A Sermon by Pastor Tom Lacey . . .

one unanswered prayer

John 17:2026, Preached at Congregational Church of Boca Raton, May 16, 2010

My sister felt she was well prepared for her in-depth interview with several members of the police-academy board who would determine her suitability as a candidate. The first situation they presented to her was: "On routine patrol you see a car traveling at excessive speed, with undue care and attention. You pull it over and discover that the driver is your brother. What do you do?" Without hesitation she replied, "Tell Mom!" She was accepted.

I remember seeing a worship bulletin which read: “The ushers will eat the latecomers. Of course, they meant “seat.” That’s one church where you will always want to be on time.
          Churches aren’t perfect because people aren’t—and all churches are is people, with a splash of the Spirit mixed in. But churches can be better or worse, growing together or apart, engaged in ministry or in fights. Just like a family, a church does best when it loves, listens, and stays united. 
          Roman historian Aristides, describing the secret of the Christian movement to the Emperor Hadrian, wrote: “They love one another. They never fail to help widows; they save orphans from those who would hate them. If they have something they give freely to the man who has nothing; if they see a stranger, they take him home, and are happy, as though he were a real brother. They don’t consider themselves brothers in the usual sense, but brothers instead through the Spirit, in God.”  

Clearly, the early church was successful because it was faithful in trying to fulfill Jesus’ prayer for unity, at least within each church, house church, or community. But when we look at the wider picture of the “Church” across the Mediterranean area, the historical truth is that even from the beginning “Christians” have had a wide variety of ways of looking at their faith, Jesus Christ, and even God. For some, Jesus wasn’t a man at all, because he was only spirit; for others, he was only a man and wasn’t divine at all. For some, their God was the same as the Jews’ God; for others, these were two completely different Gods. For some, Christian faith meant keeping Jewish Law; for others, it meant completely rejecting Jewish influence. Over the centuries, a dominant type of Christianity won theological and political battles and displaced other forms of Christianity, ideas that we would find very strange today. A unity was achieved for awhile, but the Orthodox Church broke away from the Roman Catholic Church in the 11th century and then the Protestant Reformation took place in the 16th. Oneness has not been realized, nor perhaps can it ever. But the prayer is still needed. The hope must continue, for at least one reason: God’s abundance makes difference and diversity a divinely instituted reality and inescapable context of all life on earth, even religious life. And here's the equally important truth: difference must still recognize sameness in the other or it will turn into meanness, and diversity must try to become unity so it doesn't dissolve into disunity.
          As Christians, we are united by whom we serve. Some years ago, there was a Humane Society Ad: a picture of a cat and dog sitting side by side in uncustomary harmony. The caption read: “A Couple of VIPs--Very Important Pets.” On the next line, in fine print, it read: “What makes them important is who owns them.” If you and I are important, it’s only for one reason: who owns us. We are the Lord’s. It is in His steps that we walk.
To become one with one another, we need this oneness with Christ. As this trust deepens and our relationship with God becomes stronger, so also our relationship with one another grows fuller. The further we are from God, the greater our divisions and suspicions of one another. It is by being focused on Christ and on being his body, his hands and heart, and becoming his family, that we become united.

But this isn’t easy, and not everybody does this right. In a Peanuts Comic strip, Linus listens attentively as his little sister tells him about her potential as an evangelist. She says, “I would have made a good evangelist. Do you know that kid who sits behind me at school? I convinced him that my religion is better than his.” “How did you do that?” Linus asks. “I hit him with my lunch box!” Lucy replies. That's probably not the right way.
          Read Paul’s First Letter to the Corinthians, chapter 12, where he talks about spiritual gifts: To one is given the utterance of wisdom,  to another the utterance of knowledge, another the Spirit of faith, healing, etc. Paul is saying that the same diversity we confront in the world is also found in the church.
          In this congregation we have a wide diversity of tastes. Some love the old hymns. If the old hymns were good enough for Jesus and his disciples, they are good enough for us. Others tire of the old and want new. For some, singing and music are the high point of worship. Others, with greater perception and intelligence prefer the sermons. We come from a variety of different spiritual and denominational backgrounds. Such God-given diversity!
          Did you know that left-brain people hear the Gospel differently from right-brain people? Left-brain people are more literal, fact-oriented, and verbal. Right-brain people are more creative, emotional, and
visual. The left-brain person wants a fact-filled, Bible-quoting sermon. The right-brain person likes touching stories punctuated with humor. God put different kinds in the church. Such God-given diversity!

