Unity of Church (Guest Speaker Jon Anderson).

Today we have a special guest speaker. Our pastor is in Israel. So we decided we're going to have a guest speaker today. Today we have joining us John Anderson from the Collaboration Project. He's been a part of our community before. He spoke to us last summer, so we want to give him a warm welcome.

Before he comes up, I'm going to read our scripture for today. Today we're going to be in John chapter 17, verses 13 through 26.

But now I am coming to you and have these things I seek in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil ones. They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth. Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world. And for their sake, I consecrate myself, that they also may be sanctified in truth. I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their words, 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.

John 17:13-26

Ladies and gentlemen, John Anderson.

Hello, everyone. My name is John Anderson. It is great to be with you. I want to say thank you to Abbie for the invitation to speak today. Let me briefly introduce myself.

I'm married to my beautiful wife, Mary. We live in Monona, which is not too far from here. We have three kids, Ethan, Charlotte, and Hazel. They're all in elementary school right now. In fact, this year is the one year of their entire lives that they'll be in the same school together. That's kind of fun for us and also convenient for the moment. Mary and I met as undergrads at UW when we were both in campus ministry. This next summer we'll be celebrating our 15th anniversary. Pretty exciting.

My professional background, I've worked as a pastor for a little over 20 years before doing what I'm doing now. First at Blackhawk Church on the west side of town, and then later at Door Creek Church on the east side of town. When I started my career, I was in youth ministry for a long time. Then in the last part of being a pastor, I worked with adults. To be honest, it's kind of the same thing, minus less ice cream and lock-ins with the older people. But it was a great pleasure.

During that time, one of the things that happened was over those 20 years, I started to observe. One of the main things that I did as a pastor over those 20 years is help engage the church I was in with serving locally in our community. We called it different things, but that was the gist of it. I had a chance to work with a lot of different nonprofits and a lot of churches.

One of the things I started to observe is that every church I worked with that wasn't necessarily my own wanted to do good in the community they were part of. In fact, I have yet to ever meet a church that doesn't have that as part of what they long to do. At the same time, very few of those churches were necessarily working together, especially if you got outside of some of the denominational lines or theological lines that they were within. And very few were seeing the kind of community transformation that they long to be a part of.

That observation percolated and my own sense of calling evolved over time into a calling. In 2019, about three years ago around this time, we launched Collaboration Project. Our mission is to foster collaboration between the 320 plus churches in Dane County for the good of the community. Our vision, our preferred future, is that we would love to see the Dane County Church, capital C, so all 320, as the people of God united in transformational love. That is, love that is felt and noticed in tangible ways, for the glory of God and flourishing of all people.

That's really our mission and our vision. But this desire for the greater church, or any given congregation, to have this sense of unity is increasingly countercultural in the community and the world that we live in. Examples of how deeply we are divided run along things like issues around race, politics, COVID response, and on and on. In fact, maybe some of you have read the recent Atlantic article titled, Why the Past 10 Years of American Life Have Been Uniquely Stupid, by author Jonathan Haidt. He says this, building a case that we are living in the new Babel.

He writes: We are disoriented, unable to speak the same language, or recognize the same truth. We are cut off from one another and from the past. Throughout the rest of his article, he essentially blames much of it on social media for these quickly growing divides we're seeing throughout our society and around the world. Regardless of what the cause is, we live in a deeply divided country right now.

It makes sense to me, and I would argue that it's even a good thing, that when we look at the broader church, there are deeply held differences within the different churches around the community. That's a good thing. However, when those differences map perfectly onto the differences and divides we see in the greater community, that should be a warning sign for us.

Unfortunately, in the last three years of the work I've been doing, that's very much what I see in Dane County. Over the past three years, I've had the chance to work with over 100 churches in Dane County, and I've heard numerous stories from different pastors, from different traditions and denominations, sharing the same heartache of the divisions they are experiencing within their congregations. Around issues like masking versus not masking, meeting in person versus meeting online, the vaccine and what we talk about around it, different political views and talking about it versus staying silent, racial reconciliation versus being silent on racial issues. And the list goes on.

The truth is, these are undoubtedly very important issues. But when I observe the disunity and infighting within the broader church, I ask myself this question: is there any hope for us to be united through all of this?

Jesus's prayer for unity

I think the beautiful thing is that the prayer of Jesus we just heard, found in John 17, offers a beautiful vision for the people of God to live out a different story. In that prayer, we observe that we as the people of God are both called and empowered to live in unity in the midst of a deeply divided world.

Let me offer a couple of observations about the context and literary form of this passage. John 17 is something I find very interesting. It's the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in the entire scriptures. It's often been described as the beloved chapter of the beloved gospel because of how succinctly it summarizes the heart and mission of Christ. There's so much packed into this one short prayer.

