Unity in Christ is not sameness in Christ; in our baptism we are made one with each other even as the Triune God is one, a oneness of love not of identicality.  And this unity is given by God, made by God, done by God.

Pr. Joseph G. Crippen, the Seventh Sunday of Easter, year A; text:  John 17:1-11

Sisters and brothers in Christ, grace to you, and peace in the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

Reading a history of 2,000 years of the Christian Church is not for the squeamish or faint of heart.  Though one starts with the love of God made known in Christ Jesus, somewhat quickly thereafter it degenerates into power struggles and hatreds over faith in the same Christ Jesus.

I recently read such a comprehensive history; I also recently taught a Forum on the Nicene Creed.  Today we hear our Lord Jesus pray, on the night of his betrayal, that all his followers would be one, even as the Father and the Son are one.  What I read and what I studied for that class would seem to clash deeply with our Lord’s prayer.

Much of the life of the Church over the centuries has been given over to the task of enforcing unity (always assuming the enforcer has the truth and the enforcee does not.)  So we have creeds that speak the agreement of the Church on the nature of the Triune God.  This is good.  But at the cost of a large number of faithful disciples of Jesus being cast out as heretics.  The more power the Church assumed, the more forcefully the Church mandated unity.  Not too long after the Emperor Constantine made us the favored religion, believers adopted the murderous and violent ways of the world into which our Lord sent us out in love and peace.  We started killing each other when we disagreed.  Because, you see, unity is what our Lord wants.  So let’s give it to him.  At whatever cost.

It is often said that it is a scandal the Church is so divided in our time.  East from West, Rome from Protestants, Baptists from Lutherans.  Denominations and sects proliferate all over the planet.  Yet Jesus prayed that we be one.  Scandalous.

I wonder.  I wonder very much.  I wonder if in fact our Lord is actually pleased with at least part of our situation.  That is, the part where if some of us see the truth about the Triune God revealed in Christ in one way and others in another, we aren’t fighting a war or burning at the stake to prove who’s right any more.  Given the richness of human experience and the variety of the gifts of the Spirit, perhaps our Lord in fact expected that we would no more agree at all times with each other’s theological point of view today than did the authors of Matthew and John, or did the apostles Peter and Paul.

There is still a fundamental scandal, of course, that the many and various groups of Christians by and large can’t stand each other, relatively few are in full communion with each other, and some of them can’t even get too close to each other lest they start fighting.

In short, perhaps the true scandal is not that we have disagreements and denominations, but that we do not love each other.  That we sit in our own self-centered theological enclaves and throw potshots at the others; sometimes being good to those who seem to have similar enclaves, but disdainful of those who do not.  (Let us be honest: how often do we hear a Christian speak in public who disagrees with us or offends us and think, well, they’re not really Christian after all, not like us?)

In our liturgy I invite our confession of the Nicene Creed with the words of the Divine Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom, from the fourth century: “Let us love one another, that with one mind we may confess the Holy Trinity, one in essence and undivided.”  The liturgy says we can only begin to confess our faith if we begin by loving each other.

That would be a good start, would it not?

Jesus prayed to the Father “that they be one, as we are one.”  What if what he meant was in love?

The deeply mysterious life of the Triune God is lived between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, and according to the witness of the New Testament, is simply and only love.  The Father loves the Son who loves the Spirit who loves the Father who loves the Spirit who loves the Son who loves the Father.

Whatever we know about how God is one God, yet three Persons, we know because of the witness of the Son, who lives in the bosom of the Father, that the heart of God for us is love.  So the heart of God within God’s own self is also love.  Did not the elder already teach us this in 1 John?

Yet that oneness in love does not mean identicality.  The Father is not the Son, and the Son is not the Spirit, and the Spirit is not the Father.

Whatever we know about how God is one God, yet three Persons, we know because of the witness of the Son that Father, Son, and Spirit are also not the same.  What is revealed to us, what we’ve experienced, is what we know of God, and from the beginning the Church has experienced the difference of each while affirming the unity of all.

This is mystery, so much so that in a couple weeks we will have a festival just to revel in the mystery of the Triune God.

Yet Jesus said, “As we are one, may they be one.”

