Easter 7, 2023

 When I was growing up, you would pledge your allegiance to either Ford or Chevy.  Every day expressions of this loyalty would make it into discussions and exclamations on the freeway about other drivers.  Our household was a strict Ford household, although my dad, the enforcer of this preference, struggled to explain to me why.  When I finally cornered my dad in my teens about all this energy on this topic, he mumbled something about some lemon car that had come out in the 60s or 70s, but still I didn’t see how this applied to the whole brand.  When I bought my first car, it was a Chevy Sprint that my dad helped me pick out, but it had a Japanese engine in it, so I guess it didn’t count.

I remember puzzling when I was a kid about Elvis being The King but also the Beatles being the most loved band.  It was Country verses Rock and Roll and there were the Coke and Pepsi wars and the debate about whether Bud light tasted great or was less filling.  It seemed everywhere you looked, people were taking sides and we are even more divided, today—rich from poor, republican and democrat, urban and rural, parenting style, age, race, language, and philosopy. 

For churches, we have our different styles, too.  Some churches have both the organist and pianist as well as guitar and some sing a cappella.  Some worshippers come dressed to the nines and others arrive in their work clothes.  Some say prayers from a book and others improvise.  Some worship in English, some in Spanish, some use sign language in the service.  And today Jesus prays for our unity, that we will be one as he and God are one.

Once Martin Luther had been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic church, supporters of his asked him to write an order of worship for the new church that was becoming, but he refused, because he recognized that worship must be shaped differently in different contexts.  He recognized that people would come to worship an order of worship if he spelled one out, so he advocated flexibility in worship in prayers and songs and orders.  Our unity is in Jesus Christ rather than our order of worship, or language, or what we wear or drive or whether we enjoy the organ or rock and roll, Elvis or the Beattles or rap or drums or any other differences.

Jesus knows we need this prayer for unity.  In today’s Gospel, Jesus takes prayer to the public arena and prays for his disciples.  At times he has taught them how to pray as in the Lord’s Prayer.  At other times he tells them that when they pray they should go to a private place so as not to make a big deal of themselves and use prayer to try to get attention.  Lots of times, Jesus goes to a quiet place to pray.  But in this case, in the Gospel of John, about a third of the book is dedicated to the crucifixion narrative, Jesus’ preparing his disciples for his death and then the story of the events of his arrest and execution.  This prayer is the last words of Jesus before his arrest in the Gospel of John.  This is like his last supper in the other Gospels and it has parallels to the last supper in that it is about unity—the unity of Jesus with God and the unity of Jesus with the Disciples.  Some have even said that the Disciples are the third person of the Trinity in this Gospel, the unity with Jesus and the Creator is so complete. 

Jesus has been talking, talking, talking to his disciples, coaching them how to handle this coming crisis.  Now he takes it to the next level and talks to God where they can hear him. 

Jesus prayer in this hour of rising tension, trying to get his disciples to take to heart all that he has been teaching them, not to be divided by this coming crisis but to support and uphold one another.  It’s like one last Disaster Preparedness drill.  Everyone has been learning the different scenarios and what part they might play, so they can keep their wits about them when the crisis strikes, to stay calm and be a support to each other when times are toughest. As we put together our Emergency Preparedness Binders at our workshop a couple of weeks ago, we realized we needed a Spiritual and Emotional Care Section.  What prayers and rituals will you rely on to keep you grounded and centered when it feels like the whole world is falling apart?  The Disciples were given lots of heads up about what was coming, but until they experienced the crisis, they didn’t know how unsettled they would be or how they would respond. 

We practice lives of prayer—of communication with God, of connection with each other, of grounding in what is most important to us, in centering ourselves for calm response and faith and trust in God, whatever life brings.  We practice the prayers of singing.  Singing teaches us the stories of our faith.  Singing lifts us up when we are discouraged.  Singing expresses every kind of emotion.  Singing makes us listen to the people around us.  Singing unites us in sound.  We practice the prayers of action—following through so that our lives match our beliefs, bringing justice, feeding people who are hungry, helping people in need.  We practice prayers that remind us of who we are and who God is that hold us steady in tumultuous times.  Through prayer we focus on togetherness rather than all that might divide us.

Jesus prays today for unity for all of us.  But he doesn’t pray for us all to be the same.  How boring would that be?  God has made us all with different gifts and shortcomings and we complement each other when we come together.  We all have a place in God’s family no matter how we worship or what we wear or whether we drive a Ford, a Chevy, or ride the bus or ride a bike or get around in our motor scooter.  And furthermore, Jesus brings together, not just Lutherans, and not just mainline Christians, but all who call on the name of the Lord, whether that name be God, Lord, Yahweh, Allah, Senior, Father, Mother, Jesus, Sophia, Holy Spirit.  We are united across time with those who have gone before and all those coming along after.  We are brought together by God to love God and love our neighbor, to reach out to the sick and suffering and bring good news to the poor, to be united in our purpose to share abundant life.

My friend Shaunda has the license plate “let UBU.—let you be you.”  The good news for today is that we can all be ourselves with all our preferences and that God is answering Jesus’ prayer to make us one, and lifting Jesus up in glory to bring life to the world.