Seventh Sunday of Easter
John 17:20-26; Acts 16:16-34; Revelation 22:12-14, 16-17, 20-21
It is an honor to stand before you on this great occasion. To all of you who are graduating--Congratulations! We are gathered here to day, your family, your friends, to honor you and your achievements. The path you have taken has been long and full of challenges. You have had to balance many demands. You have invested your time and energy. Your persistence has paid off, blah, blah, blah
This is the season for commencement addresses. Many of you have listened to some in the past weeks and many of you will be hearing some in the days ahead. I like what one scientist said to start his off his message, "So, recognizing that so-called wisdom imparted in commencement addresses tends to have a half-life measured in milliseconds, what can I say to you this morning" "What can I say?" usually turns in to a lengthy recitation about going into the world with your dreams and making it happen. The speeches will concentrate on the individual's achievements, their accomplishments, their goals.
Our lesson for today might be thought of as a piece of Jesus commencement address to the disciples. Almost one third of the gospel of John takes place this last night that Jesus has with the disciples before his death. Jesus is saying good bye to them and directing them about what they are to do next; how they are to commence with life from this point on... He tells them that he is the way to the father. He tells them that they are to carry on his teachings. He tells them that this will not be easy because much of the world will not accept the message. He tells them that they will grieve his parting but that the Comforter will come for them and then finally he ends with a prayer. , a prayer unlike anything we might devise. No "Lord help me," no "Thanks for the blessings." Instead Jesus speaks deeply, intimately, with his father about his hour having come, about glory, about being one. So tenderly, so knowingly does he speak of these matters, that we can only presume he is more familiar with the hour, the glory, the oneness than we who know what awaits Jesus when he leaves this last meal with his disciples? The disciples overhear, and we overhear this eloquent plea which Jesus prays, not for himself but for them and for us, the generations of believers who follow.
Jesus prays "that they may be one, as we are one." Jesus is not so focused here on the persons of the trinity as on the relationships that make up the trinity itself. Visual aid,--If the rounds in these tinker toys were to represent the Father Son and Spirit it is for the connectors that Jesus is praying. The trinity tells us that the basic unit of Christianity is not the part but the whole, is not an individual but an individual in community, an individual linked to others. Jesus prays to the Father, "You Father are in me and I am in you." The trinity is a community and community is what Jesus wants for his disciples and for us.
Now that's a hard understanding for us as Americans whose traditions and heritage is so grounded in the rugged individual. Our heroes are those who make it big on their own, who stand alone above the crowd, convinced they made it on their own, like Donald Trump. Our heroes are not those who fight evil together like a police force but those who singularly toil against the forces of darkness like the mythical Spiderman. But Jesus is not praying for us to be on our own but to be living and working together.
This view of community, of connectivity is present in the very creation stories of the Hebrews. God creates a human because he wants a conversation partner and Eve is brought to Adam because "it is not right that one should be alone. Now those relationships of community, of connectivity are not always easy. When God challenges Cain regarding the whereabouts of his brother Abel, Cain retorts, "What am I my brother's keeper?" And the answer God makes painfully obvious is, "yes, yes you are your brother's keeper. We are made for community. As messy and difficult and trying as it sometimes is to be in relationship with one another, we are made to be responsible to and for one another. When Jesus cleans the lepers and drives the demons from possessed minds and lets the blind see and the lame walk it is always to allow the healed individual to return to full membership in the community. Jesus prays to the Father that "they may be one."
So you ask can you be a Christian alone? Clearly the relationship that Jesus wants for his disciples and for us is one of mutuality and companionship, a relationship of being for and with others. Now no doubt you will hear people say "I can pray to God anywhere, I don't need church" and indeed we can pray anywhere but church is about more than me and God it is about me and others and God.
Our confirmands today are affirming their faith. That affirmation is not primarily an assent to a certain set of doctrines or ascription to a particular set of beliefs. That affirmation is not a head trip rather it is affirmation of a disposition of the heart to become a part of the body of Christ at work in the world. I know we here at Holy Spirit put a lot of emphasis on knowing Bible stories and having familiarity with the building blocks of the faith. That emphasis may give you the impression that today, like some kind of graduation is about what you(they) have done--but it is not. Rather today is an affirmation about what you will do.
No doubt you have all heard the very old joke about the one pastor who is telling another pastor about having rats in his church. Oh that's easy to take care of said the other pastor "All you have to do is confirm them and you'll never see them again." We pray that that is not true.
I remember when a number of you were baptized. Near the end of that sacrament your parents turned you to the congregation. It probably was a little frightening to you as an infant or a child to have 150 people speaking at you at once. All of them said these words to you, "We welcome you in to the Lord's family. We receive you as a fellow member of the body of Christ, child of the same heavenly father and worker with us in the kingdom of God." I dare say you don't remember those words from back then but you should remember them from today.
This church, represented by this congregation, is your community. Jesus is praying that you might be one with this community. Now we know that while we are the mystical body of Christ we are also a human organization. Human organizations are by nature imperfect. Somebody here may not always remember your name. You might not always feel you belong. Your gifts and talents might not always be appreciated enough but we are your community.
Someone once said, "The reason mountain climbers are tied together is to keep the sane ones from going home." Whoever said it must have done so with a wink and a smile--knowing that we had always assumed it was to prevent them from getting lost in blinding snow or to keep everyone together! But there's truth behind the wink and the smile, for without the tied-together presence of other people you'd probably give up the whole journey as crazy. You'd go home. The life of faith is not so different. Without being tied to other people in that imperfect community we call "church," we'd be forever tempted to give in to more reasonable ways of living. We'd get weary after too many failures and too much doubting; we'd settle for sane, comfortable answers instead of struggling with God's ever-unfolding radical calling. The church, at its best, is a community of people tied together to keep the sane ones from going home. From giving up. From losing heart. The church will always take a particular shape with its own peculiar language...that's part of what ties you to the others.
So today our journey continues. Jesus has given us a legacy to make the journey a whole lot easier. We can take it or leave it, this gift we've been given but Jesus is praying for us that we will take it. Jesus prays to the father, "that we may be one, as we are one."
Amen