I like what President George H.W. Bush said, "I take as my guide the hope of a saint (meaning Paul): in crucial things, unity; in important things, diversity; in all things, generosity.” Since God made it this way, diversity has to be good. Our job, then, is to see the positive in this. We don't all have to be the same, but we ought to be able to see the value in someone being different. Choirs don't all sing the same note, but they sound beautiful, especially ours. We are not to erase differences, but seek to bring them into workable accord. Diversity is divine.

To show this there is a story told about a traveler crossing the desert and at nightfall comes to a small tent where he seeks food and shelter. “What do you call your God?” the host asks. When the traveler reports no belief in God, he is turned away. The Lord appears to that tent dweller in his sleep and asks about that traveler. “I put him out of my tent because he has no god.” Then the Lord says, “If you will go outside and look up, you will see by the light of the stars a sky far greater than the roof of your tent. I have not shut anyone out because he didn’t know as much as he ought to know. If I can give shelter to the unworthy in my vast world, could you not give your unworthy guest a little shelter in your tiny tent?”

What is God asking for from us? Theological greatness? Biblical brilliance? Traditional rectitude? No, none of these. It seems that the Lord knows life is a hard journey. And so the Lord asks for something we can all easily offer: Kindness.
          The problem is that too often we don't deal with "problems" from this viewpoint. We see someone being different, acting "strangely," and not in accord with our tastes or tradition. We think perhaps unconsciously that they haven't made the grade. We think they are wrong, and we have to change them, fix them, make them see how we see things.  But how should we see this situation? We ought to see this as a challenge because the truth is this is probably much more about us than it is about them. The challenge is to grow into someone who can find the common ground between two differences, the meeting place, the workable solution. The challenge is to let go of only being right and take up being kind. Being someone who lives Christ’s prayer for unity is about oneself, not about anyone else. The question is whether or not you and I can make the grade, the grade on being Christ-like, open, loving, non-judgmental. So don’t make boundaries; build bridges inside your own heart to others. Find in your spirit the living Spirit that overpowers disappointment and difference with humility and hopefulness. If you believe in God, believe also in God’s children, and that includes your own family members. Take on the challenge to see church members, friends, and guests as people who at their most difficult bring growth-producing challenges, just like our own family members do.

Dr. Eugene Brice tells a delightful but too often too true story about a minister who returned to a former church. He ran into Bill, who had been an elder in the church, but who wasn’t around anymore. The pastor asked what happened. “Well, Pastor, a difference of opinion arouse in that church. Some of us couldn’t accept the final decision and we established a church of our own.” “Is that where you worship now?” asked the pastor. “No, we found that there, too, the people were not faithful, and a small group of us began meeting in a rented hall.” “Has that proved satisfactory?” asked the former minister. “No, I can’t say it has,” Bill replied. “Satan was active even in that fellowship, so my wife and I withdrew and began to worship at home by ourselves.” “Then, at last, you have found inner peace?” asked the pastor.
“No, I’m afraid we haven’t. Even my wife began to develop ideas I was not comfortable with, so now she worships in the northeast corner of the living room and I in the southwest." Such exclusiveness while our Lord prayed for inclusiveness!

Of all the prayers Jesus uttered while on this earth in the flesh, this may just be the only one still unanswered, unanswered because his church, Christian people, you and I, have stood in the way. We have not let his prayer happen! If you are going to be right, then make sure you are kind. If you are going to be strong, make sure you are compassionate. If you are going to lead, make sure you pray. And above all, pray for yourself, because when it comes down to it, Christ's prayer begins with you, with me, with ourselves.  May we be united in Christ's name, for God's sake, while still blessed by our divine differences.   

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