Unity not uniformity

Gospel reading: John 17:20-26 

Today we are in an interesting position. Liturgically we stand in the time between Jesus’ Ascension back into heaven and Pentecost where we have the wonderful outpouring of the Holy Spirit and it feels a bit odd, doesn’t it. There is a sense of expectation of something that is not quite fulfilled.

Todays Gospel reading is a bit of a strange one as well. It’s in a strange place because technically this passage should be read during Easter, Maundy Thursday to be precise because it’s part of the prayer that John recalls Jesus praying on the night he was betrayed. Our Bible’s will call it the High Priestly Prayer and it is very deep and very complex and it’s in places odd. But the prayer is about the relationship between Jesus, God and us. And in this particular part of the prayer Jesus is talking about the unity between Jesus and the Father and he is praying that we may have the same unity. So it makes sense that in this time of waiting as we prepare ourselves for the renewal coming at Pentecost we consider what it means to be unified. 

I want to start by saying that unity does not imply uniformity. Uniformity is defined as being the quality or fact of being the same or not changing or being different in any way. If Jesus wanted us to uniform he’s in for a shock because there is no way that we would ever be the same. But Jesus doesn’t want us to be clones of each other. He wants us to be unified.

So what’s the difference? Unity is about purpose, not appearance. Yesterday I listened to the Rugby Premiership Final between Exeter Chiefs and Saracens. And I believe that Rugby is a brilliant analogy about unity vs uniformity. When you think about a rugby team it’s all about the roles people play and the positions they take up. A scrum-half can’t play in the front row and I wouldn’t expect a prop to be on the wing.  A rugby team is definitely not uniform. But they are unified. Each person understands the role they play in getting from one end of the pitch to the other. When the team is unified they are incredible, when they’re not, their rubbish.

I’m pretty sure Jesus wasn’t thinking about rugby when he said this prayer.  I also don’t think he wanted us to be clones of each other. What he wanted was for us to be one in purpose and that purpose is to demonstrate the love of God. Jesus says: ‘I pray they will be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. I pray that they also will be in us so that the world will believe that you sent me.’ Jesus goes on to pray ‘I’m in them and you are in me so that they will be made perfectly one. Then the world will know that you sent me and that you have loved them just as you loved me.’

There will always be differences in the church. We will never agree on everything and I think that demonstrates the very Jewish nature of the Church. There’s an old Jewish saying: ‘Where you have three Rabbis, you have 5 different opinions’. We will never agree on everything, some may say we never agree on anything, but then I don’t believe Jesus is praying that we agree on everything just the one thing that is really important that God loves us all and that we love each other in turn.

So where does our unity fall apart then? It’s easy to say ‘Be one in purpose’. We all believe that God loves us and the world, don’t we?  We would all say yes. The problem is when we start to differentiate between people and we decide who is loved. That’s when our unity falls apart because we are not in one purpose with God then. When we start saying we can’t have them because they don’t fit in, or they don’t think like we do or don’t behave like we do, we destroy the unity that Jesus is praying for. When we set ourselves up as different, we destroy the unity Jesus is praying for.  Because that is not unity, that is uniformity and if you want uniformity go look elsewhere because that’s not what Jesus wants and prayed for.

Amen