Max Lucado is a Christian author and storyteller, and he tells the following story with wit and style. He says, "some time ago I came upon a fellow on a trip who was carrying a Bible. "Are you a believer?" I asked him. "Yes," he said excitedly. But I've learned you can't be too careful. "Virgin birth?" I asked. "I accept it." "Deity of Jesus?" "No doubt." "Death of Christ on the cross?" "He died for all people."

Now, that may be a little extreme, but Lucado’s identified a common problem . . . we’re quick to divide over just about anything. Somewhere in the world today (probably in many places) one group of people has decided they must start a new church because the one they currently belong to isn't "doing it" right. One wag said it well, "to live above with those we love, oh, how that will be glory. To live below with those we know, now that's another story." It's true . . . it shouldn't be, but it’s true.

In the scripture passage Judi read from John’s gospel tonight, we heard Jesus' great prayer for those who would believe because of the message of the disciples. . . . In other words, he’s praying for us, praying for the church, those who would come after him, and after his first disciples. And in that prayer, there’s one request that stands out (because it’s repeated three times!), and that’s that the followers of Jesus Christ would be united as One.

Now maybe this is just an American thing, but I really cherish my individuality. When I used to watch Star Trek – the ORIGINAL one – I was never a big fan of Mr. Spock’s Vulcan mind meld. You know, when Spock would touch his fingertips to someone else's temples so that he and the other person could immediately read each other's thoughts. Maybe it would be helpful at times, but we're not quite there yet. We still need to depend on things like talking, sending e-mail, and showing PowerPoint slides.

We are not called to create unity . . . Our unity comes from being bound to one another through God in Christ. We’re just called to maintain that unity. However, before we can maintain the unity that comes from being related to each other in Christ, we need to talk a little bit about what that is.

Unity is one-ness, not same-ness. Ruth Bell once said, "If two people agree on everything, one of them is unnecessary" She went on to say, ""If two people agree on everything, they double their chances of being wrong."" Now, Ruth Bell was not referring to the diversity of thought in the Christian church, she was talking about marriage.

I did a couple of weddings this week, for couples who came up from the United States, the so-called "land of the free" to take advantage of some REAL freedom and equality, to get married in Canada. One of the fun things about marrying folks is that you get to give them some un-asked-for spiritual advice. And some of my advice to folks who are getting married is to use the strength of the bond they are making with one another to cherish one anothers’ individuality, to find love in the other-ness of the other partner. In marriage, we have to find love and passion for the significant other, often in spite of the differences. In a marriage, as in a church, we have to find ways to live with our differences. Praise God, I know that Anne loves me in spite of me, in spite of our many differences.

You know, differences can be a good thing. Differences keep us from grievous error. When everyone marches in lockstep all the time it’s easy to be led astray without even realizing it. Adolf Hitler led a whole nation astray. He did it by silencing all competing viewpoints.

Differences keep us fresh and alive. Differences force us to think about what we believe. That’s one of the things I love about MCC, and the ways in which it draws people from all kinds of backgrounds, all kinds of theologies, all kinds of worship styles. Differences expose us to joys we would never have discovered without them. It’s easy to simply adopt the ways of those we spend time with. We can do this in the church. We can conform and stop thinking. When there are differences we’re more mentally awake and alert. That's good for us. It strengthens us. It’s worth celebrating.

Now, unity is not the same as uniformity. In many cases the things we disagree on don’t actually boil down to who’s "right" and who’s "wrong". Many issues are simply a matter of personality and preference. Different means "Different". It doesn't mean "better than" or "worse than", it just means "different". Diverse.

Now, there’s a lot of diversity in the church. This is a good thing. I’m not simply talking about racial or cultural diversity, although there is that in some churches. In diversity in the church I mean denominationalism. Just open the phone book and look up churches and you will see what I am referring to. In the Christian Church, in the church who professes the name of Jesus Christ, we are a diverse crowd. It says in the gospel of Matthew, that wherever two or three are gathered in my name, Christ is among them. And that may be true, it IS true in fact, but my experience has also been that it is ALSO true that wherever you have three Christians gathered together, you have four opinions. At least. Christians of every denominational stripe struggle for that unity with God. Each church is unique and each church is important. Yet, what seems even more important to Jesus is that we become one.