This prayer is also an example of a common literary form found in ancient Judaism, where a dying or departing leader offers their final words to those they love or those they are leading. One famous example of this is found in Deuteronomy chapters 32 and 33, where Moses stands before the nation of Israel shortly before his death and exhorts them to follow God. Here, Jesus is praying, and his earthly ministry is about to culminate in his death and resurrection. His time with his dear friends, his disciples, is quickly coming to an end.

As we hear these words, these are the words of a shepherd who deeply loves his sheep but is about to leave them. I love how missionary and author Leslie Newbigin describes John 17 in his book, The Light Has Come. He writes: When a man is going on a long journey, he will find time on the eve of his departure for a quiet walk with his family. And if he's a man of God, will end by commending to God not only himself and his journey, but also the family who he leaves behind. And very surely this will be so if his journey is the last journey.

This prayer in John 17 can be split into three parts. The first is Jesus talking to his Father. The second is praying for his disciples. And the final is praying for all future believers, which is us. That's us. We get this sneak peek into a prayer that's for us. So it's those verses that I want to look at more closely together.

I want to invite you to do something for a moment. I'm going to read part of that passage again, and I want you to close your eyes and listen to these words as a prayer for you, both individually and corporately in this room. Listen to these prayers of Jesus for you.

I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word. That's us. 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 love 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.

John 17:20-23, 24-26

Three observations about Jesus's unity

Let me offer three observations about this unity that Jesus is praying for. The unity that Jesus prays for, first of all, is unity that is centered on Christ. Secondly, it's a unity formed in love. And thirdly, it's unity that offers a powerful witness.

First, the unity that Jesus prays for is centered on God. I think we confuse this a lot in our broader culture. Unity cannot be a means to an end. What I mean by this is unity is not one of those things that you can arrive at by striving for unity. We try that a lot and generally end up mildly disappointed if not deeply disappointed. However, the way to achieve unity, the result happens when diverse community people come together around a shared purpose or person.

One of my favorite examples of unity was when I was growing up. I played a lot of soccer. From ages about 10 through my early 20s, soccer was my sport of choice. I played it year round, indoor and outdoor. One of my favorite things about it was the deep bond that happened between teammates. It became like family.

When I was in my early teens, I was part of the first ever competitive traveling soccer team in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, which might sound fancy, but it was not. Soccer in Eau Claire at the time was not particularly a soccer town. Football and basketball were everything. If you showed up to a soccer game, one of the most common cheers was, kick it hard. You achieved ultimate soccer success if you could just kick it far. It didn't matter which direction. They were just impressed if you kicked it far.

To highlight how great we were, we once played a team from England at a U-16 tournament and lost 20 to 0. In football score, that would be like 300 to 0, and in basketball, it's like roughly 1,000 to 0. We just got trashed. But despite being mediocre, we were like family. That reality of family was created from just hours and hours on the field together spending time. We felt like there was a oneness, a closeness. But as soon as that team disbanded a few years later, that sense of unity almost immediately disappeared.

My experience on this team is very similar to lots of other experiences when unity is built around a sports team or a neighborhood or a political platform or sometimes even like a church congregation. But the unity that Jesus is praying for is a unity of being in Christ. Here's the beautiful thing. This is a unity that is born out of our new identity in Christ. That means it becomes part of who we are. It's not temporary, nor is it dependent on our circumstances. In fact, this unity is as durable as the Trinity itself.

When the people of God, in all their diversity, live in unity with one another, we're actually living out the kingdom reality that will one day be fully realized when we stand from every tongue and nation before the throne of God as one.

Unity formed in love

Secondly, the unity Jesus prays for is formed by love. As you read through John 17, the more you read it, the more you sense Jesus' deep affection for his Father, for his disciples, and for all future believers. The invitation we find here is for us as individuals and as a community to abide in God's love for us and to then live out of that reality.

This past year, I was part of a program around spiritual formation, designed for people going into the second half of their careers in ministry. That's hard for me to say out loud, but that's me. During this experience we had a couple of retreats as well as monthly calls with a spiritual director. All of this was centered around this idea of abiding in Christ. For me, in my walk and journey, my experience of knowing God, this idea of abiding with Christ is one that, to be really honest with you, is fairly foreign. So this last year has been really challenging as well as really encouraging.

One of the practices that I have found particularly meaningful is this invitation to sit down in a quiet space and set an empty chair across from me. And then to imagine that Jesus is sitting in that chair. And then to continue to imagine what a conversation between myself and Jesus would look like. The first time I did this, I was like, this is weird. I hope nobody's watching. Then as I continued to do it, it became profoundly meaningful for me.

One of the things that I have heard over this last year as I've been practicing this is Jesus saying to me, I love you. You're mine. I love you, not because of anything you achieve or how you compare to others, but because you're mine. I love you because I love you. I hear that over and over.

