Seventh Sunday in Easter: ...that they may be one...

 5/29

Memorial Day Weekend at Good Shepherd-Faith

On this holiday weekend, I am live and in person  at Good Shepherd Faith Church near Lincoln Center,  At GSF, covid is still an issue .  People are masked and sitting socially distant. My friend Chris who was going to translate my sermon into Korean for me has now been hit by Covid and will not be with me. In fact, the congregation is nearly all Korean today.  I will depend on the Spirit for getting us through...here's what I had to say.....

It’s good to be with you on this Memorial Day weekend, the unofficial start to summer.  And this seventh Sunday in Easter, our seven week journey through Eastertide almost complete and Pentecost Sunday, just over the horizon next Sunday. It’s good to  be here.

It’s been a hard week. Not sure why it hit me so hard this time. I mean, according to the Washington Post there’s been 229  school shootings since Colombine.  185 people killed, 369 injured.  Over 311,000 children have experienced mass shootings at their schools. But still….something about Uvalde really got to me. 19 elementary school students.  19 elementary school students. Two young teachers. One’s husband dies of a heart attack when he heard the news. The New York Times printed all their pictures. And their stories. To remind us of the uniqueness of each, that each was a person with a present and a future, a future taken away, not to  be lived. 

And despite our outcries, our thoughts and prayers, these shootings have become an accepted, almost expected part of our life.  Guns are now the largest cause of death for children according to the CDC. In 2020, over 4500 alone..  

Just a week to so ago I was angry over another domestic terrorist shooting  in Buffalo.  

Through all of this, our politicians seem powerless to do anything to stop the madness. The particularly American form of madness  that almost declares occasional massacres of children is an acceptable  price to pay for our freedom to carry automatic weapons around.

As George Carlin once said, as long as you’re in the womb, we’ll keep you safe, but once you’re out, you’re by God on your own. 

So here we are. We’ve had these last seven weeks to reflect on the life of the risen Jesus with us.  And now a few weeks getting prepared for his physical absence.  Already, Thursday was Ascension Day, what we used to, remembering the Girls Scouts, jokingly refer to as Fly Up Day. And might I add  parenthetically that I found  it interesting  that in modern secular European societies like Denmark and Germany, Ascension Day, or in German, Himmelfahrt, heaven journey….is  still a national  holiday.

But our lesson today, from. John 20: 17-26, actually comes from Jesus’ farewell discourse at the last supper. He has just predicted his betrayal.  And now, in language that is almost hard to follow, that sounds strangely like 

I am he as you are he as you are me

And we are all together

I am the egg man

They are the egg men

I am the walrus

(Goo goo g’joob)

Jesus prepares us for his leaving. It’s part of his prayer for his disciples. At the very center is the desire that we all may be one. Glory comes back again. And although he has previously said, Where I am going, you cannot go, this time he prays that the disciples may be with him where he is….where the love of God flows through Jesus to the disciples and through them to the world….

As we look at this, here on the cusp of  Pentecost, Jesus takes us into three time zones at the same time:  

*the past, where he is the preexistent “Word” of John 1

• the present, where the historical Jesus is breaking bread  with his closest friends, the disciples
• And the future, where he will abide with the community that seeks to follow him, namely US

His deepest and most passionate desire for us is UNITY.  So strange and ironic when nothing can be further from the world we live in now. Since the Civil War, this country has never been more painfully divided. Our world is once again broken into camps. We had been living in one world, but not now.

Jesus is calling us into the deepest experience of unity, dwelling in the very heart of God. It is something mysterious…and powerful…

That’s what he wants from his followers…like Paul and Silas in prison, remember?  Like the motto of the United Church of Christ, that all may be one….But yet, is it even possible? How can we Christians preach reconciliation when even the church itself has no unity?  Even those who have the name Presbyterian are broken into different fragments. And oh how I yearned over orthodox Easter that Orthodox Russians and Ukrainians would stop killing one another…

For years the PCUSA tried to be a “big tent” but ultimately, the center would not hold. LGBTQ inclusion was too much for some. The tension between ecclesiastical unity and prophetic witness was too much.

