"That They May All Be One"

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

“I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us.” Jesus prays this, as part of His High Priestly Prayer on Holy Thursday.

He prays for the Church, and He prays for you. Jesus prays for those who believe through the apostolic Word, by the work of the Holy Spirit. He prays for you, each of you individually, and all of you corporately, as the members of His Body. This prayer, which our Lord prayed on the night in which He was betrayed, is for you. He prayed this for you, as He gave His disciples His own Body and Blood, which He still gives to you to make you one with Him.

When you consider the past two millennia and some of church history, it is an amazing feat the the one holy catholic and apostolic Church still exists.

What began as a roomful of believers converted at Pentecost, then mushroomed out by the thousands, and swept the world – that same thing is still happening to this day. Nations and empires have risen and fallen. Great cultures have reached their zenith, and then fallen from grace and power. Antagonists of all kinds – Islam, communism, atheist, rationalism, agnosticism – have risen up against the Gospel and the Church. The devil has infiltrated with myriad enemies grown up within the Church on earth also – heretics, egomaniacs, corrupt and evil clergy, and faithless laypersons. Yet the Church remains.

And yet, despite all this, the Church continues in every age. Like the dandelions every spring, or the weeds in your garden, the Church keeps springing up here and there and everywhere. Like the Energizer bunny, she just keeps on going and going and going. Sure, the Church on earth is not perfectly strong and vibrant everywhere all at once. Sometimes, the Word falls upon good soil, takes deep root, and bears abundant fruit. Other times, in other places, the Word falls upon hard paths and is pecked away, or explodes in growth, then fizzles in the noonday sun.

Martin Luther called the Gospel a “local rain” that showers for awhile in one place, then moves on to another. All around our land, and in the homeland of the Reformation, church buildings stand empty. The institutions of bygone years show their age and fatigue. And at the same time, the Church is giving new birth to multitudes in other lands. The center of the Church is no longer in Europe or North America, but in Africa and South America. There are more Lutherans in Madagascar than in the United States today.

And through it all, as the Church ebbs and flows throughout the world, she remains one holy catholic and apostolic Church. For the Church of God is one, because she has one Lord Jesus Christ, one faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of us all.

You have witnessed the birth of new believers through the joyous Sacrament of Holy Baptism. In your presence, in the midst of this congregation on numerous occasions, our heavenly Father has marked more children as His own, and has joined them to you His people. This is the joy of the Church; this is how the Church grows. The Church is the mother of the people of God, giving birth to Christians through water and the Word. The Church does not grow through gimmicks or programs, but through the new birth of water and the Spirit, as people are added to the number of the faithful whose names are recorded in the Lamb's Book of Life.

The Church is not your doing. You comprise her, but you do not construct her. The Church is not of your doing, nor is her unity, nor is her glory. These things are the Lord's doing. He purchased and won the Church as His bride not with gold or silver, but with His holy, precious body and blood, and with His innocent suffering and death. The Church is built on the confession that Jesus Christ is her head and her Lord, and the gates of hell will not prevail against the Church, because they did not prevail against her Lord.

But this does not mean that every single congregation in every place and time is bullet-proof. Sometimes growth in one part of the Church is accompanied by loss in another area. The Church is living, breathing, and active – not static or unchanging. Sometimes assemblies fade away, just as others are given birth. The Holy Spirit works through the Word, when and where it pleases Him. Seek the Lord while He may be found, where He may be found.

The glory of the Church is that she is one in her Lord Jesus Christ. The radiance and light that she displays to the world is not her own, but is draped upon her by her Bridegroom. You, the Church, are bedecked with royal jewels and festal robes. You are bathed in the waters of the river of life which flow from the throne of God. You are covered in the blood of Christ, shed to cover your sins. You are fed with the food of immortality which your Lord gives.

You are knit together as the one Body of Christ because you are in Christ. As He clothes His bride in royal robes and calls her to Himself, so He prays for her. He prays for you, His own members. He prays for you, personally. He prays that you would all be one in another, because you are all one in Him. He who is your resurrection and your life is also your life together with all the saints who are knit into one glorious body.

Jesus prays for you, but not just for you. He prays for all who believe through the preaching of the apostolic Word and the giving of the Heavenly Gifts.

However, take note – Jesus does not pray for you for your own sake. Jesus prays for the Church, that you may all be one, so “that the world may believe that You have sent Me.” The Church exists for the benefit and blessing of the world in which she lives. The Church exists for the life of the world. After all, it is from the midst of the Church that the life of Christ flows into the world, because this is where He gives His gifts. This is where the Gospel is preached and sins are forgiven.

This is one place where churchly institutions go wrong. Churches become institutionalized. It is a human phenomenon – to create sociological organisms, to fix ways and means and patterns and plans. Which is not necessarily wrong. The Church is made up of human beings. But the problem comes when the Church becomes an ivory tower, some sort of refuge from reality – when the Church becomes an “us” vs “them” matter. Jesus' desire and prayer is that the Church be a place where dividing walls of hostility be broken down, that all be united to Him and to one another.

The glory of God is that God is Man, and now a man reigns on the throne of heaven. Jesus wants you to share in His glory. That is why He died for you. He died, in order that He might be glorified in death as the God who gives Himself for the sake of His creation. He is the God who is not locked away, unfeeling and unloving toward His people. Rather, He is the God who shed His own body and blood for the forgiveness of your sins. He is the God who has covered you with His blood, and washed you with the waters of life, that you may be clean and pure in heart and soul.

You share in the glory of God as a baptized child of God. Things may not look very glorious and glittering right now, because the visible Church is tarnished by sin, but our Bridegroom sees the heart of His Bride, and He loves you dearly.

In the midst of this world, it is difficult to see how the Church is one throughout time and space. Divisions exist between denominations and church bodies. Factions grow up within so-called fellowships and synods. Cliques develop in congregations. The Church on earth is divided by geography, demographics, languages, and confession. Sin seems rampant at every level and locale of the Church.

But all this is a reminder of the glorious work of our Savior. Jesus has died to make you all one in His death and resurrection. He has knit you all together into His one body, which is not merely here in this time and place, but stretches throughout time and space. He prays for you, that you may all be one, and that you all may be gathered into His kingdom, here on earth and around His throne in heaven.

We see now as through a glass dimly. Now we see the Church through sinful eyes – divided, broken, dying in some places, weak. But in future, we will see as we ought, through the eyes of our Lord. Then, you will see all the multitudes of the nations who make up the one holy Church, the glorious Bride of the Lamb.

Until then, the Spirit and the Church say, “Come”, inviting all to drink freely of the Spirit-filled water of life that flows from the Son and the Father. Come to the waters and be refreshed. Come and be renewed by Him who makes all things new.

Jesus prays for the Church, and He prays for you. And you are held safely in that prayer forever. And you shall ever be one, surrounded by the great cloud of witnesses.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.

Christ is Risen! Alleluia!