Christian unity - May 28, 2017

New Testament Lesson: Acts 1:1-11

Responsive Reading: Psalm 47

New Testament Lesson: John 17:1-11

Our son Gedeon started daycare last Tuesday. It was an emotional day for me but we survived and most importantly that day reminded me of my own kindergarten experience. There were rules which we had to learn pretty early on in our lives. Do you remember these rules:

What we really need to know about how to live, and what to be, we learned in kindergarten. Wisdom does not always come from the top of the graduate school mountain, but from the sandbox at nursery school.

These are the things I learned: Share everything. Play fair. Don't hit people. Put things back where you found them. Clean up your own mess. Don't take things that aren't yours. Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody...

Take a nap every afternoon. I hated that time but now I think it’s a pretty cool rule. When you go out into the world, watch for traffic, hold hands and stick together. Be aware of wonder. Remember the little seed in the plastic cup. The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that...

Do you think our world would be better if we all -- the whole world -- had afternoon snacks about 3 o'clock every afternoon and we could lay down with our blankets for a nap? Or if we had a basic policy in our nation and other nations to always put things back where we found them and clean up our own messes. And it is still true, no matter how old you are, when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Because it’s good to be together. Ok, sometimes it’s hard but most of the time we like company and especially at church it would be nice to hold hands and stick together. What unity this would it be! And that’s why Jesus Christ is praying for us, praying for all those who are his and praying for their unity. He knew that he had to go back to Heaven to have unity with his father. He had to go back to be in unity with him just as he was before, but he wanted to pray for his disciples. He knew how hard it would to be in unity when he wasn’t with them. Next week we will celebrate Pentecost and before that, Thursday was the day when Jesus went back to Heaven and the disciples looked at the sky, watched after him and two men asked them: why do you stand here looking into the sky?

He left them. He didn’t leave them alone, since this is the message of Pentecost, but this is the point when they had to step out of their comfort zones and be the message, just like Jesus Christ’s whole life was a message from God.

Jesus loves us and prays for us. When I imagined this situation, I had tears in my eyes because do you think we need Jesus’ prayer today? Do we need Jesus to pray for our unity? During the years, have we learned to love each other, respect each other, have we reached unity with each other?

Unity isn't easy. Most of us have never learned how to disagree in love, or how to love those with whom we disagree.

Unity isn't easy. But Jesus not only prayed for it, He modeled it for us. Remember when the disciples came to Him complaining about the people who were preaching and doing signs and wonders in Jesus' name but weren't part of the crowd of disciples? They were ready to run them out of town or call down lightning upon their heads. Jesus told the disciples not to stop them and said, "A good tree cannot bear bad fruit."

Christian unity is not determined by whether we agree with each other about every interpretation of scripture or doctrine or form of church government. Christian unity IS determined by whether we love one another, and whether we reflect the love of God in Christ for the world.

And that is why today I want you to take a step out of your comfort zone and try to think about who it is who should change something so our church could be a better place. I don’t want to hear names but the answer is in this box. Look inside and see who is the one who should change…

An old rabbi once asked his students how they could tell when the night had ended and the day had begun. "Could it be," asked one student, "when you can see an animal in the distance and tell whether it's a sheep or a dog?" "No," answered the rabbi. Another asked, "Is it when you can look at a tree in the distance and tell whether it's a fig tree or a peach tree?" "No," answered the rabbi. "Then when is it?" the students demanded. "It is when you can look on the face of any person and see that it is your sister and brother. Because if you cannot see this, it is still night."

So we want to see each other as sisters and brothers, but this doesn’t happen in a time of night. We have to know each other, we have to know that we are not the same, some of us can speak easily, some of us not. Some of us can come here and read from the Bible, some of us not. When Jesus prays for our unity he prays for the unity that is like that he has with His father and with the Holy Spirit. It doesn’t mean that Jesus, God and the Holy Spirit are the same. It’s hard to imagine and accept this, but we can imagine it if we think of the water, ice, and dew which is all H2O but in different forms. We are all humans but we are not the same, unity means accepting others, even with their difference. It is both hard or easy. I have to tell you I like to be with those who are like me, who love Jesus, believe in the Bible but I have also learned to love to be with those who have different opinions than mine. It’s not easy, but it means that I want to find a way that will work for our church, like here in Kirkwall.