This morning I was reading Jesus’ prayer for his disciples in John chapter 17. It has taken me a long time to read this chapter. I have been here for weeks. It has been strange for nothing has genuinely struck me and yet I have felt unable to go on. Perhaps that is because I would prefer not to read what happens next? But I suspect that more has been at play.
As the third post in this series on belonging; I hope to bring something further to what we have previously discussed. In the first post, we discussed the yearning to belong, the need to truly meet with others and to prioritise the other in social situations. And Marion so beautifully developed this further here when she wrote about the need to recognise the truth that we do belong – to God, and to others because we belong to him.
But I feel the need to delve yet deeper still for this is what I read this morning,
“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.”
John 17:20-23
I have read and heard much discussion on unity and on the unanswered prayers of Jesus. There seems to be considerable irony in our Lord and leader praying for unity when we all know just how deep the fractures go in the body of Christ around the world. Did he not know what would take place? Why did he pray this prayer? And what is its significance for us?
Strangely enough, despite all the calls for unity I have heard, I do not think the reason that Jesus gives is often among them. Instead, it has usually been accompanied with guilt for not doing better, with fingers being pointed in every direction except inward, or with a call to ignore truth.
Unity seems to be a dull word. But perhaps if we were to give it time to percolate, if we let go of the negative associations we might have, we might hear what Jesus is saying. He asks the Father that we would be one. And one in the sense that he and the Father are one. He asks that we would be one because we are in him, and in the Father. We have one Spirit, one Father, one Lord and Saviour – these are not mere theoretical notions. We are the dwelling place of God himself. And if I am such, and the world is full of people like me, then surely we must be bound together? We must be one?
So where is the problem? Where does the difficulty lie? Why do we get so caught up in details that we cannot see what unites us? Why are we so fragmented? Yes, clearly, in the broad sense of the global church. But also in our relationships, in our churches, and in our families.
Do we think we can have one without the other? Have we convinced ourselves that we can have God but that his community, his family, is optional? Let us be brutally honest. Some awful things have happened in churches. And if you come here having experienced such pain, I grieve for you. But, do difficulties, frustrations, and even pain, no matter how deep it goes, let us excuse ourselves from the life of the people of God?
You see, I am struck by this picture that Jesus presents. I long to be one with God. But, what Jesus seems to be saying here is that to be that I also must be one with his people. To figure out what it means to live in this place of togetherness, to choose to bind myself with the people that he has welcomed into his vast, diverse, and beautiful family.
I am not naïve enough to think that I can solve the problems of the global church. But I can choose to welcome, to befriend, to share freely and openly. I can choose to see, to forgive and to hold nothing back. To accept the other as not other but as part of me. I can recognise my deep need to belong as a driving force to help others to belong. To me, it seems likely that Jesus knew what would happen to the people he chose to call his family. And yet he decided to pray this prayer anyway. He knows what we need. And this prayer says that we need one another. Perhaps in a far deeper, and far more profound way than we have ever realised.
Jesus’ closes this prayer with these words:
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.
John 17:26
I look at my life and wonder. How much do I love others? Am I filled with the love of God? The same love as that which loved Jesus? Are we? What would we look like if we were?
Lord Jesus, I am not always good at seeing the other. I so easily get caught up in my own thoughts and feelings that I fail to see those who are right in front of me. Forgive me. Give me the courage to live openly, freely and gracefully with your people. May you bind us together as one. May we be filled with and transformed by the love of the Father. Amen
Have you thought about this prayer that Jesus prayed? Why do you think he prayed this? How comfortable are you with the idea that we are to be one? And what can you do to enable that to happen with those he has placed around you?
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