Being "One"

Sermon preached by the Rev. Lowell E. Grisham, Rector
St. Paul's Episcopal Church, Fayetteville, Arkansas
May 16, 2010; 7 Easter, Year C
Episcopal Revised Common Lectionary

    (John 17:20-26) – Jesus prayed for his disciples, and then he said. "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, 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. 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.
 
    "Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. 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."
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Jesus prays for his disciples, and for us:  "I ask that they may all be one.  As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us..."

What does Jesus desire for us?  That we may live consciously in union with God, ourselves, and one another.  Indeed in union with the whole human race.  And since all creation is God's and of God, we are to live consciously in union with creation itself, with all that is – "Completely one."  That is Jesus' prayer for us.

That seems awfully big for us to conceive.  After all, here we are, sitting behind this church's walls, each in our own pews, separated within the confines of our own skins, thinking our particular thoughts, feeling our individual emotions, living our unique lives formed by the singular histories of our peculiar families, places, time and circumstances.  It seems that we are so distinct, so separate – essentially unknown and unknowable individuals.

So, what does it mean to be "one"?  If it means that you and I have to agree about everything, that'll never happen.  I don't think I've ever met anyone who agrees with me about everything.  My mama loves me fiercely, but she sure doesn't agree with me about everything. 

What does it mean to be "one"?  If it means that you and I have to understand each other, our thoughts and emotions, well that'll never happen either.  Half the time I don't even understand my own thoughts and emotions.

What does it mean to be "one"?  Jesus' words in John's Gospel talk about a union grounded in love.  He talks about our union as the same union as that between Jesus and God the Father.  In the short space of six verses, Jesus speaks of love five times, naming love as the description of divine relationships:  Love is the quality of the relationship within the Godhead.  God is love.  Love is God's gift to us.  Love is the Spirit that God extends to the whole world, God's grace to everyone.  Love is the bond that Jesus prays will be the glue within the community of his followers.  And love is the self-giving glory the cross.

There is something about love that creates unity – a unity that also respects diversity.  Ancient words about marriage talk about the two becoming "one flesh."  The two are still separate beings, but their love creates something new, a profound oneness.  Married people can experience union and sense of profound oneness, but spouses will often disagree and will not always understand each other's thoughts and emotions.  I expect to see some heads nodding in agreement.

What does it mean to be "one"?  Rabbi Rami Shapiro speaks of "a love unbounded by politics and social conditioning; a love that shatters tribalism without eliminating tribes; that burns away imposed differences and celebrates individuality; that consumes conformity, even as it reveals a greater nonduality."  (1)

I like that.  I also recognize what Rabbi Shapiro says is incredibly challenging.  He is saying that we can choose to be profoundly connected with others in a way that transcends our political opinions and our cultural inheritance.  We can be one – Democrats and Republicans, Christians and Muslims, Americans and Iranians.  There is a state of loving regard for all humanity that frees us all to be different, to be who we are, while it unites us into the singular life of God who is love incarnate.

Listen to the famous epiphany of Thomas Merton: 
In Louisville, at the corner of Fourth and Walnut, in the center of the shopping district, I was suddenly overwhelmed with the realization that I loved all those people, that they were mine and I theirs, that we could not be alien to one another even though we were total strangers.  It was like waking from a dream of separateness...

We [monks, appearing to live 'out of the world'] are in the same world as everybody else, the world of the bomb, the world of race hatred, the world of technology, the world of mass media, big business, revolution, and all the rest.

This sense of liberation from an illusory difference was such a relief and such a joy to me that I almost laughed out loud.  And I suppose my happiness could have taken form in the words:  “Thank God, thank God that I am like other people, that I am only a human being among others.”...

It is a glorious destiny to be a member of the human race, though it is a race dedicated to many absurdities and one which makes many terrible mistakes:  yet, with all that, God... gloried in becoming a member of the human race.  A member of the human race!  To think that such a commonplace realization should suddenly seem like news that one holds the winning ticket in a cosmic sweepstake.

I have the immense joy of being human, a member of a race in which God... became incarnate...  And if only everybody could realize this!  But it cannot be explained.  There is no way of telling people that they are all walking around shining like the sun...

Then it was as if I suddenly saw the secret beauty of their hearts, the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each one is in God’s eyes.  If only they could all see themselves as they really are.  If only we could see each other that way all the time.  There would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed…  I suppose the big problem would be that we would fall down and worship each other.   But this cannot be seen, only believed and “understood” by a peculiar gift. (2)

There is a way to love all creation. 

What if we looked at the world through the lens that Merton describes?  What if we identified with every other person as a fellow member of the human race?  Oh, it's easy to love those we like or agree with or admire.  But can we also choose to see the secret beauty of the heart of those whom we fear or oppose or despise?  Can we see past their absurdities and ours to "the depths of their hearts where neither sin nor desire nor self-knowledge can reach, the core of their reality, the person that each was is in God's eyes"? 

There is still the bomb and race hatred and big business, revolution, and all the rest, but below all of that and transcending everything is the infinite love of God present to us in a God who is willing to embrace our humanity by becoming one with us, including the evil that we commit against one another as we continue to hate, torture and crucify, all to often in God's name. 

Peace, the peace that passes understanding, will not come through violence or coercion, but only through the immanent and transcendent love of God.  God gives us that infinite love.  God makes us one with the divine.  You are one with God, because God loves you infinitely.  Your neighbor is one with God, because God loves your neighbor infinitely.  The stranger is one with God, because God loves the stranger infinitely.  In Louisville on the corner of Fourth and Walnut, Thomas Merton realized, "There are no strangers!" 

If we could only see each other as we really are all the time, there would be no more war, no more hatred, no more cruelty, no more greed, and we would fulfill Jesus' prayer that we may be completely one, so that the world may know that God has loved us, even as God has loved Jesus.   Jesus tells us to choose oneness – to choose love, to choose to love as God loves – to make that choice of love moment by moment.  Jesus says that we can do it; we've been given that power.  He says it is the power to share his glory. 
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(1)  in Spirituality & Health, May-June, 2010, p. 16

(2) from Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander, edited a bit by me into less exclusively male language.  I think Merton would be okay about that.

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