Seventh Sunday of Easter-C

June 2, 2019

“That they may be one…” 

John 17:20-26

20 “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, [a] so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 24 Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

25 “Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

Footnotes:

[a] John 17:21 Other ancient authorities read be one in us

Rundman’s ‘Closed Out’

https://jonathanrundman.bandcamp.com/track/closed-out

Sunday morning Indiana
at the church where i was a guest
they had hymnals and a steeple
and the letters *LCMS
yeah I guess i saw it coming
you could call me a pessimist
but i walked up to the altar
for to share in the Eucharist

and the pastor passed me by
he would not let me take the bread and wine
and my heart froze and tears came to my eyes
closed out of close communion

people stepped down in the quiet
i was shaking i was out of breath
he said "may this body and this blood
bless you and keep you in the one true faith"
so i sat there like a stranger with nothing
it was all i had
yeah, i knew that we were different
but i didn't know it would hurt so bad

and the pastor passed me by
he would not let me take the bread and wine
and my heart froze and tears came to my eyes
closed out of close communion
closed out of close communion

from Sound Theology, released October 31, 2000
Jonathan Rundman: acoustic guitar, vocals

*Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod

Some Background:

This morning’s Gospel is the prayer of Jesus just before his arrest.  He has just washed the disciples’ feet and had dinner with them and now he is praying for them.  He will lay down his life on the cross.  In John’s Gospel the cross is that glory that the world does not know.  The cross is where Jesus draws all people into a new oneness.

Closed Out – we just heard Lutheran troubadour, Jonathan Rundman, tell us a story of being closed out.  Sometimes even the church caves into the world’s way of oneness.  The Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod is known for its exclusion of people from the Sacrament – unless those attending affirm the strict LCMS understanding of the Sacrament.  There is a litmus test before being allowed to the table.  That is the official stance of the LCMS. 

I use this as an example of how this Prayer for Oneness is misused and misunderstood.  The world way to oneness is through conformity – that we have to agree with each other to be one.  Often the church imitates the world that uses the color of our skin, our ethnicity, or speaking the same language as the way to oneness.  To be part one of the tribe you must be like us in every way.  Sometimes this is more subtle and less overt. 

We all have been part of being trapped in a false oneness that says our group is right and your group is wrong. 

This morning we are privy to an overheard prayer.  It is as though we stepped into a room and overheard our parents or friends praying for us.  That would indeed move our hearts and our souls.  It may bring some of us to tears as we listen to their deep cries on our behalf.

Jesus is not only praying for the disciples in this immediate tragedy of his imminent crucifixion, but Christ is praying for us – ‘that they may be one.’

Jesus is not asking us to achieve oneness.  This is not a mandate.  It is a gift.  Oneness is a gift to be unwrapped.  Oneness is a surprise package delivered in the midst of division.  Some dare to leave the gift on the table and admire it from afar.  Others want to preserve the package rather than deal with it contents.  Oneness is not a goal to be reached – but a gift to be celebrated.  It is something we are constantly living into in spite of our tribalism and attempts at our own kind of oneness.

This is a story of the bitter irony of the beginning of the ministry of so many disenfranchised and closed out of a church body they dearly loved and had mothered them.

I was raised and mothered by the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod attending grade school, college, and Seminary at LC-MS schools.  

On February 19, 1974 – I sat in the crowded field house of Concordia Seminary waiting to hear what would be our next step, not realizing how it would shape my life. 

The Professors at Concordia Seminary were under siege.  The Board of Control had interviewed and exonerated all of them of charges of false teaching (i.e. Adam and Eve are real people…Jonah was swallowed by a whale…the Creation Accounts are to be taken literally) – in other words taking everything literally in the Bible. 

Now there was a new Board that was elected a new investigation and a  Church-wide Assembly led to charges of false teaching—a blanket statement on unnamed professors – "false teachers not to be tolerated in the Church of God."

(By a bare majority vote at 1973 New Orleans Convention)

Double jeopardy – closed out. 

The student body took a stand in solidarity with their professors who were being falsely accused.  We declared a moratorium until we were told on the basis of Scripture and the Lutheran Confessions what was the false teaching and which professors were being accused.

Now the crowded field house waited for the judgment and it came hard and fast from the head of the LCMS:  48 professors and staff fired under the guise of blanket charges.

The students and professors had arranged for an option in case of this worst case scenario.  Eden Seminary in St. Louis along with St. Louis University Divinity School and Lutheran School of Theology in Chicago made all our professor adjunct and we created a Seminary in Exile.

We voted to leave the Concordia Campus and form Seminex – a seminary in exile – 400 students and 48 professors walked off campus that day and were greeted by the head of Eden Seminary – a Seminary of the United Church of Christ.  It was not a new Seminary but Concordia Seminary in Exile.  We had been exiled by the LC-MS.

Although closed out by the Lutheran Church-Missouri Synod – we were embraced and welcomed by the United Church of Christ, the Roman Catholic Jesuits at St. Louis Divinity School and our fellow Lutherans at LSTC.

We had no idea as to the outcome of this venture – but we experienced the gift of oneness in an unexpected way.  Not only did other Christians welcome us – but the Jewish community offered housing for professors being kicked out of their campus housing.

So my career as a Pastor began with a group of people Closed Out but welcome by Roman Catholics, Episcopalians, and the United Church of Christ…and even Jewish friends and neighbors.

Why do I tell you this story?  Because the gift of oneness was being opened up before my very eyes – a gift unopened by the church I grew up in – but a surprise package unfolding before my eyes.  I bear witness to God’s work in the midst of hurt, and division.

By the way – those Closed Out of the LCMS became the catalyst for getting the Lutherans in America together – calling for the formation of the ELCA.

And now I have the privilege of supplying at a congregation that is un-wrapping the gift of oneness – by its open stance on Holy Communion and its Biblical hospitality.

But there is more – GPS has just begun to unwrap and appreciate the gift that Christ gives.  Here at the Sacraments – God gives us the gift of oneness – in our baptism we are made one with Christ and with each other:

Paul writes:  As many of you as were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.  [Galatians 3:27-28] 

In the Holy Communion – each Sunday – Christ becomes present in us.  We are in Christ – Christ is in us – Christ is one with the Father – the Spirit resides in us .GPS will continue to open this gift given here at the Altar – in the communion where Christ makes us one. 

According to John’s Gospel Christ was lifted up on the cross to gather the scattered children of God:  "And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” (John 12:32)

At the cross we are made one.  Since Jesus includes each of us it changes how we include others.  Sameness of race, skin color, language, ethnicity, political affiliation, theological positions, gender, and sexual orientation are no longer the criteria by which we divide ourselves.  Nothing can exclude anyone from being included in Jesus.  Jesus is the new measure for including others.

We are empowered to include others by God’s grace, by forgiveness, by hope.  GPS continue to be open into the ways of oneness with faith partners, the community, the nation, and the world.  You are heading into a new pastorate and new opportunities.  This is an exciting and challenging time for this congregation. 

Christ gift of oneness just keeps on giving – let us continue to unwrap it and live into this precious gift.

Amen.