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.

B, Post Pentecost 3 Proper 5 - 1 Samuel 8:5b–7 "The Royal House of Jesus Christ"

You are priests in the royal house of Jesus Christ.  Jesus is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  Those who allow themselves to be moved by the Holy Spirit to do the will of God the Father, are brothers, sisters, and mother of the King.  Being family of the King makes us royalty!  We are in the Holy House of the royal family when we allow the Holy Spirit to bring us to our Father, through the Holy Royal Son, who had his coronation when he was crowned as King at cross of Calvary.

There has been no other leader like Jesus Christ, before him, or since!  Jesus stands head and shoulders above every other leader.  The political leaders we have today are a far cry from Jesus, or even the kings chosen by God to reign over Israel.

The political spectrum from conservative to progressive, in Australia and across the world, in political realms, social realms, in modern Israel, Islam, other faiths and even the Christian church, are a far cry from the former Kingdom of Israel.  This is because every rule today is political, driven by popularity and people, and not by God.

When Israel settled in Canaan, God raised up judges to lead and adjudicate the tribes of Israel.  The common predicament for Israel was that they “did evil in the eyes of the Lord”!  They followed the ways of those who lived in other kingdoms and defiled themselves with their gods.  Samuel is known as the seventh judge of Israel, despite there being more than seven judges before him.  He is seen as the completion of the judges of Israel.

So, it’s no wonder Samuel may have felt offended when the tribes of Israel came asking for a king to rule them like the other nations around them.  We hear the elders of Israel say, “Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations.”  But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, “Give us a king to judge us.” And Samuel prayed to the LORD.  And the LORD said to Samuel, “Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them.”  (1 Samuel 8:5b–7 ESV)

God allowed Israel to have its king.  The first was Saul, then David was chosen by God through Samuel when Saul was rejected.  When David was nearing the end of his life, he anointed Solomon his son as King, with Zadok the Priest and Nathan the Prophet in attendance.  This occurred when another of his sons, Adonijah, took it upon himself to become king.

The kingship of Israel from this point on falls into various levels of corruption after Israel splits into two kingdoms.  Two common phrases are heard in the leadership of the kings.  “And he did what was right in the sight of God.  And he did what was evil in the sight of God”.  The Kings of the northern kingdom of Israel became corrupt and led the people in the sins of the nations around them.  The only exception was King Jehu who executed Jezebel, and King Ahab’s descendants.  However, he also didn’t walk in the laws of God and led Israel in their sin.

The kings of Judah were not much better, where still most did not follow God’s leadership.  The rejection of God first happened in the days of Samuel, and in getting their king Israel and Judah ended up following the sins of the nations around them who had kings.

It was not meant to be this way!  Israel was meant to be a nation of priests, a blessing to all other nations.  When they camped at Sinai after leaving Egypt, God commanded Moses to tell the Israelites, “Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice and keep my covenant, you shall be my treasured possession among all peoples, for all the earth is mine;  and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.’ These are the words that you shall speak to the people of Israel.”  (Exodus 19:5–6 ESV)

Leadership today unfortunately, but not surprisingly, follows the same ugly pattern as Israel’s fallen kingship.  What begun through a theocracy, focused on God and trusting in God, lost God’s centrality when the kings became gods to themselves and the people.  Today political messiahs seek popularity as they preach prosperity so they can be voted into power.  It seems the same political problems that plagued the kingship of Israel and Judah, still pursue those who hold power over the populace today.  And it matters not whether they are of conservative or progressive ilk because our leaders reflect us who put them into power, rather than God from whom their authority exists.  We have professional politicians who care little for their constituents, and they care less for God or his gift of authority to lead.

God gives us the leaders we want.  When we want conservative leaders to conserve our sinfulness he gives them to us.  When we want progressive leaders to progress our sinfulness, them too he gives to us.  It is not the politicians or the public service that’s the problem.  It is you and me who put them there!

The problem also existed and continues to exist in kingdoms where leaders become tyrants.  Democracy continues to crumble as constitutions built on the Ten Commandments, are eroded and supplanted by our individualism and its great god of pleasure.  The great socialism experiments of last century continue in the wake of Hitler and Stalin, in regimes where people vanish if they speak out against the mob.

Unfortunately, we have not learnt from our failures through kingdoms, democracies, and socialisms, where today a “public-pleasure” socialism has arisen where the individual is god of the self, reflected in the mirror of electronic devices.

Inside the church this public pleasure socialism is at work too!  All the sins of the Israelites, the gentiles, and past generations of progressive and conservative Christianity are being repeated and built upon.  Like the Israelites, we in the royal family, seek to oppose Jesus Christ our King and stand in his place and in his power.

You and I are called to repentance whenever we remain silent and fail to stand up for those suffering for Jesus Christ and his gospel of repentance and forgiveness.  When others are accused for being out of their minds for proclaiming Christ and his word, to our shame, because of fear we don’t defend them, or the truth of God’s Word.

You and I are called to repentance when God’s love is watered down into a feel-good fellowship, to the exclusion of the Holy Spirit’s true unifying work, of bringing us in repentance to the cross.  You and I are called to repentance when we’re tempted to build our own kingdoms, rather than stand in the royal house of God, a house not made with hands.  We’re called to repentance, when we seek the transient over the eternal, and seek to put off light momentary affliction and the eternal weight of glory, in favour of pleasures that are wasting away with our bodies!

This is where we’re called back to Christ the King, and let him bind the strong man within us, whose spirit is turned against God’s royal order and the work of the Holy Spirit.  God calls you to confess your sin and trust he truly wants to forgive you. 

You are called to trust Jesus as the King of Kings.  He is the only man of the people, having died for the people.  No politician ever did that!  And definitely not without sin!

We are now God’s kingdom of priests, baptised into the priesthood of all  believers.  The Holy Spirit leads you to stand under the Word of God, so he can use you for the royal duties of forgiving as Christ has forgiven you. 

You and I are called to be conservative with the forgiveness of sin, shamelessly desiring this forgiveness that Christ freely spreads amongst those who believe in him and stand under him in forgiveness.

You and I are called to also be progressive with this forgiveness too, by submissively nurturing God’s word within!  Standing under it, so the Holy Spirit can continue changing your heart and those to whom you bear Jesus Christ and his word of forgiveness.

When we live under the forgiveness of sin before the world, we can be confident we do not sin against the Holy Spirit because we carry the same spirit of faith as that of Jesus Christ as to what has been written in God’s Word. 

So, like Saint Paul, “we also believe, and so we also speak,  knowing that he who raised the Lord Jesus will raise us also with Jesus and bring us with you into his presence.  For it is all for your sake, so that as grace extends to more and more people it may increase thanksgiving, to the glory of God.  So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day.”  (2 Corinthians 4:13–16 ESV)

Just as Jesus walked the way of the cross, led by the Holy Spirit, for his royal coronation, know that the Holy Spirit helps you carry your cross for your royal coronation into the kingdom of heaven.

Amen.