Lectionary blog for May 28
Seventh Sunday of Easter
Acts 1:6-14; Psalm 68:1-10, 32-35;
1 Peter 4:12-14, 5:6-11; John 17:1-11

Jesus prays in John’s Gospel, “Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” Luke, in Acts, writes that “All these were constantly devoting themselves to prayer.” The Scriptures call us to be united as the community of faith, yet we look around and see much disunity in the church.

Most of us agree that we desire unity in the church; we want “oneness.” We regret the divisions and debates that drive us apart. We do not want to be divided; yet, all too often, we are. Why? Why can’t we get our act together? What pushes us apart in spite of our desire to be together? The Bible is clear on two points here: Our disunity springs from our seeking to do things our own way.  And the key to unity and oneness is seeking to do things God’s way.

Whenever the church forgets that its primary purpose is to be about the things of God, trouble ensues, not as a punishment for sin but as a natural result of spiritual creatures forgetting to take care of spiritual things. It is in our unity with God that we find our unity with one another.

Those who originally translated the New Testament into English were trying to find a word for the new relationship to be found with God in Christ. They hit upon the Middle English word “atone,” which came from the two words “at one.

Turning two words into one, closing the gap as it were, seems to be such a little thing, a slight difference, doesn’t it? But in such small things, large and important things reside. For with our natural tendency toward law and legalism, we have made “to atone” into a chore, a task, a thing we must do to make up for our evil doings—to pay for our sins, to right the wrong that we ourselves have done, which is not at all what “at one” means. “At one” means that we are at peace with God so that we can be at peace with one another. And “at-one-ness,” “atonement,” is an act and gift of God, not an act or gift of ours.

In the midst of the difficult prose of John’s Gospel, we find the message that Christ makes us one with God and with each other. We are invited to remember that we are one with God and with one another and to act toward each other in ways consistent and reflective of that oneness. God has made peace with us, and God has made peace between us.

Paul Tournier, a famous Swiss physician and Christian author, once observed, “There are two things we cannot do alone. One is to be married; the other is to be a Christian.” Just as one needs a spouse in order to be a couple, we need the church, other Christians, other people in order to be Christian, no matter how inconvenient and uncomfortable it might be to have to get along with one another. We need the church in order to be Christian, if for no other reason than that we cannot learn to love and be loved in isolation.

It is within the daily bump and grind of living and working together as the people of God that we find out what it means to be forgiven for our failures, praised for our efforts, appreciated for our virtues, prayed for in our sorrows, helped in the midst of our troubles, and loved in spite of ourselves, by God and by each other.

Amen and amen.

Delmer Chilton
Delmer Chilton is originally from North Carolina and received his education at the University of North Carolina, Duke Divinity School and the Graduate Theological Foundation. He received his Lutheran training at the Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, S.C. Ordained in 1977, Delmer has served parishes in North Carolina, Georgia and Tennessee.

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