But Jesus’ demand remains. To be part of Christ is to be ONE. In agreement or not.  And in that there is Glory. In Hebrew the word is k’vod, or heavy…glory is as we used to say, heavy…and in Greek it’s doxa, openness, judgment, honor in reputation….there is glory in oneness…

A note…in this passage, Jesus uses the word Father six times..this is about intimacy, relationship, not gender…

But still….oneness?  My senior year s Yale, I was part of an urban core program. 12 of us had inner city church jobs. We would meet for 4 hours every Monday. One hour of a “case study” form our work. One hour of a reflection paper on a reading. One hour of group process. And one hour of worship. At the beginning of the year, there were several in the group I just didn’t like. Found them annoying. At best. But every week I had to pray for them. Yes, specifically. And by the end of the year, you know what, well, I still didn’t like them…but I had come to love them…

So …who can you not be one with? Can you imagine praying  for them?

Jesus wants us  to be with him where he is. Getting there may take you places you don’t want to go. Places of anger, torture, even death…but that’s where we get to the glory..

Look….Jesus has a bottom line  here. In Christianity, there are no lone rangers. We can only do this with each other. It is a basic understanding…we are in this together..

And it works like this…we see God through Christ and the world sees Jesus through his followers…we reveal Christ and through him, God, to the world. 

I sometimes fall into wandering down the quora rabbit hole..,not even sure where that comes  from…but often my feed deals with arguments between Christian believers and atheists. Invariably, atheists have come to that perspective through their experiences with believers…

It’s pretty simple…like the song says, they’ll know we are Christians by our love…or not…I came that they might be one …let those with ears to hear, hear….Amen

Gospel John 17:20-26

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. 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. 22The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23I 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. 24Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

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."

Seventh Sunday in Easter: One

5/8

Singing with Daniel from Lebanon

John 17: 20-26 from the Message by Eugene Peterson

I’m praying not only for them
But also for those who will believe in me
Because of them and their witness about me.
The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind—
Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you,
So they might be one heart and mind with us.
Then the world might believe that you, in fact, sent me.
The same glory you gave me, I gave them,
So they’ll be as unified and together as we are—
I in them and you in me.
Then they’ll be mature in this oneness,
And give the godless world evidence
That you’ve sent me and loved them
In the same way you’ve loved me.

^24-26 Father, I want those you gave me
To be with me, right where I am,
So they can see my glory, the splendor you gave me,
Having loved me
Long before there ever was a world.
Righteous Father, the world has never known you,
But I have known you, and these disciples know
That you sent me on this mission.
I have made your very being known to them—
Who you are and what you do—
And continue to make it known,
So that your love for me
Might be in them
Exactly as I am in them.

Today is Mothers’ Day.  Friday was the day of Daniel Berrigan’s funeral. Donald Trump seems to have the GOP nomination all wrapped up. Thursday was also Ascension Day…the day we celebrate Jesus leaving earth..fro the time being…after his 50 days of earthly, bodily resurrection. I remember being in Germany ‘Himmelfahrt” day, or “heaven journey”. “Fly up day”, like the Girl Scouts. And today we’re talking about ‘One” about being ‘One”…I can almost hear John Lennon:

I am he as you are he as you are me
And we are all together…..
I am the eggman
They are the eggmen
I am the walrus
Goo goo g' job

SO what is this “one” all about?

In the list of many possible meanings of the Greek word "one," it is this particular definition that applies here: "in contrast to parts, of which a whole is made up." There is a healing of past divisions explicit in such unity; the wholeness is created through Christ, which is non-existent otherwise. The famous verse from Galatians is a fitting example of the fervent prayer of Jesus for his followers both present and yet to come: "There is no longer Jew nor Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are in one in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 4 comes to mind, too. "There is one body and one Spirit ... one hope ... one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all." (Presbyterian Outlook)

All well and good. But so what?  Our society feels far from one. The greatest income disparity since Teddy Roosevelt and JP Morgan.  The super rich don’t even want to see people not like them.  (That’s the worst)  I believe what we see in the current election is vast numbers of people saying it just doesn't work for them anymore and that they’ve lost all hope in things as they are.

