Latest / Padre Alberto (Father Albert) / MAY THEY BE ONE (JOHN 17:20-26)

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MAY THEY BE ONE (JOHN 17:20-26) · Padre Alberto (Father Albert)

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  You know, fingerprints have long been recognized as one of the
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  most effective forms of personal identification.
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  And it goes far back, as far back as the reign of the
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  Babylonian king Hammurabi, 1792 to 7/17/50 before Christ, 1800
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  years before Christ, convicts were fingerprinted in China.
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  As early as 246 BC, fingerprints were used to sign legal
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  contracts. So it was given as much weight
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  As for more than a signature more, you know, closer to our
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  times. In 1788, a German anatomist,
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  Johann Christophe Andreas Mayer, published findings which proved
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  that fingerprints are unique to each individual.
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  And the idea caught on so fast that by the mid 19th century,
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  databanks of fingerprints were being collected all over the
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  world for identification purposes.
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  Fingerprint. Now, as we know today,
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  microprocessors race and run and breakneck speed through millions
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  of fingerprints in order to catch the bad guys or to
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  exonerate good guys. With science now we have
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  discovered, and that's relatively new the past couple
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  of decades, DNA. Our DNA is our own.
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  Nobody else has our DNA. Each cell of our body is
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  genetically coded just for us. In other words, God, my friends,
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  God made us each very unique, even though we're totally
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  different in so many ways. Yet we're called to be 1.
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  You heard Jesus today in the Gospel, Father, may they be one,
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  as you are one. Unity is not uniformity.
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  Yet we're called to unity, to this oneness as followers of
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  Jesus Christ, the body of Christ.
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  God didn't clone Christians. He even He didn't make a
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  franchise of Christianity. Some try, but that's not a
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  franchise. There isn't a monotone mission
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  in Christianity. Each and every follower of Jesus
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  Christ responds to a call, and we're all called to follow the
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  way of Jesus. That's the oneness Jesus speaks
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  about. And I find this gospel so
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  timely. Here we are at the end of the
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  Easter season next week when we gather Pentecost begins.
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  And it's funny that this is the year of what they call Nicaea
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  2025, that creed that we say every Sunday, that creed that
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  we're about to say is 1700 years old.
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  It's been around for a while, huh?
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  And the reason that creed is so significant is because the early
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  church was dealing with heresies and a bunch of different
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  conceptions that were not biblical and certainly not part
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  of the Christian tradition about who Jesus was.
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  And through the Council of Nicaea and through this creed
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  that we say every week at service, that creed Nicaea,
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  which was composed in 325, was composed by bishops and leaders
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  all over the church from all over the world.
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  That's why it's such a big deal. The World Council of Churches,
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  with gathers leaders from all different branches of
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  Christianity and communities, brings everyone together for
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  work, is hosting this year's big conference in Turkey, not far
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  from the original place where Nicaea took place.
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  And I say this because, you know, we look at ourselves and I
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  was talking about the fingerprint and the DNA.
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  Christianity has a variety of factions.
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  We're one religion, the Christian religion, you know,
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  Judaism and Islam also has factions.
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  As you know, we know that from watching the news.
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  But as Christians, we're separated in East and West
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  Eastern churches, the Western churches, we call them usually
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  the Orthodox churches, or in the East, the Catholic tradition and
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  the Catholic Reformed tradition in the West.
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  And then we talk about Roman Catholics and Catholics that are
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  not Roman. And when you look at all of
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  that, you realize that it's a historical development of the
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  body of Christ. As Anglicans, we have our unique
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  DNA in the body of Christ. As Episcopalians in the US, we
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  have our unique DNA in the body of Christ.
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  But you know, it's funny. Saint Benedict's has its own DNA
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  in the body of Christ. Because this is one of the few
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  Episcopal churches you'll see people raising their hands in
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  prayer. It happens in other churches,
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  but rarely. We hold hands, we do different
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  things. But I want everyone in this
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  church to know that part of being part of Saint Benedict's
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  is knowing you're not obliged to do anything.
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  You like to raise your hands? Raise your hands.
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  You don't like to raise them. You don't have to.
