One IS the Win

In a series called Not In It To Win It. How does following Jesus informs our engagement with our political system? How do we treat one another when we don’t agree? How can we participate in privilege while maintaining unity, remaining Christlike, and preserving our witness?

“We believe… in the holy catholic church.”

You might recognize those words from the Apostles’ Creed we’ve been closing our services with.

Most Protestants hear statement and scratch head. Are we Catholic? Same question asked when we started doing Communion every week...

For us Catholic = Roman Catholic. Obviously, they’re bad. Growing up every book about end times has Pope as antichrist, false prophet, leading people to destruction… What did Pope do to tick everyone off so bad??

Catholic simply means “universal”. There’s only one church - whatever name is on the door. Whatever differences in our theology or worship style. Whoever confesses Jesus as Lord - even if they have some bad theology - is part of the one church. Do we really think the Vineyard has it all correct??

The Church existed this way for first 1,000 years.

There were differences between the churches. The language used. How they conducted their worship service. Who they looked to as their authoritative leaders.

But when an issue needed to be addressed - such as the attack on the deity of Christ or the nature of the Trinity - the chief leaders from all over the church converged to hammer out a position for the whole church. Because they saw their unity as essential to the mission.

Great Schism of 1054. Church split East from West. Easter church has continued more or less unbroken since that time. Western church has split and split and split and continues to do so.

Church today resembles Baskin Robbins. They advertise as 31 flavors, but in reality they have more than 1,400. And the church surpasses that! We’re Baskin Robbins on steroids. If you can’t find your flavor - go make your own!

As a result, the church isn’t winning. There’s pockets of growth here and there, but over all the church is in decline. Our disunity is a strong statement to the world that we don’t have anything worthwhile to offer them.

Jesus must have known our unity would come under attack after he left. In his final prayer for disciples he prayed, John 17:11 “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.”

These are some of Jesus’ final words to disciples. It’s what’s on his mind as he faces the cross. He wanted his followers to be unified. Not just because it was a good idea, but because it is mission critical. If we want the church to be something better than a Baskin Robbins, we must realize that being One IS the Win.

Pray...

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Read John 17:20-23

John 17:20–23 (NRSV)

“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. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.

John 17 has been called Jesus’ High Priestly prayer. The whole chapter is Jesus prayer for the disciples - protection, standing firm in truth, and this part - unity.

“also on behalf of those who will believe...”

It’s kinda cool to think that 2,000 years ago Jesus prayed for you… If you’re a follower today, Jesus said this prayer for you then.

I think it’s a reminder that we ought to be praying for one another - especially those we disagree with.

What did he pray?

“that they may all be one.”

He prays for unity. But not any old unity. He prays for the same oneness that is enjoyed in the Trinity. He repeats this several times. You in me. I in you. Them in us. Us in them.

Jesus wants and expects his followers to share in the unity that exists in the Trinity. It’s like the closed circle of endless delight and joy and love and unity that has existed for all time within the Trinity has now been opened up to welcome you and me. We don’t become part of the Trinity. But we share in the life of the Trinity.

Our oneness with the Trinity by necessity means that we also share a oneness with each other. Remember, there is only one church made up of all believers of every stripe.

That means the church that calls itself Vineyard Fort Smith is just a part of the one universal church.

The apostle Paul said it this way, 1 Corinthians 12:12 (NLT) “The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ.”

Anybody have ugly feet? You might think they are ugly, but they are still a part of your body. That means there are other believers out there that you think have some ugly beliefs or practices. But they are no less part of the body.

Whether were talking about our local body with our differences, or about the whole body of Christ with its differences, Jesus prays for and expects unity. The oneness we share with him must by necessity be shared with each other.

And it’s not just a good idea. I mean, it is a good idea. Jesus said a house divided against itself will fall. Abraham Lincoln, in his famous House Divided speech, echoed the same sentiment regarding our nation’s division over slavery. He said we simply couldn’t exist as a nation divided over that issue. If something transient like a nation-state must have unity to thrive, how much more mission critical is it for the church? But it’s more than just a good idea. Listen to what Jesus says...

“That the world may believe/know...”

He says it two ways...

