THE SILENT WITNESS

7th Sunday of Easter

            In our adult Sunday school class these days, we’re trying to save time for sharing our joys and concerns and then praying for one another in pairs.  Last Sunday I had the privilege of being paired with Dolores Hays.  We shared our joys and concerns and then we prayed for each other.  If you have ever had the honor of Dolores Hays praying for you—and countless people have over the years—you felt yourself genuinely cared for.  In her prayers, I heard Dolores bring to the throne of God her gratitude for her pastor and the things he does.  I felt so humbled and affirmed by her words.  She prayed for God’s grace in my life, so that I might more effectively do the work of God in and through the church.  When someone cares enough to pray for you, to speak words of gratitude to God for you, and to lift up your needs to the throne of grace, you can’t help but feel loved and appreciated and cared for.

            Now listen.  Listen to the one who is praying for you now.  In our gospel lesson for today, we overhear Jesus praying for us.  Imagine!  Jesus praying for you!  Jesus praying for you!  Jesus praying for us!  “I ask not only on behalf of these,” Jesus prays, indicating his present disciples, “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.”  You hear Jesus praying, not only for his original disciples, but also for those who will come to faith through their ministry.  And not only for those, but also for those who in the future may come to faith through the witness of the church.  Jesus prays for us as both recipients of the gospel of Jesus Christ and as members of the faith community who will in turn speak and act out the gospel in the world to others.  “I ask not only on behalf of these,” Jesus prays, “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.”  What is it that you hear Jesus praying for us?  “. . . that they may all be one.”  “. . . that they may be one.”  “. . . that they may become completely one.”  You hear Jesus’ prayer?  He’s praying for you.  He’s praying for me.  He’s praying for the entire future Christian church.  He’s praying that we may all be one.

            Trouble is, the church doesn’t have a good track record of unity.  You look at the history of the Christian church and you’ll see a tragic record of brokenness and schism.  In fact, you only have to go to the New Testament to find the church breaking apart into factions.  Even the newly-minted church couldn’t hold on to its unity.  Right after the conventional pleasantries in his letter to them, the apostle Paul chides the new congregation in the city of Corinth.  He had heard from his sources that the congregation was engaging in quarreling, confessing diverse loyalties; some to Paul, some to Apollos, some to Cephas (the other name for Peter), and some to Christ.  This pattern continued through the years.  Centuries later, the church became corrupted.  One man stood up to denounce the corruption.  Then others.  They broke with the Roman church and began various church bodies.  Still more centuries later, in a suburban Presbyterian congregation, the session regularly met, not to conduct church business but to engage in warfare.  While all the elders sat at the same table, one faction sat on the left side, the other faction on the right.  The tension in the room was palpable.  Conflict was in that church a congregational illness.  Church members handled conflict by threatening to leave the church.  “If you put carpeting in the sanctuary, then I will leave the church,” a church member said at a special congregational meeting called for the purpose of deciding that very thing.  Said another, “If you don’t carpet the sanctuary, then I will leave the church.”  Such was their life together.  In the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex years ago, a large Presbyterian congregation became embroiled in conflict.  That congregation split in two, one side carting off about half the church members to begin a new congregation, one of another Presbyterian denomination.  “Denomination.”  That word itself implies that the church is split up into divisions.  Sad to say, from its infancy to the present, when it comes to unity, the church doesn’t have a very good track record.

