C, Easter 7 - John 17:20-26 "Perfectly One"

John 17:20–26 (ESV) Jesus prays, “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word,  that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.  The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one,  I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.  Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.  O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me.  I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

In the fictional movie, Gladiator, released in 2000, two Roman Senators, Gracchus and Falco, discuss Emperor Commodus’ attempts to win the hearts of his people by staging games that are bloodthirsty and barbaric for our times.

Gracchus comments, “Fear and wonder, a powerful combination!” To which Falco responds, “You really think people are going to be seduced by that?”  Gracchus suspecting what Commodus is up to continues, “I think he knows what Rome is. Rome is the mob. Conjure magic for them and they'll be distracted. Take away their freedom and still they'll roar. The beating heart of Rome is not the marble of the senate, it's the sand of the Colosseum. He'll bring them death - and they will love him for it.”

Although Gladiator is far from a correct portrayal of Roman history, Gracchus’ monologue, we’ve just heard, pretty much sums up the hearts of humanity then and now.  The seduction of the human heart through fear and wonder, is as real today as it was back then when people gathered at the Colosseum.  Rather, today the mob is wowed and wooed at coliseums like the MCG (the Melbourne Cricket Ground), the State of Origin at Lang Park, the Olympics, a theatre of some kind, perhaps even a large church gathering.  Wherever the mob masses, there will be someone there, to capitalise from the gathered crowd.

It seems sound, that as the masses gather around a central belief, they are one.  Their oneness draws others in.  The popularity of the gathering brings out desires in others, individuals want to join the group, to be a part of an ideology, to feel a part of something, to fill the hole of loneliness in the heart, to be accepted by others, to be one.

Others see the masses gathering and use the opportunity to ingratiate themselves to them.  So, having become popular with the mob, the mob makes them masters of the mob.    In Roman society the two senators realise democracy, the rule of the people, can be manipulated by the pleasures of the Colosseum, albeit bloodthirsty and brutal.  Democracy, the rule of the people, can easily be “corruption of the people, by the people”.

If a crowd is corrupt, those who want to adhere to it, cannot continue uncorrupted if they want unity with it.  To remain unspoiled and untouched by the ideology of the masses means sticking out in the crowd as one being at odds with the crowd.  Those who stood their ground against the mob, usually became the deadly entertainment for the Colosseum crowd. Life is defined by the mob, and death is delivered by the mob.  Or, is the mob delivering itself over to death through its own desire?

Our society, today, doesn’t have a coliseum, that hands over those at odds with the mob, to death!  Or, does it?  Perhaps the advancement of our society over the Romans, is that, at the moment, we have many more subtle ways of assassinating those who stand at odds with the mob.  Hidden coliseums where the sports of gossip, slander, half-truths, and the good of the whole are carried out!

This oneness is far from the perfect oneness to which Jesus calls you and me.  Unfortunately, our sinful human nature tries to incorporate democracy, the rule of the people, with the perfect oneness of God, the rule of God.  

However, the oneness of God does not grow out of the mob, or popularity. It starts with one and it ends with one.  Jesus is the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end!  When Jesus prays to our Father in heaven, he prays as one man.  He did not ingratiate himself to the mob.  In fact, he didn’t suck up to the mob that welcomed him into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.  Rather, the mob wanted to make him the leader he was never meant to be.  Once the mob realised this, the unbelieving Jews used popularity to turn the mob on him, to crucify him.

Knowing all this was about to happen to him Jesus prayed for those who were given to him.  Not only was this prayer for the apostles and disciples!  It was for the many who would not see but would still believe the apostolic witness, throughout time.  It was for those for whom Jesus prays, who died in many ways, at the hands of the mob, defending the perfect oneness of Jesus and his holy body.  It’s for those today whose witness of Jesus Christ puts them at odds with the common defilement of the masses.  And to be clear, the biblical Greek word for “witness” is “martyr”. 

“But we don’t martyr witnesses of Jesus Christ, in our society today”, you might say!  But the words of the Roman Senator in the fictitious Gladiator movie reveals the truth of our society just as much now, as it did, then!  As magic is conjured we’re distracted. Take away the freedoms given by God and still we roar! Bring us death - and the mob will love their leaders for it.

The only problem is the death we’re brought to is our own. Our fear and wonder, for the mob, distracts us from fearing and loving God.  Jesus did not fear the mob, your opinion nor mine, but out of fear and love for God, he loved the masses, you and me, by becoming the spectacle of death for which we, the mob, so desperately thirst.

Starting from one, Jesus was raised by our Father and the Holy Spirit from death and calls you and me out of the mob that has brought death on itself.  The mob is dying.  The ideals of the mob are dying.  Jesus is coming soon!  But until he comes the Holy Spirit and the “one true church” says, “come”!

In Jesus’ day the mob were the Jews, God’s very own people.  Those who followed Jesus, were called from the mob.  Many were martyred, for their departure from the mob, and for their witness of Jesus’ perfect oneness, with our Father and the Holy Spirit. But they were united in Jesus’ perfect oneness, together with the Triune God, in one accord, as his body, his bride, his church.

