meaning to us. May the Holy Spirit guide us as we prepare to receive the Word!

6-8:   To know is to belong

I 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. Now they know that everything you have given me is from you; for 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. 

Keeping the Word is more than compliance with a check-list of do’s and don’ts.  It is about a living relationship founded on real love and real trust.

9-10:   In human Christian discipleship God is glorified

I 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. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. 

God has a special heart for those poor in spirit and those who have given themselves without reserve to God-who-is-love.

11-13:   That all may be one

And 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. While 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. But 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.

We may be in the world but we do not need to be of it. This can mean difficult choices, difficult questions and difficult courses of action. We need the prayer of Jesus and the protection of the Father in the same name of Jesus.  The seal of the Holy Spirit upon is the presence of an inner joy that this world cannot give.

14-19   Standing up for truth in a divided and hostile world

I 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. I am not asking you to take them out of the world, but I ask you to protect them from the evil one. They do not belong to the world, just as I do not belong to the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, so that they also may be sanctified in truth.

Because our home is not of or in this world, we must accept the transitory, provisional and passing nature of so many aspects of our lives.  We move forward, we hold fast in patience and we persevere in love because we know the protecting love of God. We are truly sent by God when we surrender to his Word. We can know something of the heavenly unity that is in the Trinity even in this passing land of shadows.

20-23:   The glory of the resurrection

 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. 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. 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, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

The outcome of following Christ is a unity that gives glory to God. How sad it is when unity is broken by all manner of things borne of pride, jealousy and fear.