Sermon: Seventh Sunday of Easter, John 17:20-26

June 1, 2025 
Faith-La Fe Lutheran Church,
Pastor Jonathan Linman

Conflict, disagreements, and broken relationships are facts of the human condition. Isn’t that right? And all of this certainly characterizes our own times in our nation and world. And disunity is true in the church as well – and has been ever since the very beginning. The original 12 disciples argued among themselves about who was the greatest. Judas betrayed Jesus. Three times, Peter denied that he even knew Jesus.  

When the Apostle Paul wrote in his letters that followers of Jesus should love one another and live together in harmony, that’s an unmistakable signal that conflict and division existed within the earliest churches. If there wasn’t lovelessness and dissension, Paul would not have needed to exhort them to love each other and be harmonious. And on and on it has gone throughout history.

Given our finite, sinful human condition, conflicts over differences of opinion are inevitable. And too many times, such conflict ends in fighting and division within and among the churches. The fact that there is a Lutheran Church at all is the result of theological conflict that ended not in agreement, but in disunity and a divided church. Christians even seem to relish fighting with one another. These fights can be energizing, even exhilarating. I’ve had my own versions of such experiences. 

But our conflicts and fights within the church come with a very high cost. People who are not believers see Christians fighting each other and conclude that Christianity is just human business as usual, and they turn around and head for the door, wanting nothing to do with the church. 

Or if they were members of the church, conflict causes them leave, never to come back. Think of how many formers members of Faith-La Fe Church are former members because of disagreements we have had even here in our local congregation. 

When we fight, that becomes an anti-witness. It’s anti-evangelism. It gives entirely the wrong message. Church fights prevent people from hearing the beautiful message of Jesus recorded in today’s reading from Revelation: “The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who hears say, ‘Come.’ And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes to take the water of life as a gift.” (Revelation 22:17) When we fight with each other, people out in the world who need God’s love and mercy and grace cannot hear these grace-filled words. Surely this is not what God wants!

Which brings us to today’s gospel reading. What we heard today is known as Jesus’ high priestly prayer for his disciples. It takes place at the Last Supper when Jesus offered to his followers his final teachings. Toward the end of that talk at the table, Jesus prays to his Father in heaven in the presence of the disciples. Jesus prayed for unity, for oneness among his followers. Remember that Judas just left the table to betray him. And Peter was about to deny him. Thus, Jesus’ prayer for unity was timely and poignant. 

Jesus prayed: Father, “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.” (John 17:20-21)

Jesus’ prayer was not just a sentiment that it’s nice and pleasant and lovely when we get along as one. No. Unity is not an end in itself. For Jesus, our unity as Christians has a purpose: may they all be one so that the world may believe that the Father sent Jesus in love so that those in the world may know eternal life through believing in Jesus. In short, our unity as Christians removes stumbling blocks so that people can actually see in our loving unity with each other the love of God. What you see is what you get. “See how they love one another” – that was one of the early sayings that described Christian community. Alas, that didn’t last very long….

Given our sinful, shameless delight in bickering with one another, how are we to try to fulfill in our efforts Jesus’ prayer for unity with each other as Christians? First off, here’s the thing: it’s important to acknowledge that Jesus isn’t giving a command directly to the disciples. He’s offering a prayer for oneness on their behalf, on our behalf. It’s hugely significant for us to know that Jesus prayed for his followers and is still praying for us. In Jesus, we have the perfect intercessor. 

But another key to understanding how Jesus’ prayer for unity can be fulfilled has to do with all the personal and related pronouns found in today’s reading: I, you, your, me, my, we, us, they, them, these, those, their. According to my count, there are 55 such pronouns in 7 short verses of scripture. It’s all convoluted and confusing, and ties the tongue causing us to stumble over the pronouns when we read the passage aloud. 

And that’s the point: the possibility of our unity ultimately has its source in our interwoven relationships with Jesus, with God, with each other in the church. Listen again to Jesus’ own words conveyed in John’s Gospel: “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us…. I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one.” 

In Christ, believing in him in faith, trusting him – which is itself a gift of God – we share in the life of the whole Trinity, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. We thereby receive the divine power, the energy, the gifts, all that we need to discover our unity with each other as believers in Christ. 

But as usual, given our sinful condition, God still needs to break through our resistance for us to the get to the point of acknowledging that we fundamentally already have unity with each other and with God as beloved children of one God. Today’s first reading from Acts reveals how this divine break-through can happen. 

Paul and Silas had been imprisoned for their public preaching and teaching, and particularly for an exorcism that robbed slave owners of making money off their slave-girl’s fortune-telling abilities. Hence their imprisonment. Listen again to the passage: “About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone’s chains were unfastened.” (Acts 16:25-26)

It's a remarkable story, and instructive for us. The locked prison doors were opened and their chains fell off in the earthquake which happened when they were praying and singing hymns. Which is to say, they were worshiping. And through those worshipful means of praying and singing, God unlocked the doors and freed them from their captivity.

So, too, for us as we worship. In baptism, in the proclamation of the word, in the Eucharist, in the praying and singing that accompanies everything we do on Sunday is the earthquake sent from God to free us from that which imprisons us, to free us from our proclivities to bicker and to fight and to be divided one from another. For in these means of grace in worship, we experience and are united with the earthquake that is Christ’s death and resurrection which is our ultimate freedom. 

And this freedom recorded in Acts led to a fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer – that the world may believe. Indeed, the jailer and his whole household became believers in Christ and were baptized – all because of the earth-quaking, in-breaking of God which gave the gift of freedom from captivity, which opens doors to each other. 

What are the implications of all of this for our life together today and for our mission as a church? Jesus’ prayer for oneness among his followers births the call for us to strive for ever more visible Christian unity. And our striving is made possible by our share in the life and love and power of our Trinitarian God, one and yet three persons. 

Dear friends in Christ, seeking unity among Christians is central to our mission as a church – again so that the world may believe. 

Many think of ecumenical efforts as nice things to do if you have time. I don’t see it that way at all. Rather, in a bitterly conflicted and increasingly fractured and divided world, our unity as Christians is as important as ever, arguably even more so. 

For our unity can serve as leaven to make for healing balm in our bitterly divided world. Our unity may inspire and beget unity among others in the world who otherwise know only enmity. Working for Christian unity is counter-cultural, but integral and central to our calling as church. 

All of this is why I have devoted so much of my ministry over the decades to ecumenical work – which I’ll explore in greater detail in today’s forum that I’ll lead between our services. 

But each of you also has a part to play in promoting various forms of Christian unity. You can pray as Jesus did for churches still divided to come together in greater dialogue. You can pray that Lutherans and Catholics may one day join each other at the Eucharistic table. If you are in conflict with siblings in Christ, you can seek reconciliation with them. The opportunities are abundant.     

But be assured in the confidence of faith that Jesus continues to pray for us in our efforts, and that our share in the mystical realities of our Triune God known to us each and every Sunday as we celebrate the means of grace will give us all that we need to reveal our unity with God and with each other as a healing witness to our broken world.

For Christ is risen. Christ is risen indeed. Alleluia. Amen.