Easter 7C – 2022 That they all may be one. (Jn 17.21)
St. Mark’s, Charleston - 5/29/22
Link to YouTube - sermon starts around 18:50 ish. Here
Can we hear this heart prayer of Jesus today? That we all might be one.
He prayed and continues to pray for us – those who will believe- that we might be one. This is part – perhaps the center of his prayer at the Last Supper and shared with us by St. John. One in heart and mind. One in mission.
Not obscuring the glorious diversity of humankind but being thankful for it. Not an oppressive expectation of conformity but a rich and flowing unity in which we share life with each other and with the Father and the Son living in and through us in mutual indwelling in the Holy Spirit.
Jesus holds up for us a vision of what life lived in faith community can be....and this is a vision we need desperately to grasp, now more than ever, and not let go or write it off as some utopian ideal.
I will admit its been very difficult to know where to focus the sermon this morning –so, forgive me if this seems all over the place.
Tomorrow we mark Memorial Day wherein we recall those who have laid down their lives to protect the freedoms and well-being of this country–Raise your hand if someone known to you made the ultimate sacrifice. Memeorial Day. We remember them.
They sacrificed for this same country where the fruits of profound disunity are swirling around us seemingly from every quarter – with virulent racial hatred at work murderously in Buffalo, NY to the slaughter of the Innocents in Uvalde to the ongoing attempts by Russia to destroy a whole people and obliterate their culture along with their cities and homes in Ukraine, with the Russians holding food as hostage in a world where food insecurity is reaching untenable levels.. in Nigeria alone, 76% of the population could be considered as suffering food insecurity – compare that with 10% in South Carolina – mostly seniors and children.. yes, its overwhelming, so hard to know where to focus, and what actions we can take....and sometimes all I can do is pray “Maranatha, come Lord Jesus, come quickly.”
And, yet, Jesus was no stranger to these things... violence, war, starvation, murder of innocents and radical divisiveness were not news to him.. which, I believe, is one reason he holds up for us a vision for what human flourishing can look like – and it is rooted both in true community and true freedom.
I want to suggest that we are experiencing a profound disintegration of both of these, and it would take a month of sermons to trace all of the reasons why, so I’m just going to point to some markers.
Perhaps obvious, but needs to be said, the pandemic has hastened the trajectory of the disintegration of community. Another marker of this disintegration is that, increasingly, people – our family, friends, and neighbors - are struggling with feeling disconnected.
This emerges as one theme when the young men who take up AR-15s and murder others are considered as a group – they are uniformly described as isolated –living as strangers among family and neighbors – not really connecting.
A study from the Harvard School of Education tells us that we have an epidemic of loneliness in oour country – a “....new report suggests that 36% of all Americans—including 61% of young adults and 51% of mothers with young children—feel “serious loneliness.” Not surprisingly, loneliness appears to have increased substantially since the outbreak of the global pandemic.” (Link to study) Last month, an older person I see in direction point blank asked me “How in the world can I make some friends here? “ She had moved to this area five years ago and is still struggling with connecting.
I said, what about church? Her response was that, at her church, the groups and friendships were formed and they did not seem to be truly open to new people. And, she went on, and, when it’s only Sunday morning, there really doesn’t seem to be the opportunity to get to know people.
What an indictment! This is the Church for whom Jesus prayed that they may be one..so that the love with which the Father has loved the Son might be in them...and the Son, himself, might live in and through us. So that as we go out into the world and encounter each other here, that the love of the Father for the Son might be able to stream through us to the world and to each other.
So, here are three ideas about what genuine community in the church - looks like...this not exhaustive and it can apply to other settings as well.
True faith community is....
1. Diverse and, at the same time, it's characterized by shared vision and values.
St Paul wrote to the Galatians 3:28 – "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." to which I would also add rich nor poor, straight or gay, and even republican or democrat...for we are all one in Christ. And that’s the key – wonderful diversity and at the same time bound together in Christ. And what are those shared visions and values.. check out the Baptismal Covenant.
2. Stable and also porous.
One of the monastic vows is stability – which for them means a steadfast commitment to a place and a community...it also points us to the long faithfulness of God toward us... in Exodus we learn that
“The Lord our God is merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but will hold to account the guilty” . . . (Exodus 34:6–7)
So, steadfastness, stability but not to the point of rigidity – a faithful community is one that is stable and remains open at the same time to welcoming the stranger and inviting people you don’t know into your life.