This experience of God for me has reminded me that my value as a person does not come from my list of achievements, from what degrees I have or don't have, how I compare to the people around me, whether sitting next to me or my neighbors, or how big my bank account is, or how great my moral character is. I'm loved because I'm in him.

This kind of love offers me a deep sense of security and honestly, humility, because it's not about me. It's about Jesus. While I'm describing to you my personal experience over this last year, this is true for every person of God. You are loved, not because of how you compare to the person around you, not because of how you compare to the person who lives across the hall or across your workspace, not because of a list of accomplishments or your GPA, not because of your moral superiority or lack thereof. You are loved because you're in Christ, and that is enough.

As we, as the people of God, begin to experience this kind of love, we become rooted in God's love for us. In the togetherness of that, we grow in unity. The truth is, we are in Christ together.

Unity that offers a witness

Finally, the unity Jesus prays for offers a powerful witness. Jesus prays that we, the people of God, would reflect the very same level of unity that is in the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This is a profoundly countercultural way of living. This is saying that in the midst of our different skin tones, the languages we speak, the economic groups, political views, countries of origin, opinions about COVID, and a thousand other things in our culture that divide us, the people of God are one.

Paul writes this to the Galatians, chapter 3, verses 28 and 29.

There is neither Jew nor Greek, neither slave nor free. There is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.

Galatians 3:28-29

Our unity in Christ, when lived out in the midst of our many differences, and they are there, offers a compelling witness to a world that is deeply divided. Because our unity points to the very loving character of God. It becomes an expression of the good news of Jesus. Are you with me?

One of my favorite examples of this in recent history that happened here in our own area is the Psalm 46 Fund. In the spring of 2020, Reverend Marcus Allen at Mount Zion Baptist Church and Pastor Marcio Sierra from Lighthouse Church were connecting with each other and began sharing about what they were experiencing in life. It came up that both of them were receiving significantly more requests from within their congregation as well as the broader community for support with things like rent and food and a variety of other basic needs.

As they were talking, they decided, and they hadn't really worked all that much together in the past, to start the Psalm 46 Fund together. Their hope for that was that they would out of that fund do a better job of responding to some of these needs that were coming at them from the broader community. Their next step was they began to invite the broader church to join them in being united and serving some of the most vulnerable people in Dane County.

At the time, their goal was that it would be so cool if we could raise $50,000 to support those in need in our community. Neither of them was ready or had any idea what was going to happen next. Over the next just couple weeks, dozens of churches throughout Dane County united in their support for the Psalm 46 Fund. Over just several weeks, they raised over $500,000 that were donated back out into the community.

But not only was it an outpouring of generosity, it also was a beautiful moment of significant coordinated service where churches who had never worked together suddenly were creating bonds and new relationships and uniting around serving those in need around them. They were living out love your neighbor as we've been called to do.

I know from talking with both Pastor Sierra and Reverend Allen that this broad and united response from the greater church of Dane County led to countless conversations from community members, nonprofit leaders, city leadership, all around how the love of Christ had been expressed in tangible ways by the people of God. New relationships were born and strengthened within the broader church. When the people of God are one in the midst of their many differences, not trying to cover them up, but celebrate the reality that we are not the same, it offers a powerful witness to the loving character of God.

This Psalm 46 story is just a taste of what unity within the Madison church could look like.

Living in unity

I want to invite you for a moment to imagine with me what would happen if the people of God came together in complete unity, in love for each other, and in worship of God. Imagine what would happen. How would this community be transformed. Imagine the hope that this would offer to a deeply divided society.

Here's my hope for you. Hope for us, New Culture Church, that we might be united as one and that our unity would be centered around the person of Jesus. That together we would be transformed by God's love for us. As we live in unity with one another in the midst of our many differences, both here in this room as well as with our brothers and sisters in Christ all over the city, my prayer is that that would offer a beautiful witness to the very character of God in our community. I pray that this would be to God's glory.

Let me pray for us. God, we thank you that you are here with us right now in this room and in this space. You're with us wherever we go. God, help us to be a people who know that we are loved, not because of what we achieve or accomplish, not because of our character and how it compares to others, but because we are your kids and we're in you.

May that love deeply bind us and unite us and help us to express that same kind of love towards one another. May that be the unified, beautiful picture of your people living that out until one day that kingdom reality is fully realized when you return and make all things new. So give us the grace to offer glimpses of that reality now. In your name, amen.

Thank you so much. That was such a beautiful image of the kingdom of God and what that's going to look like and how we can do that here on earth, but like in our city. That's amazing.

We're going to wrap up service. Go to community on Tuesday. You've got two more chances until fall and we'll see you next Sunday. Bye guys.