“That They May Be One”

Seventh Sunday of Easter-May 4, 2008 - John 17: 1-11 - Pastor Deborah Birkeland

When I was a young girl living on a farm in northern MN, I carried many responsibilities. As the oldest of six, I needed to work hard both inside the house, and out in the barns and fields. When I wasn’t working, I was in charge of watching my younger siblings. So, it was rare for me to have time just for myself. One day, I discovered a way to “disappear” for a little while. It was about mid July, and the corn fields were high enough to be over my head. I slipped into a row of corn and counted about a dozen rows in until I was completely surrounded by corn and no one could see or find me. Then, I laid down on the warm soil and looked directly up into the sky. It was a beautiful day: blue sky, white fluffy clouds, sun beams shimmering and a slight breeze rustling through the corn making them sway like an ocean wave. In those moments, I sensed a hunger within me for a unity with my Creator, my Savior and Friend, Jesus....that I couldn’t seem to hang onto within the demands of everyday life. Even as a child, life had a way of hemming me in and life’s expectations kept time with Jesus at bay. Like an undernourished infant, I greedily drank in the unity and one-ness with God that I could find in this little escape into a field of corn. I found myself smiling and laughing as if Jesus were tickling me from above. It felt so wonderful to have God’s full attention...His tender, unconditional acceptance, and the unity of our hearts as if we were one. It was hard to leave that corn field that day and return to my chores. It still is.

Today our text takes us into an intimate prayer between Jesus and His Father in heaven. It was the night before his crucifixion and his chores were done. Jesus slipped into quiet time of prayer and shared his heart at one with the Father, and he asked for one essential thing for those beloved ones he would soon leave behind....unity. That “they” might be ONE as “we” are ONE.

There is a great hunger in our world today for escape into a place of unity with God. Whether its politics, the economy, health care, poverty, oppression or just day by day pressure to have that “American dream,” we all know that “unity” is a rare commodity among people, much less with God.

I am trying to finish reading a book for my book club written by Elizabeth Gilbert entitled eat, pray, love. It’s the travelogue commentary on a journey this young women took to Italy, India and Indonesia to find God after she left the unhappiness of her married life. I say, “trying to finish it,” because I experience it as a hedonistic, self-indulgent, new age approach to finding unity with God. It’s probably not fair to the book club group to share my thoughts about this book before we have had a chance to discuss it, but sometimes texts, sermons and current books just scream for response.

The author begins to pursue God in the sensual vanities of food while studying Italian. She surrenders to pleasure by diving into life and drinking of its cup of comfort. After several months, she goes to a temple in a remote part of India to practice Buddhist meditation and Hindu devotion. Struggling with her unruly mind which argues against the discipline of nothingness, she is promised a spectacular result if she just keeps chanting a mantra in a dark cave, and so, she keeps going until she finds what she thinks is the ultimate unity with God, and low and behold, it is herself! Taking pleasure and now devotion to the next step, she goes to Bali to seek out a medicine man. She sits at the feet of this modern day prophet who offers wisdom she will need to return to active living. Now this is where I can’t stomach much more of this book and so I turn to the last chapter to find out how this will all end.

Elizabeth is now on a tropical island with her new Brazilian lover. She has circled the world; settled her divorce, ended an addiction to another man that she left her marriage for in the first place; stopped using all mood-altering medications and feels she has found God within herself. She purchases a home to give to a needy family, and decides that she and her lover will live on this island for times of bliss while they each commute back and forth to her work in America and his businesses in Brazil, Bali and Australia. “I am happy, healthy and balanced,” she says and declares a solid truth...that she was not rescued by a “prince” after all, but was the administrator of her own rescue. (p. 329) She backs this up with a Zen Buddhist metaphor of an oak tree which is brought into creation by the force within the seed that wants so badly to exist that it evolved from nothingness to maturity by the sheer power of it’s own will.

Now I don’t know about your thoughts about this book, or the many others like it that are so popular today, but my theological guess is that Jesus would be outraged and saddened, but not surprised that “unity with God” is so easily distorted. His role as God’s only begotten Son; the true Messiah that has come into the world with a love that humbles itself onto a cross to show us the way, the truth and the light IS, and has always been, abandoned for the latest way to “feel good” and administrate our own salvation.

