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LINKS TO THE SERMONS |
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| “The Lord’s Prayer” I used to have the occasional lunch with a guy in Newport Beach who was one of the several associate pastors of a near by church with about 10,000 members. Somewhere along the way the senior minister got involved in an inappropriate relationship with a female staff member and while the church tried to keep it hushed up, the minister’s wife had no such agenda. So, it got out and the congregation was badly shaken. And, though the pastor made a tearful public confession and plea for forgiveness, much talk of division was in the wind. The associate phoned me for a lunch meeting; his tone sounded urgent. He told me that he had been approached by a delegation from the church; they said they represented two hundred members. They wanted to split and start a new church with him as their pastor. He wanted to know what I thought. I told him to go and read the 17th chapter of John and then decide what the Lord wanted him to do. The entire chapter is a prayer. You probably thought from the sermon title that it was going to be about that prayer we recite every Sunday; that one is really the disciple’s prayer, given for their instruction. But this prayer in John 17 reveals the heart of Christ like no other. It is the longest prayer in the Bible, so long that I didn’t have the whole thing read in deference to your attention spans. And it is even worse than you think; it is part of a longer narrative that begins back at chapter 13. It really can’t be fully appreciated without reading the whole thing, from chapter 13 through 17. This is your homework assignment for the week; find time to read those chapters uninterrupted. Then ask yourself what you might do to help fulfill the Lord’s prayer. When you read it, you will notice that the whole thing takes place on the occasion of the Last Supper. The one missing ingredient in John’s telling of the Last Supper is the communion. John gives us a different sacrament, the sacrament of foot washing. What follows is a long discourse initiated by the rhetorical question put to the disciples, “Do you know what I have done to you?” And, at the end of the conversation, comes this passionate prayer – a prayer for unity. The phrase that occurs repeatedly in the prayer is this, “that they all might be one.” The prayer grows out of the events in the preceding few chapters, all suggesting a pending disunity: the betrayal of Judas, Jesus’ foreknowledge that all, even Peter, would abandon the mission, that argument the disciples had at the table about who was the greatest. Where there is competition, there is sure to be division into camps. So Jesus’ prayer for his disciples was that they might all be one, one in Christ as God and Christ are one. When I went to Hawaii the chair of the SPRC took me for a tour of the neighborhood around the church. We drove past a large congregational church a few blocks down from First Methodist and he said, “There’s the competition.” I said, “They’re not the competition, they are on our side, they are us.” Some of you have been paying attention to the fact that the General Conference is meeting this week in Texas. The media has been paying attention wondering if this is the year the United Methodist Church will split over the issue of homosexuality. We came pretty close last time four years ago. One group wants to make the language in the Book of Discipline stricter and the other wants to eliminate it all together. But this time there is a new mood that has taken precedence – the importance of maintaining unity in the Body. We saw how divisive the conversation became in the Presbyterian Church a few years ago, and when the Episcopal Church made an openly gay man a bishop, people left the denomination in protest – in some cases whole parishes and in one case a whole dioceses. The church leaders have decided that maybe there is something more important than achieving agreement on that one emotional issue, that is retaining the unity of the Body of Christ for which he so earnestly prayed. We continue the dialogue but in the context of that unity which Christ sought for us. And in that context, the dialogue is likely to produce understandings that would not be possible if we divide into warring camps. Jesus saw us coming. That’s why his prayer is not only for his disciples but for those “who will believe through their word:” the disciples of disciples of disciples. That’s what I wanted my friend in Newport Beach to see. Our first priority has to be keeping to Body together (God knows we have enough schisms among us) Most churches won’t even come to the same table for communion. That’s why when churches come together for corporate events like prayer breakfasts and the like, there is never communion. Our disunity is a gnawing embarrassment and a primary reason for our spiritual weakness. If the associate pastor had worked to hold the flock together they might have accomplished a reconciliation that was redemptive for the Body but also their fallen pastor. He might have set up a spiritual maturing process leading to the understanding that our hope and faith and trust is in Christ and not in any human even if he is a beloved pastor. All humans sin. They will disappoint every time, especially when people heap too many expectations on them. But Christ does not fail or disappoint. Perhaps the associate pastor had a chance to lead his people to that grand truth – in our faith in Christ and Christ alone, there-in lays our unity. Our opinions may vary, along with our doctrines and even our belief systems, our interpretations of Scripture; but we are one in Christ as God and Christ are one. The most urgent and earnest petition in the Lord’s prayer for us is that we might be one. It comes at the end of a three chapter discourse with his disciples when they all knew that the end was near. But in those discourses are the keys to achieving that unity for which he prayed so earnestly. (1)First in the sacrament: always see yourself as a servant. It goes for your relationships at home and at work as well as in the church, ask the question first and foremost, how can I be a servant to the persons I come into contact today. The more lowly the person is, the more important that I find a way to be a servant to him or her. (2)Pay attention to the things Jesus taught you and make intentional efforts to put them into practice. (3)Trust the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit, the Comforter that Jesus promised. (4)And stay connected with Christ as the branch must stay connected to the vine for therein lays its nourishment and its very life. Finally this: the lesson for today began with
these words, “After Jesus had spoken these words.” What
words? “I have said this to you, so that in me you may have
peace. In the world you face persecution. But take courage; I have
conquered the world!” It’s one of the oldest strategies
in the book, divide and conquer. That’s why Jesus’ prayer
was so intense. The Jesus strategy is to conquer the world in unity;
that we all might be one. |
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