Give Me Your Hand

The Sermon Study Guide is here.

John 17:20-26; Colossians 3:8-17

May 6, 2012 • Portage First UMC

For about six years, I was privileged to be part of a unique pastor’s prayer group that included all sorts of pastors. Every theological position, men and women, conservative and liberal and in between. Methodist, Presbyterian, Independent Christian, Disciples of Christ, Southern Baptist, Evangelical Free, Lutheran, Nazarene, Mennonite and even, occasionally, Catholic. You would think that when a group like that got together, we would end up fighting. And we did have vigorous debates. And sometimes, we’d have to remind each other that these issues had been going on for 2,000 years; it was unlikely we were going to solve them in a couple of hours. We would meet every Tuesday morning, rain or shine, drink coffee, pray and share what was on our hearts. And we would plan for community ministry. There were even times when this crazy bunch got together for dinner or a cookout. We were written about in a national magazine as an example of brothers and sisters in Christ being able to get along. It was a unique time, and I don’t know that I expect to ever experience anything quite like that again, because most of the time, Christians find more reason to separate than we do to unite. While we sometimes sing, “They’ll know we are Christians by our love,” most of the world knows us more by what we argue over and what we differ about than by our love for each other. There are some 30,000 recognized Protestant denominations in the United States alone, most of them started when this person disagreed with that person, and rather than finding a way to get along, they started a new church. Sunday morning is still the most segregated time in America (Smith, The Good and Beautiful Community, pg. 86), and we’re not just segregated based on race. Class, denomination and doctrine all divide the church today. The church Jesus died for is shattered in thousands of pieces, and I believe that has, in turn, shattered his heart in just as many pieces.

We’ve been exploring Biblical images of the church, the good and beautiful community, over these past few weeks, and we’re not just talking about our church, but about the church as a whole, the entire Body of Christ. On his last night before his crucifixion, the church was very much on Jesus’ mind. Earlier, he had promised that the church would be built on Peter’s witness (Matthew 16:18), and now, on this night, knowing that in the next few hours, all of the disciples would run away, Jesus prays for these men. “My prayer,” he says, “is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one” (17:15). And then, looking down the hallways of history, Jesus prays for us. He prays for “all those who will believe in [him] through their message” (17:20), and he has one desire for us: “that all of them may be one” (17:21). On his last night, Jesus prays that all who believe in him would be unified. He prays that we would be one.

In the Apostle’s Creed, we say we believe in “one holy catholic church.” Now, that phrase confuses some people, but it doesn’t mean we believe in the Roman Catholic Church. “Catholic” is a word that means “universal,” so when we say that phrase in the creed, we’re actually declaring our belief in what Jesus prayed for: that the church would be or should be one around the world (cf. Wright, John for Everyone, Part Two, pgs. 98-99). We’re declaring our belief that every person who claims the name of Jesus is our sister or brother in the faith. We are “one” with that person. And yet, to look at the church, you wouldn’t know it. This is one of Jesus’ prayers that has gone unanswered for two thousand years. Instead, we’ve embraced the false belief that if we disagree, we must separate. And so the church continues to argue and divide. And what do we argue about? Well, we disagree about worship styles—traditional or contemporary or something in between. We disagree about what instruments are allowed in worship. In Methodist circles, using the organ in worship dates back only to the mid-twentieth century. Before that, many believed the organ to be an instrument of Satan because it was used in the movie houses. And yet, now it’s assumed the organ is Biblical. I had one man say he wouldn’t go to a church that didn’t have an organ. Some Christian denominations forbid any instruments in worship, because the New Testament doesn’t mention them. So we disagree about music, and we disagree about who can lead and who can pastor. Can women be pastors? Some Christians says yes and some say no. We disagree over which Bible translation to use. Should you only use the King James? Or the NIV? Or the Message? Or whatever! Baptism, speaking in tongues, racial issues (including slavery), whether to pay rent for your seat at church or not—these are all issues that have divided the church. When we disagree, we think we have to separate. Even within denominations this happens. Witness our General Conference that took place over the last two weeks in Tampa. If you read some of the news reports or followed some of the legislation on Facebook or Twitter, it would be easy to convince you that we should change our name from “United” Methodists to “Untied” Methodists. And I can’t remember a time in my own ministry when there weren’t conversations happening among various groups in our own church about separating.

Underlying the talk of separation is often fear, fear that we might believe incorrect doctrine or do something wrong, and behind that is a desire for control. We want to control what’s right and what’s wrong. Make things black and white. And so we draw up rules and regulations and we target others, even brothers and sisters in Christ, as enemies (Smith 88). This past week, I had stopped between visits at Starbucks and was working on some things when I couldn’t help but overhear a rather loud conversation behind me. Two men were talking about why their church was right and everyone else was wrong, and in particular what was wrong with other churches. It boiled down to a long conversation meant to reinforce their belief that they are right, and above everyone else. It’s easy to slip from being proud of being part of this or any church into a “we’re right, everyone else is wrong” mindset. That’s not what Jesus wanted when he prayed for us.

