That They May All Be One

Contents

The slogan for Global Healing is One Planet One People which is also the title of the song by Michael Sembello on the video at the bottom of the Global Healing Home page www.globalhealing.net

Over a decade before the founding of Global Healing, I offered this sermon in response to the prayer of Jesus “That they may All Be One.

It seems that with the growing interfaith movement the concept is as relevant as ever.

Dave Randle

SERMON TITLE: That They All May Be One

TEXT JOHN 17:18-21

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend a dinner in honor of US Space Week.  John Young the astronaut who was part of the Gemini mission, the Apollo mission to the Moon, and the first Space Shuttle Commander, was the guest speaker.  John Young talked about the oneness of the Earth and the need to realize this for the survival of humankind.  

The space program has brought us back pictures of the Earth in space that some say has changed everything.  When the astronauts looked at the Earth from their spaceship, they reported a sense of oneness, they for the first time were able to look at the Earth with no frames and no boundaries.

The experience led me to ask some questions.

What does "We are one mean?

Who is the "we"?

What is "one"

Where do people act as one?  Why?

Where do they not act as one?  Why?

Following the last supper, the Bible states that Jesus went to pray in the garden of Gethsemane.  This particular Bible passage is part of the farewell message that Jesus had to his disciples.  The prayer was the last instruction that Jesus gave to his disciples before his death.

Jesus told his disciples that the prayer was not just for them, but his prayer was for the future of the Church. For Jesus said that it would be our spirit of unity that convinces the world that Jesus was commissioned by God.

Jesus prayed for oneness, that we become close to one another.  For if we are not close to each other, then we are not close to God.

Scientists from many disciplines teach us that we live on one planet, and that the survival of all humanity, all life, is totally interdependent.

Physics demonstrates that nothing exists in isolation.  All of matter from sub-atomic particles to the galaxies in space, is part of an intricate web of relationships in a unified whole.

Ecology provides the understanding that all parts of a living system are interconnected and that greater stability results from increased diversity.

Biology reveals that, in a totally interrelated system, the principle of survival of the fittest has new meaning.  The "fittest" is now seen as that species which best contributes to the well-being of the whole system.

Psychology  explains the projection of the dark side of the personality upon an "enemy."  That knowledge gives us new tools to understand conflict and to improve relationships between individuals and between nations.

Together these discoveries reveal a new meaning of "One".  We are one interconnected, interdependent life-system, living on the planet.

Diversity is a source of stability.  Someone once said that heaven is like French cooking with English manners, American flexibility and innovation, and German organization.

In contrast, hell is like English cooking, French manners, German flexibility and innovation, and American organization.

Each individual or group has a positive gift to offer each of us and also something that they might learn from others.  Together we can become one.

Mark Twain said it this way,  "Travel is hazardous to prejudice, bigotry and narrow mindedness."  For when we travel and are introduced to other ways of doing things, our own preconceived notions of only "one true way" of doing things is thrown out the window.               

Diversity is healthy.  A town that only has one major employer is much more vulnerable to economic disaster than one that has many sources.  A person who uses a number of methods to stay healthy such as good nutrition, exercise, stress management, good health screening, etc. is far more likely to prevent disease than a person who uses only one of these methods.  A farmer who grows a variety of crops is much less vulnerable to disaster than a single crop farm is.  In nature an eco-system with a variety of plant and animal life is far more likely to sustain itself than one with limited diversity.

A  religion that allows for a variety of viewpoints, forms of worship, mission activities, and educational programs is far more likely to grow and sustain itself than a one where everyone thinks the same way and does things year after year the same way with little variety or diversity to attract persons with different viewpoints.

The Bible tells us that God calls us to be new, to do things in a different way.  In Exodus 20 right after God gave the ten commandments to Moses, he began to give instructions on worship.  Specifically on building an alter.  God commanded that "If you build me an alter of stone, do not construct it of dressed stone, for you profane it by applying tools to it.

Now imagine the shock that this must have been to the Israelites.  For 450 years they had made precision bricks with exact measurements to build the Egyptian Pyramids.  As slaves they had learned few if any other skills or trades.  Now God was telling them that they had to do it another way.  

It is also interesting to note that when the people came to worship God, the alter like them would be made up of many different size stones.  Stones of all shapes and sizes.  Sharp ones, dull ones, smooth ones, rough ones.  God wanted a symbol of diversity.  The many different becoming one would symbolize the new alter for the new people.

For God is a God of the living and not a God of the mummies lying dead in the pyramids.  If we become so stuck in only one way of doing things then that is what will most likely kill the our religion or organization.

If however we are able set aside our desires to be a certain way or do things according to a certain protocol, then we can work to fulfill the prayer of Jesus "That They May All Be One".

Fortunately we do not need to travel to the Moon to find this sense of oneness Jesus spoke of.  It may be found throughout all of God's creation.  

Albert Schweitzer, the great medical missionary, musician, and prophetic theologian found this sense of oneness while traveling through the jungles of Africa one day.  Schweitzer tells his story this way:

"Slowly we crept upstream, laboriously feeling ... for the channels between the sandbanks.  Lost in thought I sat on the deck of the barge, struggling to find the elementary and universal conception of the ethical which I had not discovered in any philosophy.  Sheet after sheet I covered with disconnected sentences, merely to keep myself concentrated on the problem.  Late on the third day, at the very moment when, at sunset, we were making our way through a herd of hippopotamuses, there flashed upon my mind, unforeseen and unsought, the phrase, "Reverence for Life."  The iron door had yielded: the path in the thicket had become visible.  Now I had found my way to the idea in which affirmation of the world and ethics are contained side by side!  Now I knew that the ethical acceptance of the world and of life, together with the ideals of civilization contained in this concept, has a foundation in thought."

The simple phrase "Reverence for Life" will appear grossly naive to many, no more than a motto or cliche, but if we really stop to think of the profound meaning that this phrase has, we will understand that at its root is also the prayer of our Lord Jesus Christ "That We May All Be One".

For within Schweitzers experience of watching the hippopotamus play was the realization that every person in the church, every person in the community, every person in the nation, every person in the world, and in fact every form of life in existence has one thing in common.  That is a will to live.

The will to live is a will to develop our full potential, the will to have the Planet be a better place for our children, the will to feel related with life, the will to experience and understand that all of life is one.

Schweitzer states that we can all begin this process by realizing that we all have a will to live and that we are living in the midst of other life that has a will to live.  The will to live for Schweitzer was not limited to humans though.  The will to live is found in every plant and animal species on the planet.

The world needs the oneness that Jesus prayed for more than any time in the history of the planet.  We need to be able to develop a oneness with all of humanity not just our family, friends, or members or our religious faith.  We need to develop a sense of oneness with the Earth and not just the human boundaries of cities, states, or nations.  We need to develop a sense of oneness with truth and no longer allow ourselves to be limited by our personal religion, philosophy, or ideology.

And we need to begin the development of oneness in each of our own lives, our own families, and in our own faith tradition.

To work for this oneness means that we will need to be willing to take the risks involved in asserting that oneness with others is the call of Jesus, that concern for ourselves and our personal pleasure, comfort, and security is not our first priority.  We need to support one another in offering the world a new vision, a vision with a reverence for life.

Jesus prayed "That They May All Be One”.     The response to that prayer is our choice.