At the Reformation, Luther and the reformers were accused of departing the one catholic church which had gone the way of the Jewish mob.  Instead of being catholic, gathered as one in the oneness of Jesus Christ, the church prided itself in being Roman Catholic and became the mob from which the Lutheran Church left.

Many of our forefathers and mothers, came to this country and other countries when oneness was forced upon them in Germany.  A oneness that had nothing to do with the oneness of Jesus Christ, rather a political oneness from a German mob. 

Powerful fear and wonder to generate the mob, persists today in a seemingly new world order, distracting people in so many different ways, to a worldly oneness, away from the oneness of Jesus Christ.  Fear is created by those who want to control the mob, and great wonder is attributed to institutions that emphasise this unity.

But the unity of the cross begins with one and calls us to be one with our Lord.  Each day this unity calls for the death of self, institutions, ideologies, and mob rule.  Anything that takes the place of the perfect oneness that Jesus won for us in his death and resurrection by the will of our Father, and the work of the Holy Spirit, needs to daily die.

We are known by God and made known to those whom God leads us, as we die to self, and become known witnesses or martyrs to the masses—witnesses of God’s glory in Jesus Christ his only Son, our Lord.   Like Jesus, and many before us, the Holy Spirit seeks to lead you from the mob, to witness to the mob, the perfect holy oneness of God in Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit. 

In God’s way, the mob will then know that we’re being made perfectly one, in, by, and with Jesus, so that the world might know that God sent Jesus to them, the masses, in the same way that the Father loves Jesus Christ his Son, our Lord.  Amen.

Dear Heavenly Father, the world does not know us, but we are known by you.  Send your Holy Spirit into our hearts so we can make Jesus Christ known to our mob, here in Australia, surrounding our congregation gathered in the oneness of our Lord, Jesus Christ.  Amen.

A, Easter 5 - Acts 7:55-60 "Homothumadon"

Acts 7:55–60 (ESV) But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, gazed into heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God.  And he said, “Behold, I see the heavens opened, and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God.”  But they cried out with a loud voice and stopped their ears and rushed together at him.  Then they cast him out of the city and stoned him. And the witnesses laid down their garments at the feet of a young man named Saul.  And as they were stoning Stephen, he called out, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.”  And falling to his knees he cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

Extraordinary things occurred in the early days after Jesus’ resurrection.  The believers acted with one accord.  The title of this sermon bears the Greek word Homothumadon, translated “in one accord, in one mind, or with one voice”, and it literally means with “one passion”, or “one hot breath.

This acting in one accord is recorded only eleven times in the New Testament, ten in the book of Acts, and once in Romans. [1]

Eight out of the eleven occurrences homothumadon refers to the worshipping of God in one accord by the believers of Jesus’ resurrection.  Three times homothumadon, is the oneness of passion with which mobs of unbelieving Jews roared and breathed against the believers.  At Stephen’s death, men from the synagogue of Freedmen, cried out, shut their ears to God’s call through Stephen, and rushed at him with homothumadon, dragging him out of Jerusalem and stoning him.

Stephen with the witnesses and believers of the resurrection sought to proclaim the actions of man in the death of Jesus Christ, and the actions of God in sending him in the incarnation of human flesh.  He was sent to serve as the Son of Man, and submit as the sacrificial Lamb of God, for the Jews first, and then the Gentiles.  The actions of Jesus Christ glorified our Father, when together with the Holy Spirit the Trinity acted in homothumadon.

In these days after the resurrection, we hear homothumadon occurring amongst the believers as the Holy Spirit moved in them and spoke through them to save others. 

First, Peter was reinstated by Jesus with a three-fold call to “feed my lambs, tend my sheep, feed my sheep”.  Jesus spoke into Peter the homothumadon, the one accord, to love others as he loved him, loved the disciples, and loved all sinners, in his death and resurrection.

Then, in the power of the Holy Spirit, Peter begins by continuing Jesus’ love at Pentecost, standing up with the eleven, in the peace of God, with homothumadon he calls all people to repentance.

One could say this had a positive outcome as the crowd was cut to their hearts because of their sin, and three thousand were baptised for the forgiveness of their sins and received the Holy Spirit.  Peter promises resurrection for them and their children and calls them to, “save themselves from the current generation”.

So, from one man going to the cross for humanity and then being raised from the dead, Peter is resurrected, the other ten Apostles are resurrected, then three thousand.  The Holy Spirit continues the work of Jesus, the Son of God, the Son or Servant of Man, proceeding from both the Son and the Father, to do the will of God, and bring humanity into the oneness of Jesus Christ.

Those gathered, by the power of the Holy Spirit, sought to gather others.  With strength and courage, they waited on the Risen Lord, despite the very real threat to their lives.  But it was to those who threatened their lives that they testified the love of God because only through the power of God can anyone be re-erected in a way that pleases God our Father.

God had become displeased with Israel, his chosen people.  But in his displeasure with humanity and the Jews, he sent his Son, to be human, a man, a Jew, to save the Jews and humanity.

God the Holy Spirit was calling people into a new temple, a gathering of living stones, built on the Corner Stone, Jesus Christ.  This homothumadon was the gathering breath of the Holy Spirit, calling one holy apostolic church to be gathered in and around the resurrected Jesus Christ, the Corner Stone.