Jesus prayed that we would be one. Here’s the reality: none of us are one hundred percent correct. We’re all a mix of orthodoxy and heresy. And it’s crazy to think we will ever all agree on everything, on every little point. We’re going to have differences, and while we can acknowledge that, the question is, does Jesus give us grounds for division because of our differences? Let’s listen to Jesus’ prayer again: “I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you” (17:20-21). The model for our unity, Jesus says, is the unity he shares with God the Father (Barclay, The Gospel of John, Volume 2, pg. 217). It’s not a model of administrative unity, or a sense that we’re all one big happy family just because we enter the same building every Sunday. The unity of the Father and the Son is an unbroken relational unity. In other words, the unity Jesus is praying for is based in love for one another. We love each other because of his love for us. We recognize that Jesus loves that other person just as much as he loves me. It is his love that holds us together, even when we disagree (Barclay 218; Wright 99). It’s out of that prayer John will later write these words: “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us” (1 John 4:18-19). Our call, our unity, is to love one another even when—maybe especially when we disagree.

We learned this in our prayer group, all those years ago. We had different styles of worship, even different ways to pray, and theologically we were very different. But we loved Jesus first, we were a Christ-centered community, and that allowed us and enabled us to love each other. We were able to stand together around the firm conviction that “Jesus is Lord.” We differed sometimes on how to live that out, but we never wavered from that belief that Jesus loved us and he loved that person we didn’t agree with, and his love had brought us together. The same thing ought to be true in a local church and, even more than that, between local churches.

But why is Jesus devoting time to this sort of prayer on his last night? This is, in fact, his final prayer before going to the Garden of Gethsemane where he will be arrested. This is the last prayer all of his disciples hear. Jesus tells us why it is so important not once, but twice in this passage. In verse 21, he says it’s “so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” And again, in verse 23, he prays for “complete unity” so that “the world will know that you [the Father] sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” In other words, when we wonder why the church is so ineffective sometimes at reaching those who don’t yet know Jesus, when we wonder why young people are turning away from the church and calling us “hypocritical” and “judgmental,” perhaps we need to take a look at our level of love for each other. Jesus said when the world sees us unified, loving each other in spite of our differences, not divided over them, then they will believe. If the world could see a truly Christ-centered community, crossing over the barriers of race, custom, gender or class, they would see something that can only come from God (cf. Wright 99).

That’s the sort of thing Paul was describing to the church at Colossae. He tells them that, when they come to Jesus, they need to leave behind all that baggage, all those old ways of living. They’ve put on a “new self,” he says, one which is “being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator” (3:10). And with that new self comes a breaking down of the barriers that used to exist. Paul tells them, “Here [in the church] there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all” (3:11). He’s not saying when we come to Jesus we stop being who we are. We don’t give up our ethnicity or our nationality or our gender. What he is saying is that those labels aren’t the most important thing anymore. What matters, instead, is Jesus. We belong to him. We are Christ-centered first, and all that other stuff second. Paul then goes on to plead for that kind of unity among the church, and he tells us how to do it: “Clothe yourselves”—that doesn’t mean to just change our mind and think differently. To “clothe ourselves” means we are covered by these things. These things are what people see when they see us. “Clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity” (3:12-14). There’s that word again—unity, which flows out of love. When we drop the labels, when we drop the accusations toward each other of being unChristian, when we seek to love the other person the way God has loved us, warts and all, then, Jesus says, the world will take notice. Why does the world fail to see the truth of the Gospel? Because we’ve failed to live it out the way Jesus prayed we would.

Disagreement in the church is nothing new. Augustine, the fourth century Bishop of Hippo, is reported to have said, “In essentials, unity; in doubtful matters, liberty; in all things, charity.” That became the church’s perspective on dealing with disagreements in such a way as to promote Jesus’ radical prayer vision of being one. In essentials, unity. There are core beliefs and doctrines we will not sacrifice: salvation in Jesus Christ, the cross, the resurrection, God as creator of the universe. Or, to put it in three simple words: creation, fall, redemption. That is the core of Christian belief, and have been for over two thousand years. We hold onto those things fiercely. But there are other things that aren’t clearly spelled out in Scripture, and in those areas, we allow liberty, freedom for disagreement among good-hearted believers. And in all things, charity. In all things, we love each other despite our disagreements. John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, found those early Methodist meetings made up of folks from all sorts of walks of life, belief systems, social classes and backgrounds. Division amongst the Methodist small groups was always a danger, and so Wesley turned to Augustine’s famous directive and sought to distinguish between essentials for the faith and nonessentials. Love and commitment to Jesus are essential. Everything else was nonessential—not unimportant, just not things that ought to divide the church. (How many of the things we fight over fall into that “nonessential” category?) In one of his most famous sermons, Wesley put it this way. First, quoting 2 Kings, Wesley says, “If your heart is as true to mine as mine is to yours, give me your hand” (2 Kings 10:15). Then, he says, “By this response, I do not mean, ‘Hold my beliefs.’ You need not believe everything I believe. I do not expect it or desire it. Neither do I mean, ‘I will adopt your beliefs.’ I cannot do so…By this statement, I mean, first, love me for who I am… Second, by saying, ‘Give me your hand,’ I mean, commit me to God in all your prayers… Third, when I invite you to give me your hand, I mean, awaken me to love and good deeds” (Kinghorn, John Wesley on Christian Practice, pgs. 113-115). When we talk about unity in the church, that’s the image we want to work with: if your heart is as mine, give me your hand.