What if unity in Christ also doesn’t mean sameness in Christ?  Just as the unity of the Triune God doesn’t mean sameness?  What if being the Body of Christ with many members, eyes, hands, feet, all sorts, means many points of view, many insights, many ways of being faithful followers?

That is, it may be the world desperately needs both Baptists and Lutherans.  Romans and Protestants.  Western and Orthodox.  It may be there are things these sisters and brothers need to teach us that we cannot hear if we do not begin to love them.  It may actually be a strength that we’re not mandating by force that we agree all the time.

In fact, it certainly must be that the Spirit speaks in different ways to the children of God baptized into the Triune Name.

It seems to me that we’ve confused the important thing: there is a truth about God in the world that is revealed in Jesus the Son that heals the creation – with the impossible thing: that we can definitively know and own that truth, and worse, defend it.

That is to say, to claim that our unity in Christ does not require sameness is not to say it doesn’t matter what we believe or teach.  It means that our unity is in Christ, not in our understanding, and that’s a very different thing.

And if we are like God in our variety, Christ also seems to want us to be like God in the unity of our love.  The unity of the disciples of Christ on earth is in the love we have received from God through our Lord Jesus Christ, and enflamed by the Spirit’s gift-giving.  Just as the Triune God’s unity is lived in love.

Jesus couldn’t be clearer, much as we close our eyes and hope it goes away: the only sign of our discipleship to the world is our love for each other.  What if John 13:35 would be proclaimed to all the world, so that everyone knew that disciples of Jesus could only be recognized by how they loved each other?  Would the world see any?

And can we honestly say that we in our own little group of agreement – 61 million Lutherans among 2.2 billion Christians – are enough to bear Christ’s justice and love in the world, without loving collaboration with all the disciples of Christ?

“As we are one,” Jesus said.  The prayer is that we are one as the Triune God is one: different, varied, but one in love.  Different gifts, different understandings, but one in love.

“As we are one,” Jesus said.  What if he really meant that?

Oh, and as long as we’re paying attention to Jesus here, could we notice what he’s doing?  He’s praying, not commanding.

The Son is asking the Father in prayer (in the mystery of the Triune God) to make this so among us.  That is, our unity in love for each other is not something we can even do, much less enforce.  It, like everything else, is gift, grace, empowerment.  The Son is asking the Father to send the Spirit (if we look ahead in the prayer) to come and make us holy that we be one as God is one.

So could we stop thinking we’ve got a choice in this?  That we have a say?  That we are in control, not the Triune God?

This is all simple, it is not new, it is something we confess all the time: in our baptism into Christ we are made one with God and with each other.

That means all the baptized children of God, made one by the power of God working in water and Word through the grace of the Holy Spirit in us.  Our unity is not based on our agreement or intelligence or brilliant theology, it is our reality in baptism already.

All we need to hear is that the Spirit is calling us to love each other in that unity, to let the Spirit lead us deeper and deeper into the loving dance that is the life of the Triune God, and that is given us as our dance in this world, that we also become one as God is one.

So that ultimately all will know God’s love.  You see, once we start moving to this impulse of the Spirit, flowing in this love for each other as disciples of Christ across all denominations, then maybe we’ll begin to find the maturity we’re going to need to love those of different faiths.

Because I’m quite certain Christ Jesus has that in mind for us as well.

In the name of Jesus.  Amen

In the face of evil, suffering, and our own shortcomings, it can be difficult to see how Jesus has made the world or us new. He promises, however, that the Holy Spirit, who has been poured out onto us in our baptisms, is transforming us and equipping us to complete his work of inviting all people into relationship with the Triune God.  

Vicar Emily Beckering; the Ascension of Our Lord; texts: Luke 24:44-53; Acts 1:1-11

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

The trouble with the ascension is that Jesus leaves us so that we may finish his work, and the prospect of that can feel not only frightening, but impossible.

We, like the disciples, may wonder how and when Jesus’ crucifixion, resurrection, and the gift of the Holy Spirit will make a difference in the world around us and in our own hearts.

The disciples ask, “Is this the time when you will restore the kingdom to Israel?”

