“I have revealed you to those whom you gave me
out of the world. They were yours; you gave them to me and they have obeyed
your word. Now they know that everything you have given me comes from you. For
I gave them the words you gave me and they accepted them. They knew with
certainty that I came from you, and they believed that you sent me. I pray for
them. I am not praying for the world, but for those you have given me, for they
are yours. All I have is yours, and all you have is mine. And glory has come to
me through them. I will remain in the world no longer, but they are still in
the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them by the power of
your name—the name you gave me—so that they may be one as we are one.” (John 17:6-11)
What a goal! To be one as Jesus and the
Father are one. The Trinity as One. I think I can understand the Father, the
Son and the Spirit as one. I think I can understand them as three. I can’t
understand them as both one and three. (Yes, I’ve read discussions on the
matter, and I understand what the discussions are saying, but that’s not quite
the same thing as understanding the reality.)
Of the two, I think I an understand them more as One. They are all God.
Here Jesus is calling for His children to be one as the Trinity is one. The goal is for us all to function as a single body. For the sake of simplicity, let’s take this down to one group of Christians who choose to meet in a particular building at a particular time; in the vernacular, a church. The number involved doesn’t really matter. How does that number be one as the Trinity is One?
My first challenge here is the opposite of my challenge with the Godhead. I can’t get my mind around all those bodies, all those persons, being one entity. Unless a hive-mind, or the Borg are involved, physically separated entities with different life experiences just don’t function as one. In fact, that very hive-mindedness or Borg-assimilatedness terrifies me. I detest the idea of collectivism because it always ends up demanding that I check my brain at the door. It isn’t that I think my brain is more special or superior to anyone else’s, but it’s mine. I value it highly and I believe it has something to contribute. To tell me to make it sit down, shut up, and submit to the demands of the group-mind is to hate me.
I suspect that this sense of otherness is what led to the separation between God and man in the first place. Everything was so good. But God was better, oh, so much better. He knew more, could do more… how could it be wrong to want to be more like Him? And then someone offered us the chance. We would have been fools to pass it up, right? Except, to be more like Him, we had to separate from Him… just a little bit, just a little bite… and the oneness we had was gone. It wasn’t magic, it was just a natural consequence of stepping away thinking that we were stepping closer.
That separation also pushed us apart from one another. We could no longer look at alternatives and choose the best, because one of the option was now “mine” and to reject it was to reject me (Oh… do I hear an echo? Uh oh.) So now, instead of defending our ideas, we attack one another.
You’re crazy
You’re evil
You shouldn’t be allowed to procreate or be near children
YOU are so divisive! (Subtext: “Because you don’t agree with me!”)
I don’t go to church because they don’t love one another the way they’re supposed to. They’re all a bunch of hypocrites!
We need to have music that will draw in those who are outside of the church (subtext: “Because those already inside don’t matter as much because they’re already here, safe and sound.)
We need to have music that meets the needs of the congregation that is already here, not music that is like the world. (Subtext: “Because the world doesn’t matter.”)
What’s wrong with you? You don’t ________________! (Or You do ______________!)
How can we be one without checking our brains at the door, without all having the exact same life experiences and perspectives on every single point. (Yikes! Boring!)
The answer is love, but it’s not a love that says, “You can do anything you want, anywhere you want, any time you want, with whomever you want as long as you don’t think anyone is getting hurt.” That’s one of the world’s sorts of love. We need a sort of love that can agree to disagree when it’s a matter of opinion, and that will focus on the point of disagreement (and not on the persons disagreeing) until there is an agreement first with God, and then with one another, when it’s a matter of principle. That doesn’t ask anyone to check their brains at the door. It asks them to bring their best brains to the table.
Here Jesus is calling for His children to be one as the Trinity is one. The goal is for us all to function as a single body. For the sake of simplicity, let’s take this down to one group of Christians who choose to meet in a particular building at a particular time; in the vernacular, a church. The number involved doesn’t really matter. How does that number be one as the Trinity is One?
My first challenge here is the opposite of my challenge with the Godhead. I can’t get my mind around all those bodies, all those persons, being one entity. Unless a hive-mind, or the Borg are involved, physically separated entities with different life experiences just don’t function as one. In fact, that very hive-mindedness or Borg-assimilatedness terrifies me. I detest the idea of collectivism because it always ends up demanding that I check my brain at the door. It isn’t that I think my brain is more special or superior to anyone else’s, but it’s mine. I value it highly and I believe it has something to contribute. To tell me to make it sit down, shut up, and submit to the demands of the group-mind is to hate me.
I suspect that this sense of otherness is what led to the separation between God and man in the first place. Everything was so good. But God was better, oh, so much better. He knew more, could do more… how could it be wrong to want to be more like Him? And then someone offered us the chance. We would have been fools to pass it up, right? Except, to be more like Him, we had to separate from Him… just a little bit, just a little bite… and the oneness we had was gone. It wasn’t magic, it was just a natural consequence of stepping away thinking that we were stepping closer.
That separation also pushed us apart from one another. We could no longer look at alternatives and choose the best, because one of the option was now “mine” and to reject it was to reject me (Oh… do I hear an echo? Uh oh.) So now, instead of defending our ideas, we attack one another.
You’re crazy
You’re evil
You shouldn’t be allowed to procreate or be near children
YOU are so divisive! (Subtext: “Because you don’t agree with me!”)
I don’t go to church because they don’t love one another the way they’re supposed to. They’re all a bunch of hypocrites!
We need to have music that will draw in those who are outside of the church (subtext: “Because those already inside don’t matter as much because they’re already here, safe and sound.)
We need to have music that meets the needs of the congregation that is already here, not music that is like the world. (Subtext: “Because the world doesn’t matter.”)
What’s wrong with you? You don’t ________________! (Or You do ______________!)
How can we be one without checking our brains at the door, without all having the exact same life experiences and perspectives on every single point. (Yikes! Boring!)
The answer is love, but it’s not a love that says, “You can do anything you want, anywhere you want, any time you want, with whomever you want as long as you don’t think anyone is getting hurt.” That’s one of the world’s sorts of love. We need a sort of love that can agree to disagree when it’s a matter of opinion, and that will focus on the point of disagreement (and not on the persons disagreeing) until there is an agreement first with God, and then with one another, when it’s a matter of principle. That doesn’t ask anyone to check their brains at the door. It asks them to bring their best brains to the table.
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