There’s something about unity that is not only effective at accomplishing a goal. It is compelling. When diverse people can stand together in unbroken unity, it makes a powerful statement to others. It’s attractive in a dis-unified world.

Imagine - and you’ll have to imagine hard - that when Kamala Harris walked across the stage to shake Donald Trump’s hand during the recent debate, what if instead they would have hugged. What if they would have walked from behind their podiums, stood hand in hand, and said we’ve decided to work together for a better America. We’re putting our differences aside, and we are going to be unified in making America what it needs to be for everyone. I told you it would take a lot of imagination! But IF they did that, would we not think that maybe God was up to something? Like, this is the kind of thing that make people say “there must be a God”.

What could happen if the church did this?

I came of age in a church tradition that seemed to delight in disunity. Not within our own church or denomination, of course. But to be dis-unified with other Christians was a mark of our doctrinal purity. Our seriousness. Our rightness. That we have not compromised with the world.

Now I know it was really a mark of our immaturity. It was a sign that we had basically told Jesus he could stick his prayer where the sun don’t shine. We had no intention of being the answer to Jesus’ prayer. To reach across denominational lines might make us unclean. We twisted the words of Jesus around to where we made disunity a virtue.

Who do we think we are to decide we can just ignore Jesus’ prayer?

I know. There’s people out there who call them themselves Christian who aren’t. There’s people out there that - maybe they’re Christian - but they got some bad beliefs. Some strange practices. I get it.

But don’t you think Jesus knew that? And knowing it, he prayed what he prayed anyway.

Friends, One is the win. And we’re not winning.

We’re not winning bc we’ve decided something is more important than oneness. As a result, the words of the apostle Paul are coming true. Galatians 5:15 “If, however, you bite and devour one another, take care that you are not consumed by one another.” The church of Jesus is eating itself while the rest of the world watches.

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The big question with messages like these is “how”. How do we walk in unity in spite of sometimes serious differences? Let me suggest...

Keep our eyes on the big picture. Who gets elected is an important thing; it’s not a mission critical thing.

Keep our focus on what we hold in common, not our differences.

Discern between debatable vs essential matters. Foreign policy is debatable; the resurrection is not.

Confront in love, not anger.

Be quick to listen and slow to form judgment.

Give space for others to be wrong and trust that God will bring correction.

Prioritize love - Colossians 3:14 “Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony.”

The questions we need to be asking are...

Have we become more concerned about immigration, gun control, climate change, and taxes than our loss of unity? Are we more concerned about who’s in the White House than about division in the church? Is it possible that we are more concerned about basically everything except the one thing that Jesus was most concerned about?

Jesus vision for his church does not look like Baskin Robbins.

We’re not winning. But we could win.

Psalm 133:3 “For there the Lord ordained his blessing, life forevermore.” Ordained = command or order.

Jesus prayed for unity bc he thought it was possible.

Jesus prayed for unity bc he knew it was essential.

Jesus prayed for unity bc he expects it.

Here’s our prayer assignment. I dare you to pray it every day. “Heavenly Father, make us one… and begin with me.” Amen.

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Ministry...

If you have never surrendered your life to Jesus, you need to know that Jesus prayed for you too. That you would also enter into this oneness with your heavenly Father. He took on flesh and become one with us so that we could become one with him...

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Communion

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*** Announcement reminders ***

We’ve been closing our worship times by praying prayers that remind us of who we are and that help form us to represent God well. During the next few weeks I’d like us to prayer a kind of Christian pledge of allegiance - the Apostles’ Creed - asking God to help us keep Jesus in the center of all we do and say.

*** Explain “catholic” church ***

I believe in God, the Father almighty,     creator of heaven and earth;

I believe in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord.     He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit         and born of the Virgin Mary.     He suffered under Pontius Pilate,         was crucified, died, and was buried.     He descended to the dead.

    On the third day he rose again.     He ascended into heaven,         and is seated at the right hand of the Father.     He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

I believe in the Holy Spirit,     the holy catholic Church,     the communion of saints,     the forgiveness of sins     the resurrection of the body,     and the life everlasting. Amen.

Now as we prepare to take this time of worship into the week ahead, the Lord who loves you reminds us in the Psalms:

Psalm 133:1 (NIV)

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!

GO BE THE CHURCH!!