Whether the disciples are asking for Jesus to free Israel from Roman occupation or whether they are asking him if now is the time when the kingdom that he preached will come among them, they yearn to see some tangible difference.

In the same way, we yearn for some visible sign that God is bringing about change in the world and in our own hearts.

We, too, may stare up at the sky with arms open asking, “Since Jesus was crucified and is risen, and has made all things new, why is there still so much suffering and evil in the world?” People still starve to death. Children are still kidnapped and held hostage. Wars still ravage countries. Those whom we love are still subject to cancer and illness.

The Holy Spirit has been poured out onto us in our baptisms, yet we may still wonder where the change is that Jesus has promised will happen in our hearts. How long do we have to wait until we have this Christian life figured out? How long will we struggle with sin and relearn lessons that we thought we had already learned? When will we finally be able to make the right choices in our relationships and love as we are called?

And yet in the face of these realities—a broken, hurting world and imperfect disciples who still do not understand—Jesus leaves and tells us that we will be the ones who will bring to completion God’s plan of restoring the world.

At which point, we may find ourselves asking Jesus along with the disciples, “Wouldn’t it just be better if you do it? When are you going to fix everything? How can we possibly do this job?”

But in response, Jesus tells us, and those earliest disciples, that God intends to complete Jesus’ work through us and gives us the Holy Spirit to do it.

Even though we know this, the nagging question still remains: if God desires and promises to be with us, then why must the Son of God be physically absent from us? Why can’t the one who was crucified and raised finish the work of preaching forgiveness? And since it takes us a lifetime to learn—and even then we still aren’t perfect—wouldn’t it just be better if God would do this work without us?

We want God to end hunger, to wipe out disease, to force armies to lay down their weapons, to remove militants and set kidnapped girls free, to just destroy the pieces of us that hurt others, and to crush everything about us that prevents us from living as God would have us live.

But that is not God’s way. The way of the cross continues to be God’s way even on the way to Pentecost. Jesus empties himself yet again, and as God did in the very beginning of creation, shares power with us rather than use it to control us or the world.

God could completely end hunger, or wars, or disarm militants by force, or just make you and me automatically who God would have us be, but that would require control and coercion that God is not willing to exercise.

Force and threats are not God’s way because they do not lead to healing or growth.

Only love can do that: the kind of love that God shows through Jesus, who enters into our very brokenness and suffering, taking it all on himself, and now, is made visible in us through the Holy Spirit who equips us to love. Our witness is how the world will be invited into, rather than forced into, relationship with the Triune God.

All this could sound like empty platitudes in the face of real suffering, disappointment, or evil to simply say, “Don’t worry, God is at work in you to make you and the entire world new.”

But the truth is, that that is exactly what Jesus promises us today, and it is no empty promise.

The Spirit of God is with us, transforming us and the world, and we have seen it.

The fruits of the Spirit that have been poured out onto are love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Whenever we see these in the world, in one another, or in ourselves, the Spirit is at work.

Throughout this last month, we saw the Spirit when congregations around the world joined together to pray for the children kidnapped in Nigeria. As the church prays for all these girls, and we pray especially for Naomi, the Spirit of God is working to turn all of our hearts to our neighbors, and giving strength and courage to those in Nigeria and to governments throughout the world to work for their return.

This last week, when you signed letters for Bread for the World, and next week when you feed community members, the Spirit of God is at work to end hunger.

And when you notice that this time, rather than demanding your own way with your partner, spouse, children, parents, friend, or even someone whom it is usually very difficult to love, you lifted up their needs, gave forgiveness freely, or saw Christ’s reflection in them, the Spirit of God was moving.

Even though it may be slow-going, and we or the world might take two steps back for every one-step that the Spirit leads us toward growth, it is well worth the wait according to God because the value is in a real, authentic relationship that comes from freely choosing to respond to God’s love for us and growing toward God in love and in faith. Because God values this growth, the Spirit is with us and will continue to be at work.

Tonight, just as God did on that original Mount of Olives—first through the presence of Jesus and then through the angels who appeared to the disciples after he ascended—our Lord calls us back from fear of being alone or ill-suited for the task given to us. By the power of the Holy Spirit, Christ is forever with us and will forever be working through us to offer forgiveness, to show his love, to invite all people into relationship with him, and to wipe away every tear from their eyes until that time when death, mourning, crying and pain will be no more.

