John 12:20 - 26
When I was growing up, I was very
close to a cousin of mine. We were the same age. He lived on a farm
and I lived in the city. I was tall and geeky; he was short and less
geeky. He lived about 100 miles away so we didn't see each other
that often, but when we did, we had a great time. In addition to
jumping into mounds of hay or swimming in the pond or pretending we
were flying through space in the playhouse his dad had built, we
would often get into conversations about things like which car was
better. His dad had a relatively new Ford and mine had an
Oldsmobile. Though we knew nothing about cars, we still would argue
vigorously about which was best. My dad claimed to be a republican;
his father, being a farmer, was a democrat. So we argued about that,
even though we had no idea why. We even argued about fruit; whether
Delicious apples were better than Macintosh.
The point is, we were being very
natural. It's the very nature of animals to divide the world into us
vs. them, whether you are a hamster or a human being. And you always
look upon them with suspicion, because you don't know them and they
could hurt you. And taken to extremes, the only way you can feel
comfortable is for them to become us, or for them to be eliminated.
You can see this going on on college campuses, where the students
rise up in protest when a politically incorrect speaker is invited.
You see it when the legislature of California passes a bill giving a
tax break to production companies in states where abortion is limited
to encourage them to relocate to California. You see it in our
politics when Joe Biden is condemned by other members of his party
because he's taken a moderate position on climate change. Us vs.
them is wired into our DNA.
Jesus today asks the Father that all
may be one, as he and the Father are one. There are two ways of
being one. In China, using cell phones and artificial intelligence,
the state has defined the right way to think, and if you deviate, you
have privileges taken away from you. It isn't just in China, either.
If you think that access to abortion should be restricted in any
way, you would not be welcomed in the Democratic party. If you think
that the world should take climate change seriously and do something
about it, you probably wouldn't be welcomed in the Republican party.
One way to bring about unity is to insist that everyone think the
same way. Us has to eliminate them.
Jesus gives us an alternative to this
oneness he prays for. He talks about glory. I looked up glory in
the dictionary and there are at least four meanings as nouns and two
as verbs. That poor word has to work pretty hard. But Jesus had a
much more specific meaning in mind. In Hebrew, the word is “kavod”,
which means “heavy” and eventually came to mean a place where you
could find God. And in the passage we've read from John, Jesus talks
about the glory the Father gives him, and the glory which he gives
his disciples. In other words, followers of Jesus have the presence
of God in them. Now think about how that brings about unity. If I
look at you and realize that God is present in you, I am not going to
get into an us vs. them situation. After all, the most important
thing about you and I is that we are both places where God dwells.
And God is one, so you and I are one. If I understand that in you is
the very presence of God, my reaction is not going to be to figure
out how to make you think like me, nor will I want to eliminate you;
I will fall down in worship, at least figuratively. I will want to
serve you; I will hold you in greatest respect, I will revere you,
because you are a tabernacle of the almighty, as I am. And I will
see that there is no us vs them, only us. The union between us, a
union of love because God is love, is so much stronger than any
trivial differences that divide us. If I see your glory, and you see
mine, we are one, just as Jesus and the Father are one.
This is the basis of Jesus' prayer for
his followers to be one. We've missed the point a lot. We
Christians have been so hung up on differences that we've forgotten
to look for the glory in each other. Are the differences important?
Of course. But not as important as the glory that lives in us. And
maybe not just Christians. In the passage we've read Jesus is
talking about his disciples, but he wants this unity not just because
it's nice and if we had it we'd all get along, but as he clearly
states, “so that the world will know that you have sent me and have
loved them even as you have loved me.” Jesus doesn't want a
theoretical unity that can't be appreciated by outsiders; he wants a
unity that will be obvious, that will convince the world that God
loves you and I, his followers, his disciples. Because God's plan,
Jesus' very purpose in becoming man, is to bring about the kingdom of
heaven on earth, which we pray or every day when we say, “Thy
kingdom come”. And the very nature of that kingdom is that it will
be so attractive that everyone who sees it will want to become part
of it. And it all begins with recognizing the divine spark in the
other, and in ourselves, and seeing that this is what makes us one,
this is what motivates us; this is the opposite of us vs them, this
is just us, an us made up of you and I and Jesus and the Father.
When we live this out, we are fulfilling Jesus' prayer at the end of
his life, when he could have asked for anything, but asked only for
unity among his followers, based upon the presence of God within
them, which he gives us – through the Eucharist, through the Word,
through the assembly of brothers and sisters who are his disciples.
So on this seventh Sunday of the
Easter Season, let us resolve that the next time we find ourselves on
one side and someone else on the other; the next time we find
ourselves in an us vs them situation, we pause for a moment and look
for the divine presence, the kavod, the glory that is there; the same
glory that I possess, and when we see this what should be do next,
knowing this?
Some of you probably remember Antonin
Scalia, the supreme court justice who was known as a conservative
strict constructionist; he was also an ardent Catholic, who went to
the sacrament of penance at least once a month. His best friend on
the Supreme court was Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, who was about as
different in her judicial philosophy as she could possibly be. But I
suspect they recognized the divine spark in each other, and that was
more important than anything else.