3. Rooted in mutual love for each other, active care for others, and accountability.
Jesus gives us the great example of washing feet – He said, If I your Lord and Teacher have washed your feet, you also ought to wash on another’s feet.” (John 13.14).. and do you remember the stunt that James and John tried to pull when they said – Lord, when you come into your glory, grant that we might sit at your right and left ? This was a major power play on their part.. and Jesus sorted them out – he said, its other people who try to lord it over each other, but it shall not be so among you.
To restate: True faith community is diverse and embracing of common vision and values, stable, steadfast and also open, rooted in mutual love, care for others and accountability. That's a vision of community.
These characteristics come from our faith tradition and are encompassed by the prayer of Jesus – that we might be one with each other – and held in the bond and embrace of love between the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit – the “trinity of love and power”... of servanthood and freedom.
A bit ago I said that we are in our time suffering a disintegration of both community and freedom. So, it is to freedom that I turn.
And, this is brought into sharp focus at the moment because of the struggle over the interpretation of the second amendment – in particular, gun rights.
Has our definition of freedom come to mean that I am free to do what I wish, however I wish, and that the impacts on others be damned and all things must bow to the rights of the individual? That we no longer take into consideration a communal well being? I sure see this when I am driving around town or walking my neighborhood.. “O those speed limit or stop signs don’t apply to me...if I want to drunk drive or go 70 in a residential area, what’s that to you? I’m doing me. “
Does freedom mean that we can enjoy endless national bickering over every imaginable thing to the point of legislative gridlock? Does freedom mean that our citizens are free to succumb to addictions of all sorts: pornography, drugs, and violence? Does freedom mean that it’s just fine to drum any modicum of civility out of the public square?
Both Memorial Day and continuing massacres of innocents should lead us to ask just what freedoms are we trying to protect?
In the wake of the Buffalo shootings and revival of the gun rights debate, a clergy colleague , Fr. Marcus Halley, said this
“I don’t want what this country calls “freedom.” What we call freedom is self-centered and wholly divorced from any sense of collective responsibility. I want the freedom God offers: a freedom rooted in the community, our mutual care, our mutual respect, our mutual wellbeing.”
So, what is the vision of freedom we see in Jesus Christ? In his very first sermon- he invokes the sprit of the prophet Isaiah when he stakes out his mission and proclaims, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed. “ Luke 4.18
So, what freedom has Christ purchased for us with his life-blood?
1. First of all, Freedom from the power of sin and death.
All of us fall short and we all are subject to the sorrows and struggles of this life. We are impacted by the principalities and endless power struggles of this world – systemic racism being just one example. And, yet in Christ, we can have dignity and live with freedom of heart and mind in the face of the worst that sin, death, and the wickedness of our fellow human beings can throw at us. .Absolutely assured that sin and death will not have the final word on us. Freedom seen this way is about the reality of resurrection power at work in and through us both now and for eternity.
2. The freedom given by God is for the good of others.
St. Paul wrote in Galatians, the great manifesto of freedom in Christ,
“You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love. For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” (Galatians 5:13) And, we address our prayer to God as the one in whose service is perfect freedom.. We are given our freedom for a purpose.. and, third,
3. Freedom comes with responsibility and accountability.
The church in Corinth really struggled with this. They felt the new freedom that was theirs in Christ but for some of them it became a license to embrace the worst kind of behavior – St Paul wrote to them.. “Take care lest this liberty of yours somehow becomes a stumbling block to the weak.” (1 Cor. 8.9ff) Their behavior was leading others in the same destructive direction. So, the law of love of neighbor calls us to be mindful of and responsive to the impact of our behavior on the wellbeing of others.
So, on this Sunday of Memorial Day weekend as we grapple with the continuing epidemic of gun violence and murder of so many innocents, I leave these questions with you..
Will we act on the call to Oneness in Christ and with each other? Can St. Mark’s do this? Can St. Francis do this?
Will we seek Christ centered faith community or continue the drift into isolation and communal disintegration?
And, will we claim the freedom that is ours in Christ, the covenant in Holy Baptism, rather than the shallow and ultimately death dealing vision offered to us by the voices around us?
Let us keep silence for a moment and then I’ll offer a closing prayer ...
Lord Jesus Christ, inspire us this day with a new vision of oneness in you and each other. Then, give to us courage to become that faithful community you envisioned and the will to embody the freedom that seeks the well being of all of God’s people. This we ask in your holy name. AMEN.