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  You want to fold your hands, you can fold your hands.
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  You want to kneel, You want to stand, You want to do whatever
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  you want. I always laugh when friends come
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  from other churches and they join our churches.
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  They say, when are we supposed to do it?
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  When you want, honey, whenever, whenever you want.
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  They're like, I'm not used to that.
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  In other words, in the Anglican DNA, we are OK with ambiguity.
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  Everything isn't doctrinally and dogmatically defined.
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  We have the creeds, we have the scripture, we have the historic
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  episcopate, we've got the great tradition.
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  We have all those things. But everything doesn't have to
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  be perfectly defined. I often tell friends when they
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  say to me, well, what does the Episcopal Church think about?
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  I say, well, you know, there's 85,000,000 Anglicans in the
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  world and there's probably 85,000,000 opinions.
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  And I say this because when Jesus says this prayer for his
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  disciples about unity, oneness, he's not necessarily telling
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  them they have to agree on everything, have the same
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  personality, have the same expressions, not even the same
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  spirituality. Within the body of Christ,
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  there's so many spiritualities, right?
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  The truth is, it's unity of mind and heart.
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  It's to be one in Jesus that we're called to be.
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  And that's what's hardest for us to understand, because the fact
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  is we are one in the mission of the Gospel.
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  We're one in spreading good news.
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  I have a practice that I carry out somewhat frequently.
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  I get together for lunch with an Orthodox priest, a Roman
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  Catholic priest, a Baptist pastor, I think 1 is a Lutheran.
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  And we get together on occasion and we talk and we have a meal
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  and usually it's lunch. And rarely does theology come up
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  or doctrine or differences. Most of the time what comes up
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  when we talk about God and spiritualities?
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  How do we bring people back to the church?
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  How do we bring people back to worship?
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  How do we bring people back to God?
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  That's usually what we talk about regardless of tradition.
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  And I believe the reason that happens is because we realize
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  that our mission is 1. We may be in different rooms of
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  the house, but we're in the same house and we're trying to live
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  and to build up the body of Christ and try to live God's
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  way. That's a challenge that we must
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  never give up on, bringing Jesus to this world when they did it
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  in 325. Imagine 325.
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  Remember, the Edict of Milan took place in 313 AD.
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  What is the Edict of Milan? It's the moment where
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  Christianity became legal. We were a bunch of illegals for
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  the 1st 313 years. Christianity was outlawed.
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  That's why they worshipped on their ground.
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  That's why they were scared. That's why there was fear.
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  Constantine converts where his mother pushed him into the
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  baptismal fund. That Lady was tough.
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  And 313, the Edict of Milan, all of a sudden most of the Roman
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  Empire has an official language and it's Christianity or
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  official religion and it's Christianity.
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  What happens with that? It transformed the world.
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  So in 325, you have to define these things, and that's how we
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  ended up with that creed. So we believe in the one, holy,
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  Catholic and Apostolic Church. We're saying we believe in the
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  Church of the apostles. We believe in the church that
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  Jesus and his closest friends brought together in faith.
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  And we may live in different parts of that body, but we're
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  part of that body. Think about how many people in
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  this world today, in 2025, with the Internet, with social media,
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  with all the access we have to information, still don't know
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  Jesus, still don't know the Gospel, Lots of people.
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  So my friends, when Jesus says, may they be 1, he is calling us
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  to understand the oneness of mind and heart that we have to
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  have with Jesus himself. The challenge for us as
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  Christians that the unique challenge in our DNA as
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  Episcopalians and as members of the Anglican community is that
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  we're the ones that are called particularly to be bridge
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  builders. We are not intimidated or in any
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  way separated from anyone within the body of Christ.
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  We seek to build bridges with the body of Christ.
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  That's part of who we are, That's part of our identity.
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  Don't forget that. And that is part of the
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  ecumenical spirit that an Anglican has in his DNAI ask you
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  to please think about unity as more than uniformity, more than
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  a geographical location, more than whether you follow this one
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  or that one or the other one. Think of the unity as followers
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  of Jesus Christ, union with Christ in mind and heart.
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  That's what we're called to in the name of the Father and of
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  the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.