Psalm 68:1-20
Acts 1:15-26
1 John 5:9-15
John 17:11b-19
Jesus' love for God's children shines throughout the Gospels. His love is like a strong, golden thread that's woven through all the twists and turns of life. No matter how dark and desolate life may become, that shining gold thread of God's love through Christ remains strong - in the past two thousand years it has never been successfully broken.
In today's Gospel when Jesus prays for his followers, that love shines bright and clear. He asks God, his Father, to protect them so that they may become one, as he is one with his Father. Now if we were to go on and read the next verse in John, we would discover that Jesus' prayer is also for those who are yet to come. Jesus says that he prays not only on behalf of the disciples and followers who were with him then, but he prays for all those who will come in the future as well .
That night about two thousand years ago a man named Jesus from a little town in Galilee finished the Passover Meal in the company of his friends and followers; and then he prayed. He prayed for all who were with him. He prayed for you and for me. And he prayed for everyone born between then and now. He prayed that we all may become one.
Jesus calls us to become one - he calls us into relationship, into community. He tells us that what ultimately binds us all together is not our common humanity, nor is it our common goals and beliefs, or our common faults and failures. What binds us together is not our similarities any more than it's our differences. What binds us together is the living spirit of God's love that was woven into the fabric of our hearts before the beginning of time.
We are all of God - you are of God and I am of God. The humble and the arrogant are of God. The phi beta kappa and the high school drop out are of God. The people of Iraq and the people of this country are of God. We are all of God.
Jesus calls us into relationship, into community. Jesus says that bar none, we are ALL children of the living God - and hence irretrievably woven together by that golden thread of God's love - like it or not. And a good deal of the time we don't seem to have much liked it.
In the two thousand years since Jesus uttered his prayer, we human beings have done just about everything imaginable to keep that prayer from coming to fulfillment. We've created so many ways to divide and separate ourselves from one another that it's amazing we haven't completely destroyed ourselves, not to mention the planet we live on. Yet we're still here; and beleaguered though she is, the earth still spins on her axis. We're still the beloved children of God - and we are still called by that God to reach out to one another and become one - to bring to fulfillment that prayer which Jesus offered so long ago.
God just won't quit. And, believe me, there are times when I wish God would just get a grip and give it up.
Mother Teresa seems to have understood the call in Jesus' prayer with the following poem that was found on the wall of her room after her death:
People are unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered,
Love them anyway.
If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives,
Do good anyway.
If you are successful, you win false and true enemies,
Succeed anyway.
Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable,
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spent years building may be destroyed overnight,
Build anyway.
People really need help but they might attack you if you help them,
Help them anyway.
Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth,
Give the world the best you have anyway.
That's just what Jesus did. He gave the world the best he had ... And that's what Jesus calls us to do...
Jesus saw and called out to the image of God in all those who were despised and judged as unworthy by the culture of his day. He gave the world the very best there ever was. And what did he get for it? He was nailed to a tree - and he was crucified.
So he prayed for us. He knew that the task he's called us to do would seem impossible, and that it sure wouldn't be what we wanted to do a good deal of the time.
So he prayed - and he started a revolution. A revolution that he asks us to continue today: a revolution to break down the walls and the barriers that separate us from one another, a revolution that proves that the power of love is indeed greater than the power of evil, a revolution that any rational-thinking person knows is just plain crazy.
Jesus calls us to become one. He calls us into relationship, into community. Karl Barth wrote that to join hands in prayer is the beginning of an uprising..
May God give us the strength to offer our hand in prayer to those whom we least want to love - and so continue the revolution. AMEN.