Lest you think this is only one example, let me site a book review done by Greg Boyd on his blog entry dated April 20, 2008. As senior pastor at Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Greg was hearing a “buzz” about Eckhart Tolle’s new book, A New Earth, which has become an overnight sensation thanks largely to Oprah Winfrey’s enthusiastic endorsement. Oprah is hosting a 10-week on-line course conducted by Tolle and over two million students are flocking to participate in this course. See: http://gregboyd.blogspot.com/

In his review, Boyd says this: “I have to say that I found nothing in this book that hasn’t been said many times before by others who espouse various forms of eastern spirituality...yet Tolle’s ability to package esoteric ideas in ways that Westerners can easily absorb explains his success as a communicator...I found some of his insights helpful, such as the futile ways the ego tries to give itself worth, and his judgments on the origin of violence and the causes of relational dysfunction...and I can even understand the “Ah-ha” moments of those who study this material....but, this is also why this book deeply concerns me. For while Tolle is a master at identifying the universal human problem, from a Christian perspective, his answers are as misguided as any human solution could ever be.”

Boyd addresses three falsehoods. First, the idea that God and love is an awakening of oneness in a world of duality...in other words, God is a FEELING experience, not a BELIEVING experience. Thus, God is not the subject and source of love, but a transcendent quality we can find within ourselves. There is no “other” to love...just ourselves. So rather than believe by faith and God’s Word in the presence of the triune God and the power of His Love; Tolle encourages people to become aware that they ARE God...their own divine “I am.” This is clearly the opposite of our Christian confession of faith.
 

Secondly, Tolle’s book offers a freedom from religious belief systems (such as the church) and claims we are entering a new age in which we will witness the end of these systems imposed upon us. Many today are buying this, and leaving Jesus’ church as irrelevant to embrace modern, free thinkers who tempt them to eat of this tree of knowledge and become like God themselves!

And finally, Boyd says, the greatest disregard is reserved for Jesus and his teachings. According to Tolle, Jesus, like the Buddha, was an “early flower” in the evolution of human consciousness. And, it wasn’t the early Christian apostles like Peter and Paul that had it right, but the Gnostics of the second century that tried to stop this worship of Jesus as divine. Gnostics promote human knowledge as equal to God, and are still very actively promoting that falsehood today. Tolle claims that when Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth and the light,” he was really speaking of the identity of every man and women as the great “I AM.” He also says that we need not worry about human death because it is only an illusion. We are God, and thus a life force that cannot die.The bottom line, says Boyd, is that Tolle and others don’t say up front that they are promoting a system of beliefs that contradict Christianity in the most profound ways imaginable. They skillfully undermine the gospel by claiming that Jesus and his Christian followers are misguided, and clinging to a set of religious dogmas. We are missing out on an exciting opportunity to become SELF AWARE.

Boyd ends his review by saying that he isn’t joining the ranks of those who are calling Oprah the new pastor of an internet “mega-church” cult. He even states that he thinks Oprah and Tolle mean well and are sincerely trying to help people improve their lives. But, he is concerned about the gullibility of many in our culture today that will readily accept this strongly anti-Christian belief system as it attempts to sneak in our back door. Now, I must tell you that I haven’t personally read this book by Tolle that Boyd is reviewing, but I agree with his assertion that anti-Christian beliefs are alive and well, and our culture is eating them up.

So, what does this mean for us today as we hear Jesus’ prayer for unity? For me, it means that modern day Christianity is entering yet another time when we are going to have to live an active faith that dares to witness to the truth in Jesus Christ. It’s hard to do! I, like most of us, run away from conflict, and find it hard to debate against belief systems that deny my Lord. They are slippery and even flattering of Jesus as a good man...BUT, not THE SAVIOR of the World. In every age, persecution of the faith has found a way to challenge Christian convictions and crucify the truth. Peter tells us not to be surprised at the roaring lions but discipline ourselves and keep alert!

So, where is the good news this morning? The good news is found in the promise that Jesus is praying for you and for me. He has not left us orphaned or unempowered. He asks the Father to provide for our protection IN THIS WORLD. On this Ascension Sunday, we remember that the disciples who followed Jesus up the mountain and wanted to stay there to drink in His glory, were sent back into the world that they might be His witnesses to Jerusalem, Samaria and all the ends of this earth. That is our calling too, my friends. We must leave our corn fields and trust the power of His Holy Spirit to place Jesus squarely in the center of all that is the truth, the light and the way. For we are “one” in Christ....NOT one within ourselves! Amen

GUIDED BY THE GOSPEL: GATHERING • GROWING • GIVING