            Clearly, the church needs a better model for unity.  We need the model for unity that the Gospel of John gives us.  The church, now as much as ever, needs to focus on the oneness of God and Jesus.  The Father and the Son were one in will.  God and Jesus were one in purpose.  The Father and the Son were united in their mutual love.  We must be clear and not misrepresent the word “love” in this context.  For it seem that we “love” pizza, we “love” the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Cowboys, and we “love” jazz or country music or oldies.  The mutual love of God and Jesus was not this kind of love.  It was the force that bound them together into an inseparable, cohesive relationship.  This kind of love, as revealed by Jesus dying on the cross for us, is a love that wills the good of the other to the point of offering up one’s own life for the other.  Jane Haining was a missionary from the Church of Scotland.  Ms. Haining volunteered for service in 1932 as a matron of the girls’ home at the Jewish mission in Budapest.  When World War II broke out, Jane refused to return home to Scotland, as ordered.  She was determined to stay with her girls.  When the Nazis invaded Hungary, she still wouldn’t leave.  And when her girls were deported to Auschwitz, she went with them.  She was killed there on July 27, 1944, the only Scot put to death in a Nazi extermination camp.  Jane Haining so willed the good of her girls that she was willing to offer up her life for them, or with them.  This is the deepest kind of love that is expressed in the unity of God and Jesus, the love that bound them into one.  This is the kind of love God has for us, as expressed by Jesus, the Son of God, dying for us on the cross.  The love Jane Haining had for her girls is a model of the unifying love the church needs to emulate.  Such love serves as a silent witness to the world of the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ.  It is a silent witness that we deeply believe that Jesus Christ is the revelation of God.  Unity in the faith community, as evidenced by our love for one another, is a silent witness, more powerful than an eloquent sermon.

            Of course, some churches in conflict do try hard for unity.  They try to find some way of sticking together as a congregation.  These days, church conflict resolution is in such demand that it has become an industry.  Churches may hire any of a number of consultants to engage the congregation in a process designed to help people listen to each other and work together toward solutions.  To heal the congregational brokenness, in other words.  Church officers and members alike show up for meetings.  They remember their past.  They laugh.  They cry.  They put on the table old wounds that haven’t healed.  They hug.  They reconcile as best they know how.  You see, churches in conflict do try hard to heal.  They try to be one as best they can.  They do their best.  They really work hard on it.

            And yet, churches need more than hard work.  We cannot make unity happen on our own.  We cannot accomplish unity.  We may be able to be open to it.  We may try to create the right atmosphere for unity to come about.  But unity is not something humanly achievable.  To be one, the church needs the grace of God.  We need God’s transforming love in the community of faith.  Why?  Because all unity comes about only by the grace of God.  Do you believe that?  Remember.  Remember a time when you simply tried with all your might to be unified with someone.  This might have been a sweetheart, a neighbor, or a family member.  You weren’t of one accord about important matters, so you simply tried to will yourself into a unity with that other person.  Didn’t work, did it?  No.  To become one, whether in a faith community or in a personal relationship, we need the grace of God.  We need God’s love to bind us together.  When that love binds people together, that alone is sufficient to accomplish unity.  Unity can be found even among people who are on opposing sides.  The city of Farmers Branch held an election a week ago yesterday.  You may have heard about it.  There was a controversial ordinance being put to the voters that would require apartment managers to receive some verification of the legal status of prospective tenants before they could rent the apartment.  Some saw this ordinance as a significant solution to the growing problem of illegal immigration in America.  Others saw this ordinance as unnecessary at the city level, but very disturbing as a clear message especially to Hispanic people that they are not welcome in Farmers Branch.  A week ago yesterday, you could find me on the field of battle, working for two of the candidates that supported the side I believed in.  In between giving my pitch to approaching voters, I visited with the soldiers from the other camp.  I listened carefully to what made them, just like me, become politically active for the first time in our lives.  We were all political novices.  We were all moved by our beliefs to become politically active, all the way to being poll greeters.  I came to admire those soldiers, though emphatically not their cause.  I felt a strange unity of purpose with them, as we were all working in the hot sun to better our beloved city.  I don’t credit myself for feeling that spirit of unity with the opposition.  It wasn’t them who won me over with their charming smiles.  I credit the grace of God for this and for any moment when unity is achieved.  If the church of Jesus Christ is to experience unity within congregations, within our denominations, and in ecumenical relations, it is going to have to be accomplished by the grace of God.