There’s a Methodist minister in the States names J. Gordon Melton, with an unusual hobby. His hobby is collecting denominations. I dunno... some people collect stamps, or butterflies, but J. Gordon Melton scours the country trying to count the number of major denominations in the United States. As of a few years ago he had counted over 1,200 denominations in this country. Some of them are kind of interesting. One’s "The Church of the Kennedy Worshippers." That’s a church which actually believes that it can pray to the late President John F. Kennedy, and can be cured both of congenital defects as well as of terminal diseases. Then there’s "The Church of the Ministry of Universal Wisdom." They’re looking for flying saucers to come. And then there’s "The Church of What’s Happening Now." That’s obviously a more contemporary church. He also found that in that list of over 1,200 denominations there exists more than 70 different denominations calling themselves Baptist: Seventh-Day Baptist, Two Seed in the Spirit Predestinarian Baptist, General Baptist, Regular Baptist, and the list goes on and on. As a former Baptist, I’m not terribly surprised.

But notice in verse 20 Jesus makes clear that his prayer is open to everyone who believes. Not only for those disciples he was sitting with, but Christ was looking ahead –– even over 2000 years through time –– to pray for all who seek to follow his way. And certainly Jesus who was God who –– though I am sure limited in what He knew as a human –– was also unlimited in what he knew as God. And God seeing through the portals of time surely knew that in 2004, there would be over 1200 different denominations, and even with that knowledge Jesus still prayed for unity –– for oneness.

I’ve been trying to think of a metaphor or image that will help me understand this kind of one-ness that doesn’t destroy our uniqueness. First I thought of a stone wall... Each stone having a place and a purpose, yet cemented together with mortar, filling in all the little cracks and crevices. Each believer held in place by the mortar of God’s love among us all. And that’s OK, but I didn’t quite like it, because over the course of history, the Christian church has sometimes been far too much like a stone wall, focusing much more on the walls that divide us, than on the mortar that holds us together. So I didn’t really want to go there.

And then I thought, since Anne gave me that great mosaic class for  Christmas, that I enjoyed so much, I thought, maybe we’re like a mosaic. A beautiful coming-together of intricate pieces, each one held in place by the grout between them. This is the first mosaic I did in my class. (Not Shown.) It’s the Pentecost dove, in case that’s not apparent. But you know what’s wrong with it? I made a mistake. There’s not enough room between the pieces for the grout. So a few pieces are falling off here and there. That’s not a good metaphor.

So I was stumped, and I did what I usually do when I’m stumped – I asked Anne. And she said she’d be more inclined to go with a more organic metaphor. And I though that was a good idea, because a little earlier in the gospel of John, Jesus talks about how our connection to God and to one another is like that of a vine and branches. So something alive would be better. Anne’s idea was of a meadow full of wildflowers. Each one unique. Each one sublimely beautiful. And each one rooted in the good earth simply for the purpose of creating life and beauty.

I think that’s what the unity Jesus was talking about is for – it’s for a purpose. The perfect oneness Jesus is surely praying about is coming together, overcoming our differences, finding common ground and common goals in the name of Jesus Christ, and working together to achieve those goals. And perfect oneness in Christ recognizes the differences, respects the differences, and still comes together for a common purpose. Henri Nouwen says it this way: "Solitude greeting solitude, that’s what community is all about. Community is not the place where we are no longer alone but the place where we respect, protect, and reverently greet one another’s aloneness." The idea is not sameness, the idea is oneness – working together – being different but still being one.

And look at verse 23. As we become one, the world will see our unity – our ability to find common purpose and vision and will know God’’s love. Once we find that oneness, only THEN the world will know God’s all inclusive love. The prayer is that God, Jesus and the faith community will truly be one in love. That’s the purpose. So that someday, the words of the old song will ring true and, "They’ll know we are Christians by our love."

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