Embodied by a Loving God

Please stand as you are able for the reading of the Gospel. Our Gospel this morning comes from the Gospel of John chapter 17 verses 20 [through] 26, which you can find on page 1316 and 17 in the pew Bible. Hear now the Word of the Lord.

"I'm not praying only for them (the disciples) but also for those who believe in me because of their word. I pray that they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us, so that the world will believe that you sent me. I've given them the glory that you gave me so that they can be one just as we are one. I'm in them and you are in me so that they will be made perfectly one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you have loved them just as you loved me. Father, I want those you gave me to be with me where I am. Then they can see my glory, which you gave me because you loved me before the creation of the world. Righteous Father, even the world didn't know you, but I've known you, and these believers know that you sent me. I've made your name known to them and will continue to make it known so that your love for me will be in them, and I myself will be in them." This is the Word of God for the People of God. You may be seated.

I'd like to start this morning with prayer. So let us pray.

Loving God,

I ask that you just fill me with your Spirit. Help me to get out of your way.

I pray for all who are here this morning. That they may hear the word from you that they need to hear. And that you would kindle in them the fire of your love and enable them to go out in the strength of the Spirit to be the light of Christ to the world. In your name we pray. Amen.

So the last couple of weeks we have been doing a series called "Loving" and the first Sunday was "Marked by a Loving God," in which we read about the new commandment that Jesus gave to the disciples on Maundy Thursday after he had washed their feet, he gave them a new commandment to love one another just as I have loved you. This is how the world will know that you are my disciples. So we talked about how we are marked, we are recognized when we love one another as Christ loved us. And then last Sunday was "Sent by a Loving God," and we read the passage where Jesus says, "Peace I give to you. I give to you not as the world gives. So do not be troubled or afraid." It's the peace of Christ, the knowledge that God loves us and that we are filled with God's love and I think that gives us the peace, it gives us the courage to be sent out to the world. And today we have "Embodied by a Loving God." So I have a question for y'all, what is... what does it mean to be embodied?

Filled? Okay.

Covered? Okay.

I know it's kind of a hard question, right? It's one of those words that we, sort of, we say it but maybe we don't actually look up the definition and fully know what it is. The actual definition, to embody something, is to give something a body, like a spirit. So when God became flesh in the person of Jesus Christ, God was embodied in a sense. And so we have this prayer this morning in John 17, which... you got to love John. He just talks in circles. He'll say the same thing in kind of different ways, but sometimes it can be hard to follow. So when I start to break it down, I'm actually going to read from The Message translation because I think it does a good job of just getting through that and making a little bit more clear, but right now...

Embodying. Jesus says I am in them, just as you are in me.

So when we say embodied by a loving God, we mean Christ and the Holy Spirit and God is within us.

God fills us.

We are the hands and feet of Christ

and we are called to be the presence of God in the world.

So this morning let's kind of just break it down a little bit. So this prayer John chapter 17, it comes up every year on the last Sunday of the Easter season, the Sunday before Pentecost and they break it up into three different parts. So this year it picks up right where it left off last year, which I'm sure is fresh on everyone's mind.

So, the lectionary has a lot of strengths, but sometimes it's organized in just a little bit of a weird way.

So if you want to read along you're welcome to in scripture, but The Message for verse 20, it says "I'm praying not only for them but also for those who will believe in me because of them and their witness about me."

What's really cool when you stop to think about it? Right here, Jesus is praying for us.

Jesus is praying for future believers. People who will come to believe because of the disciples, because of their witness.

Because of the disciples and their witness, others have come to believe and then those went on to lead others, so on and so forth. And so we stand on the shoulders of all who have come before us. We believe because we met someone, knew someone who did believe.

We believe because somebody embodied God to us.

Verse 21.

"The goal is for all of them to become one heart and mind. Just as you, Father, are in me and I in you so they might be one heart and mind with us. Then the world might believe that you in fact sent me."

It doesn't really feel like we're doing a good job of that.

While in this time, you know, they wouldn't have had the understanding of denominations, right?

We have thousands of different denominations of Christians, which is amazing when you really stop to think about it. That we've we've splintered increasingly into smaller and smaller groups.

They didn't have that back then, but they did have division. They did understand rivalry. Rivalry has existed since Cain and Abel.

There are times when, you know, because of our human nature, because of our capacity to sin, we forget that we are brothers and sisters, that we are family. We become blinded by greed or jealousy or other selfishness just as Cain was blinded with jealousy because his brother's sacrifice to God was accepted and his was not.

Because his heart wasn't right. It wasn't genuine in his presentation and his gift to God it was because maybe he had to, because he wanted to look good. But it wasn't a sacrifice because he loved God.

Division Is part of our nature,

but in this next verse

Christ talks about that he gave the same glory that he has so that we might be made one. So that we might be made perfectly one. Just a quick note about that word "perfectly." We understand it as like "without mistake," right?

