“That They May All Be One”Main point: Our unity is an outgrowth of the unity God shares in the Godhead.BLESSING THE CHILDRENTEXTJohn 17:20-26"I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you, and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them and I in them."SERMONINTRODUCTIONAs we look at these words of Jesus this morning I would like to start with this question: What is the church? What are we here for? If the church is a social club, I don't need it. I have friends. I have a family. I have more opportunities for social engagement that I know what to do with. If this is a social club, I don't need it. If the church is a place for ancient religious ritual alone, I don't need it. There are many places I could go to get that itch scratched. There are places who do it better than us. If it was just for ancient religious rituals, not sure the purpose that would serve. It's just a place for that, I don't need it.If the church is a place where I just come to develop my personal Christian faith, I don't think I even need that. There are more direct ways of developing my personal faith. There are places I can go and people I can listen to in order to take in spiritually nourishing content. Spending time at home in prayer and Bible reading might do more for my personal faith than coming to church on a weekend. If this is a place where I come to develop my personal Christian faith, I don't need that. So what is the church? What is it that we are doing together? In a word, we are putting God on display for the world. In love. In unity. In worship. We are an outgrowth of God. God who is three in one. Atemporally existent in mutual harmony and submission. Perfectly unified in love. When we exist together as the church, we put this God - we put this reality - on display for the world to see. In our gospel today, you see a prayer from Jesus that those who follow him may be one just as he is one with the Father. By this, Jesus says, the world will know God. I invite you, today, to pause and consider how fully our practice - week by week, month by month, year by year - serves as a testimony to the world of this God who dwells together in perfect unity.Jesus prays for unity. Why?Why a prayer for unity?Why would Jesus pray this prayer for Christian unity? Why - in the final couple of days of his life - in the longest prayer he prayed retained in our Scriptures - of all the things that he could pray for - why would he pray for Christian unity?Answer 1: Perhaps he could see the future disunity of his people and it grieved his heart. Perhaps he could see the strain, the pain, and the hurt of broken relationships in the church. Perhaps he mourned over the divisions he could see among the disciples - even while he was still with them. Perhaps he could even see 18th Street in Bettendorf, IA where - in the span of 2 miles - 8 denominations are represented (Catholic, Lutheran, Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, Episcopal, Wesleyan, Nondenominational) with very little unity shared among them.

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