St. Charles' Episcopal Church – St. Charles, IL

The Seventh Sunday of Easter – Easter 6 – Year C

Sunday May 20, 2007 – Sunday after the Ascension

1 Samuel 12:19-24 – Psalm 68:1-20 – Acts 16:16-34 – John 17:20-26

Rev. William R. Nesbit, Jr.

In the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit, Amen.

"...that they may all be one."

In our Gospel this morning we hear a section of the great "High Priestly Prayer" of Jesus, given to the disciples on the eve of Jesus' crucifixion. In this prayer, Jesus lays out his deepest desires for his disciples in the times ahead. He is very aware that he is going to his Father by way of the cross and is preparing his disciples for what is to come. What he desires for them, more than anything else, is "that they may be one, as we are one." The relationship that Jesus has with the Father has been a supreme comfort and source of strength and confidence for Jesus as he has faced the ever growing resistance to his message. He desires that same strength, confidence, and comfort for his followers, all of his followers even to this day. That is what Jesus desires for us.

It has become a difficult task for the church to maintain this oneness over the years. Whether we are talking of the greater church as a whole, or any of the individual denominations, the history of the church is a long story of factions and cliques, reformations and divisions. We have not made a very good show of it. There are times when I wish we could get it all back together, but I must admit that there are also times  when I am glad that there are so many different churches, and it seems right to me that the church is different in different places and for different people. And I wonder if this might be part of God's plan after all.

As I read this passage today I wondered if Jesus might not be one with the Father in a different way than we see oneness. At the core of our faith is the great mystery of the Trinity – One God in three persons, or as we say, or used to say in the Creed of Athanasius "... one God in Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the Substance. For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and another of the Holy Ghost. But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal." Now these words may be clear in their intent, but they do seem to confound common sense. Three persons separate, yet one substance, one majesty, one glory? Is this the oneness that Jesus wants for us? And if so, how can we do this?

I found an interesting quote in one of my sermon helps, a quote from someone you might remember.

His name is Athanasius. He was the Bishop of Alexandria in the fourth century, and the great defender of Nicene theology. Well, Athanasius advised his flock to always breathe Christ. I know that sounds a little weird and awfully simple, but the more I thought about it the more I liked it. I like it for a lot of reasons but the first one is that breath and spirit are the same word in both Hebrew and Greek, rûach ( ç—eø ) in Hebrew and pneuma ( ðíå™ìá ) in Greek, so there is a poetry to his statement. Inhale the spirit of Christ. The second is the simplicity. Always breathe Christ. Anybody can do that. Any time, any place. Breathe in. Breathe out. We may be too busy for church, or bible study, or even prayer, but there is always time to breathe.

So what does this have to do with unity, with Jesus and the Father being one? If that oneness is reflected in our understanding of the Trinity, and it is, then there is a separateness that goes along with, and is indeed essential to, the oneness. As we in the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion struggle to find a way to hold together apparently irreconcilable positions, we search for unity in the midst of diversity. In this encounter we struggle to balance our identity as Anglicans against our hospitality as Christians. How much diversity can we accept before we lose the unity?

Right now people of deep faith and sound mind stand in very different places on that continuum. We want to be one, or we should want to be one, but how can we get there from here? There are some, sadly, who say we can't get there from here. I am not one of those. There is a way. We must find it. I think one way to start is the way that Athanasius led his followers to defend the Nicean theology.

Always breathe Christ. When we breathe in the loving-kindness that Jesus is extending to us right now, whenever and wherever right now is, and experience the forgiveness that he won for us on the cross, the loving acceptance from the Father, there is really only one way to breathe out, with that same loving-kindness to all those around us. Breathe in, breathe out. Always breathe Christ. It is through this breath that we can find the means of grace and the hope of glory that is our inheritance.

How about we try it once. Let’s prepare. Think about what it would be like to breathe Christ. Now take a deep breathe. Hold it just the right length of time. Now breathe out. Well...I got you started,

now...breathe Christ...always.

Amen.