Scripture reading: 1 John 5:1-6.

Sermon text: John 15:9-17.

When historians examine the battles that led to the Union victory in the Civil War, one engagement often goes overlooked. Most Civil War enthusiasts recognize names such as “Shiloh”, “Memphis,” and “Corinth.” However, none of those Union victories would have happened without the fall of Fort Donelson in February 1862.

Fort Donelson controlled the entry point from Kentucky to Tennessee on the Cumberland River. Its sister fort, Fort Henry on the Tennessee River, had fallen early in the month, leaving only Fort Donelson between an army commanded by an unknown Union general named Ulysses S. Grant and the heart of Tennessee.

Confederate General Albert Johnston rushed 12,000 reinforcements to the fort, but he also sent 3 generals. In hindsight, this proved a bad idea. Grant besieged the fort. On February 15, the Confederates managed to defeat Grant’s army, but the divided leadership prevented the  Confederate army from pressing their advantage. Grant held on.

By the end of the month, everyone in the Southern fort knew defeat was inevitable. However, none of the generals wanted to surrender. Finally, Brigadier General Simon Buckner received command and tried to negotiate with Grant, an old friend from before the war. Grant responded with a terse message: “No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon your works.” “Unconditional Surrender” Grant became a hero because of a divided command. He would later become the nation’s 18th president.

When we look at the state of the Church today, we cannot help but notice the division within our ranks. The United States alone is home to several thousand different denominations. Even within our own denomination, the Southern Baptist Convention, groups determined to enforce their own brand of doctrinal conformity continually threaten our unity. Their unwillingness to accept diversity over issues nonessential to our faith has already led to the founding of a new denomination (the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship) in my lifetime.

I can’t help but wonder how so many people in the Church can insist on divisions when Jesus Christ, the Son of God and our Lord, so clearly prayed for our unity. In the longest prayer recorded by Jesus in Scripture, St. John recorded the final prayer Jesus would pray for His people, both the disciples and those who would succeed them in carrying out the mission of the gospel. Jesus’ final prayer before His Passion included every believer in time since the Day of Pentecost. He prayed for our unity. How will we respond to the clear desire of Our Lord?

After the final teachings Jesus would give the men with whom He had spent the final years of His life, Jesus “lifted up his eyes to heaven” for a prayer on behalf of His disciples. Jesus began by saying, “Father, the hour has come; glorify your Son that the Son may glorify you, 2 since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him.” Jesus knew the time for His death had arrived. His entire life had led to this point, to the sacrifice of His life for our salvation. His crucifixion and resurrection would provide “eternal life” for those God “had given Him.”

Whom had God given to Jesus? Jesus had already reminded the disciples that He had chosen them for the mission of telling the world about His life and teachings. Jesus gave them the responsibility for telling a dying world about His life and about the way to life. “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom you have sent.” Everyone who “knows” Jesus will receive eternal life, life that will never end. The word Jesus used for “know,” when used in the Johannine writings, refers to a personal fellowship with God that transcends merely knowing about Him.

Jesus reminded the Father that He had “glorified” Him on earth by fulfilling His mission. Jesus had glorified God the Father by proclaiming His name in conjunction with the works He, Jesus, had done. Jesus, God’s Son, constantly pointed people to God the Father in all He taught and did in His life on earth.

Jesus then prayed that the Father would glorify Him “in your own presence with the glory that I had with you before the world existed.” Christianity has always taught that Jesus the Son eternally existed with God the Father. St. John, referring to Jesus, stated at the beginning of His Gospel, “All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made” (John 1:3). Like God the Father, Jesus has no beginning and no end; He is eternal.

Unfortunately, Jesus’ glorification would not come easily. God glorified Jesus, but only through crucifixion and death.

Jesus “manifested” God’s name to those He had received in His life on earth. Jesus had told them of God the Father; He had told them of God’s true nature: His love for His Son, His love for His creation, and His desire that none would perish but that all would come to eternal life (2 Peter 3:9).

