Introduction:

Have you ever been driving down the road and seen a sign saying fresh strawberries, pick your own! And on an impulse you decided to stop with only a little bucket in the car and found yourself in acres of fresh strawberries with only a tiny bucket for gathering?

That's precisely the way I feel about this text this morning. Here is one of the premiere texts in all of scripture and we stumbled in here this morning with tiny buckets to carry out the wealth of what this passage has to offer. But here we are in the middle of the patch; let's gather what we can in the time we have to gather.

Background:

First of all, please understand what patch you are picking in. In John's narrative of Jesus' story he has trained his disciples, he has completed his public ministry, has gone to Jerusalem for his final confrontation with evil, is to be betrayed by Judas in the garden and be led away for trial and crucifixion and death. And now he is praying for his disciples before he leaves them. He is praying for his friends whom he is about to leave and we have the privilege this morning of overhearing that prayer.

We already know that there is much more to grasp, much more to glean from this ripe field of strawberries than we can possibly carry away this morning, but there are several important things for which Jesus was praying for us that we could put in our buckets this morning.

The clues are in the eleventh verse:

they may be one, even as we are one.

I. The first clue is that God protect his disciples because they now carryon the mission. You need to know what that mission is -- spread the word near and far that that Jesus died for all; that Jesus was raised for all and that, as our scripture lesson clearly shows: Jesus prays for us. And his prayer is that God, the Father, will keep them - will watch over and protect, as a guard on duty, his followers, because now that Jesus is going away they have a very important, critical task. The task is to be instruments in the hands of the Holy Spirit to give comfort, to teach, to give wise counsel and direction to young followers and to those who haven't gotten the message of what God is all about in the world.

I don't know how you feel about the responsibility you and I have been given in the mission of the church. I am glad that I have been called to do this because I would not choose on my own to undertake such an awesome task. I find it a little frightening that it is my responsibility as a Christian to tell folks in a rather unforced but convincing way that our lives have been changed forever because of what this Jesus of Nazareth has done in the world.

Be reminded of what that was over 2,000 years ago. What did Jesus do? In a nutshell (or to use our idiom for today, in one big, ripe juicy strawberry) Jesus revealed to us who God is. Have you ever been to an unveiling? I haven't, but I can imagine what it is like, thanks to TV. The crowd gathers with the mysterious new car or painting or sculpture -- say the Mona Lisa or Rembrandt’s Supper at Emmaus, or Michelangelo’s David. You may have heard or read about the painting or the sculpture, but there no substitute for the "Real McCoy". If you have wondered what God is like, then hear the testimony of the unveiling of God in the life, death and resurrection of Jesus.

II. The second clue is that God protects his disciples because of the danger of the opposing world. "Holy Father," Jesus prayed, "I pray for them: I pray not for the world, but for them which you have given me." Why do you suppose Jesus was praying so fervently for his disciples? For two reasons, at least.

The first is that Christians are marked persons, men and women of faith are singled out by the enemy to entice, to persuade to entreat, even to try to force them to fall away. And the loss of one disciple, who can potentially influence others, is much more significant for the enemy than many others. Walter Luthi, in preaching to the church in Germany during the second world war, puts it this way: In the battle of the Kingdom of God against darkness the disciples are, so to speak, major military objectives. If we intend to be faithful disciples we need Jesus' earnest prayers of protection.

Another reason is that through the fact that Christians have been given a character of their own. Because you are Christians, that automatically makes you different. Do nothing in particular; not even say anything, but simply your presence is different because your marching orders are from above and not from below. And very often the world does not take kindly to being different. Like Peter "our accent betrays us." Yes, it is significant that our Lord prayed for his disciples because of the opposition of the world.

III. The third clue is that God watches over his disciples so that they all may be one, even as Jesus and the Father are one. Now, let me say what we not saying by being one. It does not mean that we must all be the same. Diversity is one of the geniuses of the Reformed Faith. And why do I single out the Reformed Faith? Jack Rogers’s former moderator of the General Assembly, a staunch Calvinist indicates that when disunity exists in a congregational church, they only have themselves to blame; they are supposed to be a group of likeminded folks. The thing about the Reformed church is we believe that we do not choose each other but that God chooses us regardless of whether we are laborers, businesspersons, bankers, or bakers, black, white, yellow, democrats or even republicans. If God calls, then we must answer the call. That's why according to Dr. Rogers we Presbyterians are such a ragtag bunch - different, unique, and hard to get a consensus, much less unity.

Now, you need to know that I've been called an "ecumaniac" on more than one occasion and not in jest or as a backhanded compliment. Why? Because I am a firm believer that there are a lot of people going to heaven besides Presbyterians. And if that is heresy, then send me to the Presbytery for discipline. Maybe you think that's being a rather weak Presbyterian. I challenge that point of view; why, I'm Presbyterian right down to my socks. I’ve been Presbyterian for more than a half-century and I expect I'll die one if, when my time comes, there's still a Presbyterian Church in existence. Sure, I get a little weary of the bureaucracy and controversy from time to time, like about now, but don't lose heart, the church has a way of correcting itself and I suspect that we will see some pretty radical streamlining of the denomination in future years.

But I digress. What is the point of unity? There is precious little time for Christians to work at odds with other Christians. The little children's song we learned in Bible school says it very well:

till we meet together again.

Ephesians says it best: (4:4-6)

"There is one body and one Spirit,

But why all this talk about unity? Must we give up our identity as Presbyterians and concentrate more on being Christians? I don't think our identity should be abandoned. Presbyterians still have a contribution to make to the wider church, but it behooves us to seek to make that contribution, cooperation with other Christians. Why? Because Christ prayed that we all be one, even as he and the Father are one. Why? Because the world is opposed to Christianity and its best that we hang together rather than hang separate.

This is not to say that Christians in our community do not work together. I applaud and celebrate the many joint efforts; Habitat for Humanity, Helping Hands, Rape Crisis Center, Hispanic Ministries, Hospice, Tara Hall, and Joy School. These are not just extracurricular activities for a faithful few. 'These are critical ministries for us all. And all of us need to raise our consciousness about these important ministries, giving them a high priority in our church's life. These are things we must do because that's what our Lord wants us to do -- work together in our common mission of presenting mercy and love and grace to all people.

Conclusion:

On this Mother’s Day I am reminded that my mother had an expression which she used when she was pleased, delighted and grateful about something wonderful -- "Well, glory be!" she would exclaim. As I think about this text which tells us that Jesus completed his work of salvation and sits at God's right hand I want to say: "Well, glory be!" And when I think about the fact that Jesus is praying for you and me by name before that great throne of grace, I want to say: "Well, glory be!"

and ever shall be world without end. AMEN.

A sermon preached by Dr. E. Thomas Miller at Georgetown Presbyterian Church on the Seventh Sunday of Easter, May 8, 2005.