Now, this is not easy. It’s easier to focus on what we disagree about rather than the love we are supposed to share. I know that. I’ve lived that. But I’ve also lived in the place where we treat those nonessentials as just that—nonessential. Where we put aside our own human-made rules about what it means to be part of the church and we focus on loving each other. That is, after all, how Jesus said the world would know we belong to him. He didn’t say the world would know when we get everything doctrinally right. He didn’t say the world would know if we get all our politicians elected, or if we get everyone to behave in one certain way. No, the way the world will know we belong to him and the way the world will know the truth of the Gospel is when we live in unity. So how do we live this out? By loving those we disagree with—this is our Soul Training exercise for this week. Think about someone, maybe in this church or maybe in another church, someone you disagree with, someone who perhaps has different beliefs or practices than you do. Then, begin to treat them not as enemies or someone on the other side of the fence, but as companions, as a brother or sister in Christ. Become aware of those times when you are tempted to speak evil of them, like the conversation I mentioned I overheard in Starbucks. Focus instead on what you have in common. And pray for them. Pray for them every day this week.

In just a couple of weeks, there is a very practical way to do this. From Ascension Day (May 17) to the night before Pentecost (May 26), we will be having community prayer meetings. Every night at 7:00 there will be an opportunity to pray in a local church with believers from across the community. Ten days of prayer, beginning May 17; that night’s service will be held here, and the other nights are throughout the community and across the theological spectrum. We’ll have a complete schedule soon, and I encourage you to go and pray in a church you’re not familiar with. Pray with someone who isn’t from your tradition. Let’s give witness to our city of the unity of the body of Christ through prayer.

We can also demonstrate unity by encouraging one another to do good, like Wesley said, and to work together on projects in the community. But the focus is not on us, and it’s never about us getting together with others just to feel good about ourselves. The church is a Christ-centered community, called to find our unity in his love. If our focus is anything other than Christ, we’re just serving ourselves. And that’s why, I believe, true unity begins at the communion table. It’s oddly sad to me that this meal Jesus gave his disciples on their last night together which should bring us together often keeps us apart. There was one time when our pastor’s prayer group was given the opportunity to lead worship during the town festival on the courthouse square. And we were given free reign; the service could be whatever we wanted it to be. So we planned music, we volunteered someone to preach (they missed the meeting), and then someone suggested we share communion together. Sadly, that meant a few of our number could not participate, because their particular communities do not allow for open communion. But the celebration on the courthouse square was wonderful, even if it was not all of the body of Christ together. This bread, this cup—these are elements Jesus gave us to remind us that we belong to him and to each other. In fact, most every time we have communion, I use a paraphrase of Paul’s words to the Corinthians to explain it. Paul said this: “Is not the cup of thanksgiving for which we give thanks a participation in the blood of Christ? And is not the bread that we break a participation in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we, who are many, are one body, for we all share the one loaf” (1 Corinthians 10:16-17). Every time we gather at the Lord’s Table, it is a reminder of his love for us and our unity with each other. As Jesus is in the Father and the Father is in Jesus, may we also be united with each other so that the world may know the truth of the Gospel.

So we’re going to celebrate Communion this morning, but we’re going to do it in a different way. To remind us that we are a community, a Christ-centered community, you’ll notice that the table of the Lord has been set up in the middle of the sanctuary, in the middle of the gathered community. In just a few moments, I’m going to offer a prayer and then invite you to come to the table and to serve one another. The only “rule” here is that no one should come alone, and if you see someone sitting alone, you invite them to come with you even if you don’t know them. And together, you’ll take the bread and dip it in the cup and receive the body and blood of Christ. Now I want to really push you in one more way: a radical thing to do this morning is, if there is someone here you have a disagreement or a conflict with, and you need to begin that hard work Paul described of forgiving one another, there’s no better place to start than the table of the Lord. So, this morning, let this table be our symbol of unity. Serve each other, and love one another. Jesus said, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another” (John 13:35). Let’s pray and prepare our hearts for Holy Communion.