While Jesus had constantly shown His care for everyone He met in His life, His prayer on this night concerned “those whom you have given me, for they are yours.” What did Jesus ask of His Father on behalf of them He had received from Him? “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.”

Tomorrow, we will celebrate Memorial Day in the United States, a day on which we remember those who have given their lives to preserve our nation. It is fitting for us to ponder on a key reason for American success in wars: The fact that our armed forces excel in bringing Americans from all races, from all economic groups, from all regions, and uniting them into units that help them exploit their unique strengths while compensating for their individual weaknesses.

Jesus did the same with His disciples. Look at the group Jesus assembled: Four fishermen, one tax collector, a thief, and a Zealot must have made for some interesting conversations, even without considering the other disciples in the mix! Yet, their diversity helped them reach out to Jews from every nation at Pentecost. When someone like impetuous St. Peter needed calming, he could rely on someone else in the group to bring peace to the situation. When St. Thomas, ever the skeptical one, needed convincing, someone in the group could help him see beyond his senses and rely on faith to accomplish the tasks God called him to do. (See this sermon for more information about St. Thomas.)

When I read this chapter, I see a common thread in Jesus’ prayer: “that they may be one, even as we are one.”  Look at Jesus prayer. Jesus told the disciples He had given them God’s word; every word Jesus taught the disciples came from God the Father. Jesus prayed for God to “keep them from the evil one” instead of taking them “out of the world.” Jesus prayed that the Father would “sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.” Everything else in this prayer revolves around Jesus’ desire for unity among His believers in the Church.

Jesus wanted the same for those who would “believe in me through their word.” This prayer includes us today, here in the sanctuary of God. He prayed “That they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you.” When we accomplish this unity, we will fulfill the mission Jesus left for the disciples: “that the world may believe that you have sent me.” When we demonstrate unity before the world, the people to whom we minister will believe that God sent Jesus in to the world for the salvation of humanity.

Jesus knew what it would take to convince the world of the truth of His sacrificial death and victory over sin in the resurrection. Earlier in His ministry, Jesus had stated, “Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand” (Matthew 12:25). Abraham Lincoln would later use this quote to explain why he chose to reunite the United States, even by force. History has confirmed the wisdom of his choice as our nation has stood far stronger together than either nation could have accomplished separately.

What about us today?

In the Church, unity must begin with our unity with God Himself. We cannot unite with one another until we confess Jesus as Lord, believing in His resurrection (Romans 10:9-10). Upon our spiritual birth resulting from our confession of Jesus as Lord, we find ourselves joined to Christ through the Holy Spirit, who directs us and guides us in life.

Then, we find ourselves joined to others who have confessed Jesus as Lord in a congregation of believers. Unity must exist among the congregation as well. Every human organization has only so much energy to expend. We can expend our energy either in disagreement with one another or by reaching out to our families and communities, first by loving each other as Jesus called His people to do.

I believe this unity goes beyond the congregation. Few congregations can achieve a reach beyond their communities on their own. As much as I see wrong in the SBC, I still believe that our Cooperative Program — in which all Southern Baptists contribute to missions efforts on the local, state, national, and international levels — ranks as one of the greatest accomplishments of our denomination.

However, I also believe this unity should express itself in more concrete ways on the local level. I may disagree with other denominations in worship style, mode of baptism, or other issues, but as long as those denominations hold to the basic teachings of the Church as expressed in the Apostles and Nicene Creeds, I can join them in reaching our society with the gospel of Jesus Christ, the eternal Son of God.

Jesus’ greatest wish, expressed in the longest prayer recorded in the Gospels, revolved around our unity. Will we join together, love each other as He called us to do, and demonstrate our unity to a world desperately in need of the salvation of their souls? Will we fulfill the greatest wish of the One who died for our sins and rose from the dead for our victory over death? The world needs our message, a message that succeeds when they witness our unity with God and with one another.

Source of Civil War material: “American Military History Army Historical Series, Chapter 10: The Civil War, 1862”, http://www.history.army.mil/books/AMH/AMH-10.htm.