While I don’t believe that Trump supporters and Sanders supporters are two sides of the same  coin, both are expressing frustration. 

I really enjoyed Andrew Sullivan’s article in New York, where he wrote with empathy about the abandoned white collar voters who back Trump. I was especially touched when he wrote about how it feels when you’re barely able to hold onto the bottom rung of the economic ladder and up and coming young Ivy League men tell you to “check your privilege” and look down on you. Somewhere along the identity politics line the Democrats abandoned the working class.

We are NOT one, we are divided.

Since we’ve settled sexual identity issues in our church, new divisions are appearing:  big vs. small, rich v poor, the churches that are doing well and have pastors and the vast majority that do not.

We are not ONE.

Signs..do we see signs? Donald Trump wants to build a “beautiful wall”…in Acts, the wall comes

down…

We’ve had as special friends the Seed group and Open Choir. Friday night, I attended their One Day; a Festival… in the Samuel Freedman Home.  (Itself an interesting story…built by Samuel Freedman during the depression days for broke millionaires, today housing neighborhood programs and housing for artists….) There was :

A Cuban bamba group

An African-American drum circle of young people from the South Bronx

An African-American gospel choir from a South Bronx Catholic Church

A Garifuna choir from the same church…

Oh…and me!

What moved me was the connections that had been made…these young people actors and musicians from all over the world accepted as full brothers and sisters by deeply Christian folk…and followers of Yoruba rooted religions…not judging, just feeling the inner connections…sharing each others music and dance…remaining themselves with their own unique backgrounds but also ONE at the same time…

At the Samuel Freedman home

When I do weddings, two candles  remain lit. The families  of origin always remain…even as the new family begins…the couple becomes one even as they remain themselves..

Oneness implies reconciliation. More than letting bygones be bygones. This summer, at our PC(USA) General Assembly, there will be an overture (taken to New York City Presbytery by West-Park and Jan Hus…) calling for an apology to the LGBTQ community for years of exclusion.  The Covenant Network, tall steeple liberals, have declined to support it because it is “divisive.” More Light, on the other hand has called for a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, like South Africa. To begin by telling stories. And listening. Sometimes all people ask is to be heard..

This church. Are we divided? Hmmm. Not sure. We certainly have lost people over  the years. What would reconciliation look like? Would it even be possible? Is there a first step? What would being one look like? Feel like?  If you have  any thoughts, let me know…

In the meantime, let us seek to find that place of being one…

                                                                                    ****

As it is Mother's Day, here is the original Mother's Day proclamation from Julia Ward Howe, before it be came sentimentalized...

Arise, then, women of this day! Arise all women who have hearts,
whether our baptism be that of water or of fears!

Say firmly: "We will not have great questions decided by
irrelevant agencies. Our husbands shall not come to us, reeking
with carnage, for caresses and applause. Our sons shall not be
taken from us to unlearn all that we have been able to teach
them of charity, mercy and patience.

We women of one country will be too tender of those of another
country to allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs. From
the bosom of the devastated earth a voice goes up with our own.
It says "Disarm, Disarm! The sword of murder is not the balance
of justice."

Blood does not wipe our dishonor nor violence indicate possession.
As men have often forsaken the plow and the anvil at the summons
of war, let women now leave all that may be left of home for a
great and earnest day of counsel. Let them meet first, as women,
to bewail and commemorate the dead.

Let them then solemnly take counsel with each other as to the
means whereby the great human family can live in peace, each
bearing after their own time the sacred impress, not of Caesar,
but of God.

In the name of womanhood and of humanity, I earnestly ask that a
general congress of women without limit of nationality may be
appointed and held at some place deemed most convenient and at
the earliest period consistent with its objects, to promote the
alliance of the different nationalities, the amicable settlement
of international questions, the great and general interests of
peace.

Julia Ward Howe
Boston 
1870