Jesus prays for unity

from my sermon on May 16, 2010, from John 17:20-26

Why can't we all just get along? March 3, 1991, an African-American male, Rodney King, was stopped by 4 LAPD officers. They beat him with nightsticks over 50 times. It was caught on videotape by a neighbor and shown many times on TV. The next year the 4 officers were acquitted of all charges in state court. You are not going to believe this, but rioting broke out in LA. Rodney went on TV, and this is exactly what he said:

People, I just want to to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we ge along? Can we stop making it, makeing it horrible for the older people and the kind?..It's just not right. It's not right. It's not, it's not going to change anything. We'll, we'll get our justice....Please, we can get along here. we all can get along. I mean, we're all stuck here for a while. Let' stry to work it out . Let's try to bear it. Let's try to beat it. Let's try to work it out.

Why can't we all just get along? You may have seen the bumper stickers. I know I have even in our church parking lot. Coexist. The crescent moon of the Islam faith is the letter C. The Jewish star makes the letter X. The cross of the Christian faith makes the letter T. Other symbols of other faiths make up the other letters.

Why can't we all just get along? Even in the church we have a hard time. A pastor friend of mine went to his new church. First meeting of the United Methodist Men was to prepare for the men's annual spaghetti dinner. One group said, meatballs. Another group said, meat sauce. Meatballs. Meatsauce. Meatballs. Meat sauce. He couldn't believe it, fighting over spaghetti. He started to make a motion for real parmesean cheese just to get them off topic.

Why can't we all just get along? Surely after thousands of years of evolution, of people working on it we could do a better job of resolving conflict. I would like to give you some pointers on things that sometimes work.

One are the HEART principles that we practice around here. H is for hear me and understand me. E is even if you disagree, don't make me wrong. A is for acknowledge the greatness within me. R is for remember to look for my loving intentions. T is for tell me the truth with compassion. Even as great as these principles are, I know trainers of the Heart Principles who can go absolutely bonkers over certain issues.

Anther technique is that of forming consensus. I try to have as few votes as possible because votes always create winners and loser. Consensus doesn't mean everyone has to agree about everything. It can mean that those who disagree will go along with the rest in order to keep community.

Another is that of rotating bliss. This means you don't always get your way, but you can sometimes. I use when trying to get a secretary to take minutes of a meeting. You can have that joy this time, and next time it will be another person's.

Why can't we all just get along? When I googled that phrase the past week, the first article that came up was from a law professor at SMU, a professional mediator. He said that we don't get along because we assume that conflict can be solved by reason. We are about 2% rational and 98% emotional he calculates. When faced with a problem, we can quickly go to our subhuman brain, which gets anxious, then perceives the problem as a threat, and then we react out of fear. We do have a choice. We can pause and reflect. This is what the life of prayer and spirituality are all about. The more mature we are, the more we can respond, instead of reacting.

In this passage, Jesus doesn't give problem solving techniqus or advice or counsel. Jesus prays. This whole 17th chapter of John is a long prayer, called the high priestly prayer. Jesus prays to his Father. He prays for us. He prays for our unity. If you get nothing else out of this sermon today, listen for Jesus praying for us. This may be a new concept for you. You may be trying to fill up your prayer time with lots of words with requests and lists. Today I invite you to listen. My Catholic friends at Boston College were very comfortable with this. Their worship services would often have long time of silence, so that we could hear Jesus praying for us. I wonder how we did with the 18 seconds of silence that Lisa had in the prayers of the people earlier.

Some of you find it hard to ask for anything in prayer, and this kind of praying is perfect for you. You tell me, I only ask for "thy will be done." This is what we are doing in our listening, seeking that will. As we overhear Jesus praying here, we find out that he is praying always for our unity. Unity, not uniformity. The Son is not the Father, yet they are one. We are called to that same intimacy and closeness. We are the community for whom Jesus prays. We look the unity that exists between the Father and the Son.

Today, can you hear Jesus praying...for our unity. As I reflected over some recent events, I tried to hear what Jesus was praying about them. The law in Arizona to question any one about their immigration status comes to mind. "Show me your papers." Fear...suspicion, blaming.. I heard Jesus weeping. I had a friend in a former church who got stopped while driving his wife's Volvo instead of his old pickup truck. What was the charge, I asked. He said, DWH. What's a DWH? Driving while Hispanic, he said.

There was a doctor who performed late term abortions who was ushering at his church on Sunday morning, when a man came into the narthex and shot him dead at point blank range. I heard Jesus weeping. When I have reflected on violence lately, I heard Jesus praying this: I am tired of people killing other people in my name.

We are called to listen to Jesus pray for us and our unity so we may be witnesses to the world, to those who don't believe yet, so that they may become one with us too. It came to me that we are called to become a sacrament, an outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual presence that Christ is with us. Sometimes we actually become this sacrament. When the church people stood up for civil rights with those who didn't have power and voice, we came close to what Jesus was praying for us. Today in the UMC when some are in the Reconciling Movement, those who stand with all of different sexual orientation, we become part of Jesus prayer for unity.

Listen for what Jesus is praying for us...to become one. A last point about this involves Billy Abraham at Perkins School of Theology. He is doing research to prove that such activity--prayer and meditation actually rewires the brain. This listening to Jesus praying brings about a physical change. We can receive a whole range of responses to conflict.

Why can't we all just get along? We can.....we can do this better...when we pause and hear what Jesus is praying for us. That is the good news I have to share today.