We Pray that All Unity May One Day Be Restored

A friend shared with me a great sermon from a church that she has been attending.  It focused on John 17, which is a beautiful passage where Jesus pours out His love for the world in a prayer.  It is a flood of Jesus' hope for His people.

The pastor of this church called it Jesus' last lecture, likening it to the Last Lecture delivered by Professor Randy Pausch, who delivered a final lecture after he was diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer.  He wasn't necessarily comparing the two lectures because of their content - but because both of these men were nearing the end of their lives.  The pastor made the point that we tend to heed the words of those that are approaching their end more attentively.  We look for them to share their hopes and their fears with us.  The pastor then begins to pick apart John 17.

One point that stuck out to me from the sermon was the extrapolation of verses 20-21: "My prayer is not for them alone.  I pray also for those who will believe in me through their [the disciples] message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you 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."

Unity.  God desires unity for His people.  The pastor emphasized this point at the end of the sermon, which astounded me.  I had never focused on this idea when reading this passage and now it was impossible to overlook it.

Our triune God is the perfect picture of unity.  Father, Spirit, Son are three in one.  Interwoven.  Perfect relationship and wholeness.  I had remarked in my previous post on how God desires faithfulness from us, because He was first faithful to us.  In that same way, I believe that He desires unity from us, because He first showed us what unity looks like.

The part of the verse that is particularly striking is when Jesus asks for believers to be unified specifically so the world will know that He was sent by God.  This is a huge commission to us, His children.  Our unity as Christians is a reflection of God.

We know this to be true today: there is often disunity within the smallest congregations of believers.  How can we promote or even expect unity across all of Christ's believers.

It made me think of various church organizations around the country.  It seems that some of their actions come from a place of hate and condemnation.  I struggle to witness God's love and grace when I hear condemning words, name-calling, threats of hell fire.  How do I explain to someone who doesn't have a relationship with Christ, that I have a relationship with God the Father - the same God that members of that church are serving.  And at the same time, I feel terrible even using the term that church.  I should want to identify other Christians as brothers and sisters in the faith.

How do I start to explain why the people of denomination A won't take communion with denomination B, and they both think denomination C has the whole idea of Baptism wrong.  And then wait until I try to explain to them how half the members of the church I attend are petrified every Sunday when someone leads the service with a guitar, and the other half refuses to open a hymnal.

As believers, we need to reorient ourselves in the direction of unity.  What does that look like?  I can confidently say, that I don't have a good answer for that.  The dialogue needs to start.  We need to set ourselves aside, and think about how we are showing Christ's love to those who have never encountered it before.  We need to be unified in Christ's desires for us as His people.

The hymn that is referenced in the title of this post continues like this: and they'll know we are Christians by our love.  As Christians, we should long to be a unified picture of Christ's love in this world.  If we look at the whole phrase from the hymn, it reads like this: and we pray that all unity may one day be restored, and they'll know we are Christians by our love.  Our unity, borne out of love, that loves in the way Christ loves, will reveal to others our good and loving God.  We and they will come to pass, and it will be all of us as one.

~SP