When scripture uses the word "perfect," it means whole, complete, total, a fulfillment.

So when we achieve oneness, when we are one heart and mind in Christ, we are able to be perfect because there is no division within us, within the body of Christ.

But this prayer that Jesus has prayed, it's a reminder that he has already given us everything we need to be united with one another.

So that... they may be made one.

I chose the Ephesians passage this morning because it talks about how Christ was made the head of the church.

Here's how I understand that. Christ is saying let me do the thinking.

Don't worry so much. Somewhere along the way we equated our salvation with believing the right things.

Which, yes, believing the right things can help us to enter into a closer relationship with God, but...

if our beliefs do not help us to love others more fully,

If they do not help us to embody the love that God has for the world,

it is not more important.

God, Christ, said to the disciples the world will know that you are my disciples when you love one another as I have loved you. When you put one another first. When you begin to think about those around you first instead of yourself. When we love well, we become God to the world. Christ did not say make sure you have the right beliefs. Make sure you do and say the right thing. All Christ said with love one another.

Make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world and how do we do that? We do that by loving.

It's interesting with this prayer, people will point to this prayer as a call to unity, which yes it is,

but I'm struck by how many times the ones who are pointing at this passage are unwilling to sacrifice anything.

They point to this passage and say, "Look! God calls us to be united so, you know, just agree with us, just do as we say,

and we'll be united."

It's usually the people who have the power in a situation who are saying let's be united,

but that is not the way of Christ.

Christ, who had all the power in the world, emptied himself of it and became human, became lowly, a slave.

Born in a manger.

When Christ says, "Now I have been made glorified." He says it right in between Judas' betrayal and before he announces that Peter will betray him, will deny him.

Christ is saying that he is glorified even in this broken mess. Where, we don't understand that to be glorious. Glory to us is when we are standing high and mighty and on a throne and everyone is kneeling. Right? That is Glory. God is saying.. my glory

is when you lay down the sword,

when you lay down the ability that you have to, to control the situation,

when you begin to actually look at one another and to see in one another the child of God that we are,

to see in one another the face of God.

That's glory.

Too many times people will mistake unity for comfort. I'm guilty of it, too. Y'all know me. I don't like conflict. But running away from a conflict doesn't heal it, doesn't fix it. It's still there. We're just ignoring it. We're just sweeping it under the rug and hoping that if we give it enough time, maybe the other side will give up.

I think that we can't legislate certain aspects of our faith. We can hold one another accountable. We can step in to protect those who cannot protect themselves. But at some point

we have to remember and honor that God has given us free will.

God has called us to discern the Spirit as best we can, in the context of a community, not away and on our own. One of the best definitions about, of church that I heard was that church is where you come to do the solitary work of faith in a community.

But there is a component to our faith that, you know, we have to do. We have to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling.

We have to wrestle with our beliefs. To make them our own. To realize that we don't believe something just because our mom and dad told us this is what we believe, and so we never call it into question.

Because until we wrestle with that belief, until we are able to make it our own belief. I believe this because I believe it.

It doesn't go deep enough. It doesn't become transformative.

Until we allow Christ to actually be within us, to be within our hearts, and to work for our transformation.

Until we let Christ do that. We can't let Christ do that if we're clinging so tightly to the old ways

that we don't allow ourselves to grow. We don't allow the spirit to move, to lead us forward.

But when we become one,

when we embody God to the world, it helps the world to believe that God actually did send Christ.

We claim that we are Christians.

So let us love like Christ.

Let us remember the Christ didn't call us

to sort through the wheat, to separate who actually is a believer and who is not.

Christ says let me do the thinking.

Just trust that I love you. Just accept the gift that I am giving to you, the sacrifice that I have made. Work with me in this mission. Allow me to work through you.

We have... we do respond to God's call, but always it is God who acts first.

Always, it is God who is accomplishing things through us.

When we love

fully,

when we love well, we can embody God in Christ.

And my favorite part about the United Methodist Church, I've said this before, is that we celebrate an Open Table. We tell people that when we celebrate Holy Communion, this is the table of Christ and it is open. So you do not have to be a member of this church, nor do you have to be United Methodist.

You are invited to the table.

Now we ask that you love God, that you're sorry for your sins, and that you seek to live in peace with one another. That last part is what's on my mind and heart today. To seek to live in peace with one another, what does that mean?

I think it means that, if we come to the table seeking to live in peace with one another, it means that we don't take it upon ourselves to determine who sits at the table and who doesn't.

We are responsible for our own hearts.

We're told that there will come a day when we stand before God and we have to give an account,

but above all we are told that God loves us,

that God has forgiven us,

and that if we will just let go of this need that we have to control things, if we will just let go and let Christ catch us,

that's all it takes.

Amen.