This was a calling of people out of death into life, calling them to daily die to self and live in Jesus Christ, allowing the Holy Spirit to bring them out of darkness and into a royal, holy nation and priesthood.  This is the homothumadon into which people were being baptised to the glory and pleasure of God.

But the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit, the oneness into which the Spirit was seeking to work through the Apostolic Servants and the newly re-created and resurrected Priesthood of confessing sinners living under forgiveness, was not appreciated by some.

For four hundred years God had withdrawn from the people of Israel and left them to their own devices.  Kingship and the Levitical Priesthood was rife with corruption.  Murder, chaos, and buying of power was common as warring factions in Jerusalem jockeyed for supremacy.  The Sanhedrin looked more like question time in parliament, rather than leading of the Jewish public in a God pleasing way.  Men like Herod the Great and his adulterous Son Herod Antipas were the legacy of this time.

Outside of Judea, Samaria, and Galilee the world was in a state of flux.  Years before, Alexander the Great had conquered the world, and having been tutored by Aristotle, he encouraged diversity of thought and ideologies.  This helped the spread of Judaism through the Greek world, but monotheistic Judaism struggled to come to terms with the polytheistic nature of Greek Hellenisation that traversed lands from the Himalayas in the east, to Greece and Egypt in the west.

Between Alexander’s reign and the rise of the Roman empire, the lands of Israel found themselves in a great tug-o-war and Judaism became a part of this political struggle.  By the time God sent his Son Jesus Christ, Jerusalem, a place which bore the name meaning flowing peace, was more use to the flow of human blood, at the hands of those who should have been spilling the blood of animals, for the atonement of their sins and for those whom they were meant to serve.

So, with one accord, with the homothumadon, with the unified fierce breath, in which Jesus was crucified was not new to Jerusalem and the Jews.   Paradoxically, the oneness in which these political assassinations occurred in the lead up to Jesus’ death, further splintered and disintegrated God’s chosen people of Israel.  The spirit of the age was every man for himself, not all that different from today!

However, the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit is different because people were being brought into the oneness of Jesus’ resurrection.  He who proclaimed himself as the Son of God, now had a faithful following growing mysteriously, a strange phenomenon of believers repenting and confessing, calling others into the same homothumadon of forgiveness by the Holy Spirit. 

Two homothumadon are revealed at this time.  One was that of the Holy Spirit in Jesus Christ, the other was that of the human spirit.  One tasted and saw that the Lord was good, the other didn’t see that the Lord was good.  Christ’s call to repentance and his resurrection did not please their taste, rather it was a puzzling enigma and another suspicious power needing destruction. 

With those gathered by the Holy Spirit into Jesus Christ, they were one in him with a peace that surpassed all understanding, allowing them to freely confess sin and live in forgiveness in the face of death and tribulation.  They looked to Jesus knowing the threat of death and separation was a blessing of eternal life in Jesus.  They tasted and knew that the Lord was good.

Stephen tasted the Lord too!  He wanted others to be freed from the confusion, chaos, and the corruption of the age.  His wish was for those who lived under the bondage of death to be made free in the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  Stephen proclaimed with the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit, the one accord of the Holy Spirit and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Those who debated against Stephen, were from the synagogue of the Freedmen.   Literally in the Greek, the synagogue of the Libertine.  They may have been freed in the sense of freethinking and free to indulge in their pleasures, but they were bound by their thoughts and pleasures that were leading them to death.  When Stephen sought to free them from death and the spirit of the age, they cried out and shut their ears to the Holy Spirit speaking through Stephen and murdered him.

Each Sunday we celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ in the face of death.  Today might be the last day I have, to proclaim with the homothumadon of God to you, calling you from the spirit of this world into trusting the resurrection of Jesus Christ.  It might be the last time you hear with the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit, the one rushing breath of the Holy Spirit.  Today may be your last breath to confess your sin, to confess the forgiveness of your sin to others, to proclaim Jesus’ death and resurrection, bringing another into the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit.

It was Stephen’s last opportunity.  It cost him his life, but it also blessed the church, as it pleased God to bring a young man called Saul from the homothumadon of Jewish human desire into the homothumadon of God’s resurrected Kingdom, by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Finally, the name Stephen needs to be looked at.  Stephen comes from the Greek word stepho which means wreathe, a badge or symbol of honour, or even a crown.

As your  pastor, it is my duty to call you to taste and see that the Lord is good.  To lay your sin at the foot of the cross, to forgive as the Lord has forgiven you.  To receive the homothumadon of the Holy Spirit, so you leave here in the peace of God, and pass on the peace of forgiveness to others in your royal and holy calling, in the priesthood of all believers, baptised into the forgiveness of sins and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Like Stephen, let your homothumadon be a Holy Spirited one accord with Jesus Christ, bearing the  homothumadon badge of honour, and crown of eternal life.  Amen. 

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[1] Acts 1:14, 2:46, 4:24, 5:12, 7:57, 8:6, 12:20, 15:25, 18:12, 19:29, Romans 15:6