EASTER 7 B

Into the World as One

( Just a note to say this sermon is one of the ones where each church, and each time I did it, was substantially different. A lot of off the cuffness to it, and moving the stories and different stories... but this is the text I had in front of me)
 
Introduction

What is it that stops us from getting along with everyone?

Have you ever stopped and tried to figure that out? I think perhaps it has to do with this imagined idea that we are all different. When I look out at the crowd I see a whole bunch of people who have nothing in common with me, different ages and backgrounds, different sexes and hair colours… We are as different as I can imagine.

You don’t know anyone who has anything in common with you, do you?

I remember when I was in high school we made fun of the people who were on welfare. Can’t remember how or why it came up… but they were certainly the people who were not like us at all. When you are younger you just don’t get the whole “there but for the grace of God go I” argument.

But over the years I have seen that in almost every situation, I might have done it the same way, or made the same mistakes, or ended up in the same place. I have found homeless folks who Knew more about theology than I did, and I have found ancient people who have the same sense of humour that I do…

In fact, the more I have looked around, the more I have noticed that there is not that much different about anyone…

And yet… we still have a hard time working together.

Tuning the Forks

(from Gathering Magazine)

Listen to the sounds of an orchestra tuning; then try getting voices “tuned,” i.e., have a pianist or other musician play a note (or use a tuning fork) and see if, one by one, people can join in to become one voice, one note. It takes effort; it doesn’t happen by accident; it requires listening—to the instrument/tuning fork and to one another. As Christians, God is the one who gives us the “note.” Jesus prayed we would all be able to “tune in” to it.

The Testimony

The Psalmist suggests that our delight should be in the law of the Lord and that we should meditate on it day and night. The prophet Jeremiah put it another way once; he said that the Law of God should be written on our hearts.

Have you ever watched Raphael Nadal play tennis? I used to watch a lot of tennis and although he is one of the best players in the world, Rapha often loses games, and you can usually tell if he is going to lose in the second set… because he starts slipping.

You can almost see that he has lost confidence, that he is all of a sudden unsure of himself… His mastery of the game, then, depends on his ability to master his thoughts.

This is the difference between knowing something in your head, and knowing it in your heart.

So let’s re-write what the disciple who wrote the epistle of John was trying to say:

The world is going to tell you a lot of things about who you are, and what you can do. But what is in your heart, what God put there, is stronger. If you believe in the way of Jesus Christ, you will be in touch with your heart, in touch with God, you will be stronger, you will have real life…

Ah, yes… true… but…

We hold on to those differences, we hold on to those pains, we hold on to the idea that we have to make it through on our own, and our individualism, our desire to be our own person, makes all of this very, very hard.

What’s Yours is Mine and What’s Mine is….

Jesus prays to God, Jesus says he has taught us the way. Jesus says he has put the love into our hearts…

And, well, it will be up to us…

Do any of you remember the story of the transfiguration? A little out of season, but basically Jesus goes up to the top of a mountaintop and while he is there two other figures appear, Moses and Elijah. The three of them have a little chat about how things are going to work out, and Jesus comes down the mountain glowing.

The point is made that Jesus is not going it alone. Moses paved the way with the law, Elijah brought 

the people together and gave them spirituality through the prophets, and Jesus puts them on the path of love.

It is the combination of these things that made what Jesus did possible.

Not only that, but the first thing he does after coming out of the wilderness is to call the apostles; not just get one disciple, but get a group of people he can trust, rely on, share with and teach.

There is never a sense that it is up to one person, one individual to change the world….

Listen again to the middle of Jesus prayer to God:

“And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

So, knowing he is dying, knowing he is leaving his followers behind, he prays to God that we can work together.

My father spent many years living in Indiana, where there is a sizeable Amish population. The Amish are people who work the land, live in their houses, drive horse and buggy, and basically shy away from most of what we think makes life “easy” because they think it makes us lazy and tears families apart. I don’t think they are too far off the mark there…

In the Amish world when someone gets married and goes off to start a new family, you build them a barn.  Now, what that means is that the entire community gathers around sunrise, the women start cooking and making coffee and the men start felling trees. By lunch break the whole huge barn is framed, by sundown it is finished.

I built a deck once; took me a month.

Just one of a thousand examples I could think of to point out the difference between working together, and working on our own.

Which has basically been the theme of all of Easter; there was the whole I am the vine, you are the branches analogy, there was talk of being one family, and you even found hints of this in the whole shepherd and sheep analogy.

God wants us to work together, to have a sense of unity, to know love completely and to use that love in community. When we do that, as Jesus says, we will have his joy made complete in us…. Which is a fancy way of saying we will be fulfilled, we will know life’s purpose, we will be happy.

Conclusion

I really like the Psalm:

“Happy are those whose… delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law they meditate day and night. They are like trees planted by streams of water, which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither. In all that they do, they prosper.”

I am not saying it is the only thing we are ever supposed to do… but how about looking at it this way, in everything we do, we should be conscious to try and do it the way God would want us to do it… if we do, then we will never fail.