One

This sermon was first given on Sunday 2nd June, a week after the EU election results were announced. The Gospel that morning was John 17:20-26.

I’ve had a song stuck in my head most of this week. Does that ever happen to you? You’re just sitting there, minding your own business, and a few small seconds of a song pop into your head and keep going on a loop. It’s never enough of the song to actually entertain you, only enough to just make you think you might be starting to go mad, and that you might never think of anything else ever again.

It’s called an earworm, which is a weird image when you think about it! They say that one way you can get rid of an earworm is to share the song with others… so, thank you all for the help you’re about to give me this morning!

The song is by one of the most famous bands in the world, U2. I suspect you know it; it’s called ‘One’. 

 The first lines say this:

Is it getting better, or do you feel the same?

Will it make it easier on you, now you got someone to blame?

I think, maybe, this earworm of mine might just be a hangover from the election results last Sunday. Before the results were announced, people on both sides had been holding onto a hope that they might signal a new way forward for the chaos called Brexit that the country finds itself in. But, truth be told, if anything, I think the waters have just been muddied further. Those folks on the remain side cannot ignore the surge of the Brexit party, who gained 29 seats to become the largest UK party in the European parliament. But, equally, those on the side of leave cannot ignore the fact that 24 of those 29 seats have simply been swapped from UKIP, leaving only 5 extra MEPs voted in on an explicit Leave platform, and wit a surge in explicitly pro-Europe Lib Dem MEPs from 1 to 16, and Green from 3 to 7, it's arguable that those who wish to remain are taking ground. It’s all a muddle – one side claims an unprecedented surge, and the largest amount of MEPs for a single party, and the other also claims that surge, and the largest swing in MEPs for a single cause.

I don’t know about you, but the fallout of this really has seemed horribly messy and angry to me. Social media this past week has just been ugly. If any of you are members of the M41 Facebook group, and have seen any of the posts on there this week, I think you’ll agree it’s just been nasty, with Leavers insulting Remainers and Remainers insulting Leavers.

So… in the words of U2, is it getting better? Do you feel the same as you did before last Sunday?

Is it easier to hold onto our prejudices by having someone, anyone to blame and castigate on the other side?

I googled the song the other day after it had been stuck in my head. Did you know U2 wrote it after a visit to the newly-unified Germany in 1990? They’d apparently been hoping to find a renewed spirit of European optimism, but instead, on arrival, they found the mood was bleak. It really does seem apt that it’s been stuck in my head this week.

I think it’s apt for today too, not just the past week. I’ve always wondered whether Bono had our Gospel passage in the back of his mind when he wrote this song. Indeed, our Gospel passage today could almost have the same title as my earworm – One.

Today we heard an unusual passage in scripture. Today we got to eavesdrop on an event we – surprisingly enough – don’t hear much of in the gospels. Sure, we’re told often enough that Jesus goes off somewhere to pray, and every so often, we hear the odd one-liner (‘arrow prayers’, if you like to call them that), but this is pretty much the one and only time we hear Jesus praying at any length.

We all know the Lord’s prayer – ‘Our Father, who art in heaven…’ But that prayer was Jesus giving us an example of how to pray. Today we actually heard what happens when Jesus prays. In a way, I guess, this is the real Lord’s prayer. And in this prayer, he prays for his disciples, and everyone who comes to know about him because of his disciples - everyone who believes in Christ because the disciples told them about him. And everyone who believes because those people the disciples told then told others. And everyone who believes because those people told others. And all the way down that line of evangelism right up until this moment.

So that’s me. And you.

This is Jesus praying for us. Absolutely directly. For me. For you.

At that point in time 2000 years ago, right before he was handed over to be tried and crucified, Jesus prayed for you.

That’s quite something, isn’t it?

So – what was Christ’s prayer for me and you? What was so important that he prayed for us in that moment?

Jesus’ prayer for me and you and for all those who believed in him was that we’d be one. As united as he and the Father are. One.

And there’s a clue there. One like Jesus and the Father. They’re not the same people. They are different parts of the trinity. We’re called to be one, but not the same.

Obviously, we’re going to have disagreements. I don’t know if Jesus and the Father ever did, but I do know that they had some pretty frank discussions – this prayer before Christ’s arrest really should remind us of his own pleading for the Father to ‘take this cup away’.

Being one does not mean being the same. We can still disagree about whether pineapple should be allowed on pizza, whether the milk in a cup of tea goes in first or last, or even about theological issues. We can still disagree even about Brexit.

What being one means is being in that close relationship, just like the Father and the Son; knowing that our lives are intertwined; that we rely on each other, that we need to carry each other. It means knowing that, in Christ, we are one body. The body of Christ.

What being one means is knowing that we are brothers and sisters in a family that will long-outlast any of our present troubles or disagreements. Blood, as they say, is thicker than water, and we are all united by Christ’s.

Being one is Jesus’ prayer for us. I think that makes it really pretty important, don’t you?

But, being one is not an end in itself. Our unity has a purpose – to show the world the power of Christ. For, if we can be one, despite our disagreements, if we can remember above all that our unity is more important than our diversity, we really will be showing the world a different way. One only needs to think of our two main political parties in this country, currently ripping themselves apart, letting internal divisions threaten to completely destroy them both – both the Conservative and Unionist party (their full name, by the way), and the Labour party, whose claim of solidarity may soon be quite ironic – to see the powerful counter-cultural stance that Christian unity can provide. Very, very few people can see a way out of the hatred and division in our country at the moment. Perhaps it is time for the Church, united, to show the way.

And that is our calling. That is our response to the prayer that Jesus prayed directly for us. For me. For you. Let us be one, so that the world may know Christ.

I’ve still got the earworm, by the way. I think that’s a good thing. Share it with me? We’re one, after all…