Amen.

The Holy Spirit, the One called alongside us, accompanies us by strengthening us, guiding us, bringing us to faith, transforming us to be Christ, and revealing Christ in our midst. Today, the Spirit calls us alongside others so that we, too, may accompany a world that longs to see Christ. 

Vicar Emily Beckering, the Sixth Sunday of Easter, year A; text: John 14:15-21.

In the name of the Father, and of the + Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen

If you have ever served as an accompanist to a soloist, ensemble, or congregation, then you know that there is a great difference between accompanying and performing on your own. It is a difference that is essential for musicians who are new to the art to learn. Even if we have not been an accompanist, we all know what difference the cantor makes as we worship together. The accompanist is sensitive to the needs and gifts of the other musicians, supporting them in phrasing and expression, prepared to bring them back in if they get lost, leading yet moving along with them, thus strengthening and empowering those whom she or she accompanies.

In the gospel today, we hear just what difference the Holy Spirit, whom we have received in our baptisms, makes for our daily lives. The work of the Holy Spirit, and in turn the work that the Holy Spirit equips us to do, is not unlike the work of the accompanist.

Today Christ promises, “The Father will give you another Advocate to be with you forever. You know him because he abides with you and will be in you.” 

“Advocate” could also be translated “Comforter, Helper, Counselor.” The trouble with each of these names is that there is not a single English word that encompasses the full meaning of what Jesus tells us about the person and work of the Holy Spirit. Each of these names gives us a glimpse of the Holy Spirit but ultimately falls short of expressing the full extent of the Holy Spirit’s power.

The Holy Spirit is an advocate in the sense that the Spirit speaks for us when our own words fail us, for we know from the gospels that we can be confident when we witness because the Holy Spirit will give us just what we need. We know from Paul that the Spirit intercedes with sighs too deep for words when we pray. The Spirit is not only an Advocate, but also a Comforter who encourages us in times of distress and gives us faith when we doubt. And the Holy Spirit is also a Counselor who guides us along the path that God desires for us, reveals to us when we are living contrary to how God would have us live, and teaches us to follow Christ.

The Spirit does all of this, yet even more because the name that Jesus gives to the Spirit here literally means “the one called alongside.” Here is where the image of the accompanist helps us: the Holy Spirit is called alongside us for the journey, accompanying us, not guiding from far away, but right there with us in the very midst of the journey, working for and through us.

The Holy Spirit is sent to dwell with us, to accompany us along the way because God the Father will not be separated from us and God the Son refuses to leave us orphaned or abandoned. The very presence of the Holy Spirit makes communion with the Triune God possible: we are invited into an intimate relationship with the Trinity where we are brought into the very presence of God. Just as Jesus promises, the Holy Spirit reveals that Christ is in us and we are in Christ. In this relationship, we are never without our Lord. We never journey alone, but are always accompanied because the Triune God so desires to be with us. In that accompanying, the Spirit will comfort, and counsel, and speak for and through us.

Perhaps the most important aspect of Christ’s promise to us today is, in fact, that it is a promise. 

The power and presence of the Holy Spirit is not a condition based on our own abilities. The Spirit’s effectiveness in us or in the world does not depend on us. It is the Spirit’s power, not our own. The Spirit’s ability to reach us, to guide and transform us, extends beyond our feelings, beyond our intelligence, our limited perspectives, our tendency to miss how God is at work, and even beyond our sin which causes us to get in the way. The promise of the Holy Spirit’s dwelling with us, coming alongside us, assures us that God will be with us and at work as we seek to make decisions, to follow Christ, and to live as faithful servants.

Because the Spirit’s work and presence are promised, we need not fear as the world fears. We do not need to live in a state of worry, feeling the pressure that it is all up to us to figure everything out. All the “what-ifs” in this world have no power over us: what if we don’t know enough, have enough, aren’t enough? The truth is that we aren’t, but Christ is, and the Holy Spirit unites us with him.

