John 17: 1-11
1 After Jesus said this, he looked toward heaven and prayed:
“Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, that your Son may glorify you. 2 For you granted him authority over all people that he might give eternal life to all those you have given him. 3 Now this is eternal life: that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent. 4 I have brought you glory on earth by finishing the work you gave me to do. 5 And now, Father, glorify me in your presence with the glory I had with you before the world began.
6 “I have revealed you to those whom you gave me out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed your word. 7 Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. 8 For I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. 9 I pray for them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they are yours. 10 All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to me through them. 11 I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of your name, the name you gave me, so that they may be one as we are one.
May 7, 1978 “Living In Love ”
“The petition that this community of believes be kept in God’s name is in effect a petition that love be the sign and seal of their common life. Just as love marks the unity of the Father with his Son, and of the Son with his followers, so love shall mark the unity of God’s people and provide the power for their mission.” From Proclamation
Living in love is the mark of unity - not sameness.
In the church we have had difficulty with differtness.
Our unity lies not in our sameness but in our love which transcends, embraces, encourages, applauds differtness!
To encourage differtness is healthy.
Love encourages differtness and is the power needed to live in unity with differtness.
There is only ONE holy, apostolic, catholic Church. Only one!
Yet, the Church has never been ONE. There have always been differences, disagreements and dissension within the body of believers.
“If Puritans had been, in part, driven by the haunting fear that someone, somewhere might be happy, Lutherans (have) been driven in part by the fear that someone, somewhere else might be right.” The Cresset, May 1984, p.10
These words of our text are beyond our doing; but not beyond God’s doing!
Our task is not to create the oneness, the unity; our task is to discover it, affirm it, and share it with one another.
The irony is, unity can be discovered in places of division, even places of tension.
There is room for differtness in our oneness and sometimes it takes tension to discover it.
The unity of the Church is deeper then our differtness; the oneness is a great mystery born of God’s love at work ink our hearts and lives.
“Now They Know”
Jesus Christ came to make God’ knowable’; so we might know the one true God.
No one is prevented from knowing God by God. God does not predestine anyone to blindness and disbelief.
Knowing begins with trust; trusting the person who has the word; trusting Jesus Christ.
Then knowing becomes a matter of obeying; acting on his word.
To know is to trust; to trust is to act, to act is to discover - now we know!
“And to those who obey Him, whether they be wise or simple, He will reveal Himself in the toils, the conflicts, the sufferings ( and we can add the joys) which they shall pass through in His fellowship, and as an ineffable mystery, they shall learn in their own experience Who He is.”
Albert Schweitzer, “The Search For The Historical Jesus”
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