{"id":10754,"date":"2025-05-27T05:34:56","date_gmt":"2025-05-27T12:34:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=10754"},"modified":"2025-05-30T06:11:16","modified_gmt":"2025-05-30T13:11:16","slug":"that-they-may-be-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/?p=10754","title":{"rendered":"That they may be one"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Select here for a pdf version.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

John 17:20-26<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The text for today is the famous text for Christian unity: \u201cThat they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that may also be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me\u201d (John 17:21).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Probably a million or more sermons are being preached on this text today. What are pastors saying about it? Many probably are saying the church is one, and therefore, the oneness needs to be made visible, and the oneness is to be found in the majority, therefore we need to be with the majority wherever they are said to be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lectionary committee puts this text at the culmination of the Easter season because they are invested in church unity, even though there are other texts that are surely more important and could have and should have been put here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do we say about efforts for Christian unity?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, we remember that after Vatican II (1962-65) there was a huge opening of the churches to each other and that lasted about 25 years, but that momentum has since dissipated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is commonly said today that the ecumenical movement is in a deep freeze. In an ice age. We don\u2019t know what\u2019s going to happen. Is it over? Is it coming back in this century?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today we don\u2019t hear much ecumenical news. To be sure, the election of a new pope, Pope Leo XIV, has generated a lot of news and speculation about what kind of pope he will be, but that\u2019s different than news about churches working together on their differences and commonalities as they did after Vatican II.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We should not say that the post-Vatican II ecumenical movement accomplished nothing. Most importantly it got rid of stereotypes and caricatures on both sides.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, before Vatican II Protestants often thought that Catholics held that everything the Pope said was infallible. That\u2019s not the way it is. He is only infallible for the Roman Catholic Church when he intends to speak for the whole church on matters of faith and morals and uses the words: \u201cWe define.\u201d In Latin, of course.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And there are those who think the whole ecumenical movement was a mistake in the first place. Principally these are people on the evangelical conservative side who look upon efforts toward Christian unity as a sign of the anti-Christ. They sometimes mention Revelation 13:14 which talks about the beast who \u201cdeceives those who dwell on earth.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is said here is that people are deceived by this anti-Christ because he is so much like Christ, which they think of in terms of doing miracles. As we mention often, there is a big difference between miracle faith and cross-centered faith. That\u2019s what is at stake here.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Revelation 13 is really talking about those who are led astray by miracle-faith.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What about the movement for Christian unity in more modern times beginning in the 1800\u2019s?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Back in 1846 in London there was a meeting called the Evangelical Alliance. At the same time in those years there was the founding of the Red Cross, the founding of the YMCA, the founding of the YWCA, the founding of the anti-slavery movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was going on was really the establishment of new forms of communication like the telegraph and new forms of travel like the steam ship. Since then, there have obviously been vast improvements in communication and transportation. In short, the world had shrunk, and Christians can work together and be in touch with each other more readily. That\u2019s more of a this-worldly matter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What really is at stake in the ecumenical movement is that it was founded on the lowest common denominator, and that isn\u2019t very useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can see it already in 1925 when they got together after World War I. After the War, the churches started to do things together. In the World Council of Churches, they divided themselves into two working groups, \u201cFaith and Order,\u201d and \u201cLife and Work.\u201d Basically, they said it\u2019s O.K. to disagree about Faith and Order, meaning church structure, but what holds us together is that we work together. They featured their outreach, their good works. Ultimately it fostered the view that Christianity is based on salvation by works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We shouldn\u2019t be surprised. The basic religion of most people is: The important thing is to be good enough for God. And that means do your best, try harder. It means trying to be as good as you can. That\u2019s the religion today of the Western world, if not the whole world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s terribly amusing when you stop to think of it. When you think of that section in Matthew called the Sermon on the Mount, at the end of the first of those three chapters, Matthew 5:48: \u201cYou, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t say: \u201cJust do the best you can.\u201d It says: \u201cYou have to be perfect.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second problem with \u201cJust do the best you can\u201d is that, as the saying goes, the road to Hell is paved with good intentions. Of course, that\u2019s not in the Bible, but it\u2019s a useful saying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The common religion says: \u201cWhatever is good enough for you is good enough for God.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s very different from what this text in John is saying: \u201cI pray . . . that they may be one, as you and I are one, so that the world may believe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do we say about this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

First of all, it doesn\u2019t say what kind of oneness is meant. Some will say that this oneness means that Christians around the world have to be united in a big structure like the Roman Catholic Church. But the text doesn\u2019t say that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Second, it\u2019s important to note in John 17 that the oneness is produced by God alone. In John 17:11 it says: \u201cHoly Father, keep them in thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.\u201d The Lord is the one who establishes unity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Third, oneness is not for the sake of oneness. It\u2019s not the oneness that leads people to believe. This is spelled out in the beginning of this seventeenth chapter where it says: \u201cAnd this is eternal life, that they know thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This oneness of God the Father and the Son, from the Jewish point of view, is blasphemy, and it is summed up in that verse which is key to the whole Gospel of John, John 1:14: \u201cThe Word became flesh and dwelt among us. . . .\u201d The oneness is the oneness that is found here and more directly in 1 John 4:2-3, a section which is in the Johannine tradition which says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBy this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is of God, and every spirit which does not confess Jesus is not of God. This is the spirit of the anti-Christ. . . .\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The oneness between the Father and the Son is the oneness of Jesus Christ coming to us, dying on the cross and rising again. That\u2019s what it\u2019s about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luther sums that up remarkably: \u201cThe cross alone is our theology.\u201d And Luther is echoing Paul in 1 Corinthians 1:22-25 and 2:2: \u201c . . . Jews seek signs (miracles) and Greeks seek wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified . . . I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you visit Christian churches around the country and around the world, there are crosses all over the place. But the difficulty is that it becomes the cross PLUS something else.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cross plus a pope, the cross plus a certain kind of bishop, the cross plus congregationalism. In this way they add to the cross and thereby diminish the cross.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Or they\u2019ll say: It\u2019s the cross plus certain things you have to do or certain causes you have to support. The cross plus a certain political or social stance. It\u2019s the cross but also these things.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More commonly among us, it\u2019s the cross plus a certain feeling, or the cross plus a certain kind of good works. That becomes what is necessary and that diminishes the cross and makes it less than all-sufficient.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have then the great gift of the Gospel which spelled out in this 17th<\/sup> chapter of the Gospel of John which is that the Lord does it. He is the one who brings about his kingdom and makes his church one, and he does it through what he has done through Jesus Christ on the cross and in the resurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amen<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John 17:20-26<\/p>\n

A Sermon for the Seventh Sunday of Easter<\/p>\n

The text for today is the famous text for Christian unity: \u201cThat they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me and I in thee, that may also be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me\u201d (John 17:21).<\/p>\n

Probably a million or more sermons are being preached on this text today. What are pastors saying about it? Many probably are saying the church is one, and therefore, the oneness needs to be made visible, and the oneness is to be found in the majority, therefore we need to be with the majority wherever they are said to be. <\/p>\n

Select here<\/a> to read more or here <\/a>for a pdf document.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10754","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10754","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10754"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10754\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10759,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10754\/revisions\/10759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10754"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10754"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/crossalone.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10754"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}