Now we can actually live with hope: with the hope that the Spirit who dwells within us is always beckoning us, always opening us up to one another, always guiding us and transforming us to live as Christ in the world. We do not live with fear, but with expectation: every moment could be a moment when the Spirit leads us to someone, brings someone whom we need to us, shapes us to live anew as Christ, or reveals how Christ is already at work in the world around us. We live listening and on the lookout.

If we are oriented to view all of life this way, wondering how God is at work in us and in the world, then the question naturally becomes: what does it look like, sound like, feel like when the Spirit is moving in our midst? How do we know when, where, or into what the Holy Spirit is calling us?

Recognizing how the Holy Spirit is working may not be a matter of having an intense spiritual experience or of knowing something with absolute certainty. We may not always feel the Holy Spirit’s presence or know exactly which decision to make, which is why we cling instead to Christ’s promise that the Holy Spirit accompanies us, is by our side working through and for us—even when we make mistakes—and will be there to call us back when we go astray.

Sometimes this happens in the form of a gentle tugging, or a nudging: like when someone is continually brought up in our minds and hearts and we know that we need to reach out to them. Other times, the Spirit’s voice comes to us through our brothers or sisters in Christ when they encourage us, remind us what is true, or tell us honestly when we have been going down the wrong path. We know for sure that the Spirit speaks through scripture, the preached word, and the bread and wine in order to reveal Christ. The Spirit, however, is not limited to these mediums; God finds many ways to reach us. We cannot control or predict how we will be reached; we only know that the Spirit will find a way.

Though it happens many ways, one thing is clear from Jesus’ words for us today: when the Holy Spirit is at work, it always looks like Christ. This is why we often don’t recognize the work of the Spirit until after the fact, until the presence of Christ has already been revealed. The reason that the Spirit is “another Advocate” is because Jesus was the first. We see the Spirit at work whenever someone acts like Jesus, shows Christ’s love, offers forgiveness, gives of themselves for the benefit of someone else: every time that Christ is seen.

This is what the Holy Spirit is always at work doing, always beckoning us into, and always transforming us to be: Christ. 

Jesus tells us, “If you love me, you will keep my commandments.” And what is his command but to love one another and the world as he loves us. The Holy Spirit makes that possible. The work of the One who is called alongside us is to call us alongside the world in order to be Christ’s presence, to show Christ’s love, and to offer Christ’s forgiveness.

We are not sent to quiet people’s fears by dismissing them or avoiding them, thus saying “Peace, peace” when there is not peace. We are not sent to speak for our neighbors without taking the time to listen to them. We are not sent to help our neighbors by attempting to solve their struggles our own way.

Being called alongside is very different from any of these approaches.

An accompanist neither overpowers nor abandons the soloist or ensemble when it is struggling, but instead strengthens them by moving with them and giving them the support that they need. God does not deal with our brokenness or our suffering by punishing us, avoiding us, abandoning us, or taking us out of harm’s way. Instead, the Triune God enters into the very midst of our struggle, strengthening us, guiding us, and transforming us from the inside out. As God dwells with us, so we are to dwell with one another.  As the Holy Spirit accompanies us, so we are sent to accompany one another and all of our neighbors: to walk alongside each other, to stand in solidarity with each other, to enter into one another’s pain, to listen so deeply to each other and the Holy Spirit who speaks through us, that after we have listened, we all understand ourselves and God’s desires for us all a little more clearly. We will even be accompanied as we accompany, for it is the Spirit who empowers us to love this way.

And so the Holy Spirit looks like you, dear sisters and brothers, when you accompany a broken, hurting world. 

Every time that we meet evil and injustice with unwavering love and peace, every time that we seek unity out of division, ever time that we are turned from commending ourselves or getting our own way and turned toward listening to the needs of those around us and lifting them up, every time that we choose forgiveness instead of revenge, and offer relationship in the face of rejection: the Spirit is at work to show Christ. The Holy Spirit poured out onto us in our baptisms, who is called alongside us, will be at work, forever opening our eyes to see Christ again, and transforming us to be Christ for all whom we are called alongside.

This peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard and keep our hearts and our minds in Christ Jesus.

Amen.