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Sermon Notes - May 15-16, 2010
"How to Be Made One "
The Seventh Sunday of Easter
*Think of the positions we often grow up aspiring for in this life: I want to be one of the best actors … one of the best singers … one of the best musicians … one of the best writers … one of the best athletes … this world has ever seen. I want to be the one who finds the cure for cancer or some other disease. I want to be one who makes a big mark, who makes a big name for myself in this world. It’s good to have a goal to aim for, but that status of one of or the one is gained by only a few and depends on being in the public eye and ranked by “the right people.” And something else, it often feeds on self-centeredness and self-absorption: How can I make a name for myself so that stand out above everyone else?
*Eight years ago, a fourteen-year-old by the name of William Kamkwamba in Malawi, southeast Africa, had an idea and a book … and a bicycle rim, PVC pipe, and old tractor fan from a junkyard. He set out to make a windmill that could produce energy to pump water and allow crops to grow in his drought-ridden village. Three months later, he had a small windmill that produced enough energy to power one light bulb … and the whole village was there cheering. William went on to make bigger windmills, and finally his village had the water pump it needed and more food as a result. From one book to one idea, from one pile of junk to one boy, from one light bulb to one village, brought together and made one more fully, more healthy, and more alive … that’s what that tremendous story demonstrates (The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind).
*As a people of faith who share the water and Word-washing of Holy Baptism, who share the name and life of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit upon us and in us, our focus, built on examples like William’s windmill for his village, is how to be made one as the Body of Christ: in this congregation, in this town, in this country, in this world. We are called to live in worship of the one we just sang about, “Christ Jesus, (who) Bears the name above all names, Reigning Son of God, surpassing other titles, pow’rs and claims … Love’s example, hope’s attraction, Faith’s beginning and its end” (LSB 529).
*Think of the eleven remaining disciples that day of Jesus’ parting from them in the clouds … they went back to Jerusalem after the greatest one the world has ever known was gone … and they were still in the shadow of the empty place left by Judas—the one who betrayed Jesus and took his own life. What did they do, scatter as at the cross? They gathered together with the handful of others in Jesus’ circle of followers and were of one heart, one mind—were of one accord with each other, devoting themselves to prayer. They stayed bound together. Then Peter stood up and said, We need to be one whole group of twelve again, as Jesus gathered from the beginning. So from the wider group of those who’d been there from Jesus’ baptism to resurrection, they had two names: Joseph and Matthias. You know what? Neither one campaigned for the slot, and I’m sure neither one was jumping up and down saying, Oh, I can’t wait to take the place of the one who betrayed Jesus. It wouldn’t have done any good anyway: the disciples did what was best … prayed for the Lord’s guidance in helping them choose the right one, cast lots and found that one was Matthias.
*One writer called Matthias St. Added-On and Joseph St. Near-Miss? Have you ever felt like one or both of those things? An add-on taking the place of another, or someone who came that close to making it? Each one has it problems and feelings of failure, doesn’t it? But you know what, it didn’t matter, because each of them had their specific callings of God to live out in the inner and outer circles of Jesus’ followers … and it doesn’t matter for us either as long as we’re living out his calling for our lives, however big or small it may seem to ourselves and others.
*Jesus’ disciples were never fully of the same heart and mind when he was with them … they had their squabbles and power-struggles, their resentments and jealousies, but he was always showing them how to get past being one as individuals so that they could be one as his body of believers and followers. That’s why Jesus prayed so intently the words of today’s Gospel: I have made known your name to them, righteous Father, so that your love and mine may be in them … that they may be perfectly one in us, so that the world may believe and know that you sent me in love.
*Is Jesus’ prayer at the center of why we fess-up and face up to our selfish sins so that we may be one in forgiveness and love? Is Jesus’ prayer at the center of why we gather here for worship to sing and pray with one voice? Is Jesus’ prayer at the center of our attention as we say the creed of faith together as one people in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit? Is Jesus’ prayer at the center of why we walk past the baptismal font and kneel for the holy supper of Jesus as one body, one bread, one cup in Christ? Is Jesus’ prayer at the center of how we live, not putting self but the wellbeing and salvation of others forward as our one priority of showing God’s love to all we meet, whether we like them or not? If not, it needs to be, because that’s still Jesus’ fervent prayer for his believers and followers.
*You know how Jesus’ apostles are described after Jesus left them … after they received the renewing gift of the Holy Spirit ten days later on Pentecost? Being of one accord—one heart, one mind … you’ll find it eleven times in the book of Acts. May it be for you and me—for us—as we live empowered by Christ’s living and dying, his rising and ascending … as we live empowered by the wind of his Holy Spirit to be not people of disunity, but unity and community--oneness in Christ. Just as the wind brought change and unity to William and his village, so the wind of the Spirit brought change and greater unity to the Church on Pentecost.
*In many impoverished places of the world, kids will gather string and plastic bags (and whatever else will work) to make one soccer ball so they can play. We gather as many people made one (like water’s many drops) through the Spirit’s washing in Baptism. We gather as many people made one (like bread from many grains of wheat, like wine from many grapes), at Christ’s table of Communion—oneness. We gather as people who may not be the best ones according to our world’s standards … we might even be Sts. Added-On and Near-Miss, but gathered in repentance and the desire for change and growth, we’re one in God’s mercy, forgiveness, and love in the presence of Jesus the Holy One. So let us live with unity where God puts us and sends us, showing others how to be made one in the saving grace of Jesus Christ—Amen.