Better Together: a Missional Value of Trinity Covenant Church ~ Psalm 133; John 17:20-23

 

Ø Better together, we seek to cross barriers, celebrate diversity, and practice unity (Psalm 133; John 17:20-23).

In Psalm 133, full harmony, the love of family, seem so challenging, so elusive, that the Psalmist turns to poetic similes in order to describe them. However, despite this challenge, both similes emphasize the surprising, gracious abundance that fuels and fills this vision of togetherness. First, unity is like oil, we’re told. It is not just any oil, but precious and holy oil. The Hebrew word for “precious” is the same word translated as “good” in verse one and the same word for “good” used repeatedly in Genesis 1, hearkening to the purposes of God in creation. The oil also referenced the work of the priests on behalf of the people – connecting them to God, praying for them, offering forgiveness to them.

We are not talking here about the little dab of oil on the finger of a pastor making the sign of the cross on the forehead of someone sick or someone being baptized. No, this anointing is extravagant and poured out on all of us. There is so much oil used that it runs down over the beard, down to the hem of Aaron’s robe (the word “collar” can also mean “hem”). That is a lot of oil. It’s extravagant. Messy? Probably. Unity between divided people always is! Generosity always is!

But oil is not the only thing running down. The second simile heightens and expands it by likening unity to the seemingly miniscule dew that runs down from Mt. Hermon in order to quench the thirsty land. Extravagantly, once again, the dew runs down from Mt. Hermon, the highest peak, all the way to Jerusalem. That’s approximately 200 miles (8 days walking with rest). The poetic linking of dew from Mt. Hermon reaching Mt. Zion means that for Israel, no distance is too far, no little spritz of water too insignificant.

The abundant and extravagant movement outward, is not to be missed. Unity is on the move in two ways. First, this is a song of ascent depicting people on the move going up to the temple to praise God. Second, while the people go up, God’s gifts pour down. The words describing the path of oil and water highlight descending movement. “Running down” in verse 2 and “falling down” in verse 3 are from the same participle (yored). Yored appears three times in this short Psalm signaling the actions of God who brings “life forevermore.”

Harris, I now want to stop and apologize to you for a theological mistake. I know it’s a bit odd to do this in front of everyone but I owe it to you to set the record straight, own my mistake, and correct it. When we met this week Harris asked me a great question, “What’s the difference between “called to solidarity” and “better together”? And with a flippancy that many a pastor is famous for I quickly said, “Called to solidarity is a passive value while “better together” is active requiring us to practice what Jesus prayed for.” It sounded good, it’s not terribly wrong, but the tone was off and both passages have reminded me that this value, like all our values, come a gifts down to us. Sometimes theology functions like a tonal language in which the subtlety of pitch makes a world of difference. Mandarin, for example, is a tonal language with four main tones and a neutral tone. In Mandarin the word "ma" can mean "mother" with one tone, "horse" with another tone, "scold" with a different tone, and "question" with yet another tone. The wrong tone at any time can spell disaster for your relationship with your mother (or your horse)! Tonally, do we all have things we need to do, to practice, to participate in, in order to be unified – yes. But the tone of this value like all our values, reminds us that the critical action is not done by us – first. This value, like all our values, is first and foremost not a command, instruction, sermon, teaching, or exhortation to rally the troops. This value, like all our values, is poetry and prayer. Our two passages, without any hesitation proclaim that full harmony is possible because the source flows from God and is poured out in prayer by God to God.

“Better together” is not “you must unite or else!” Instead, it’s an invitation to recognize that God is endlessly, extravagantly, prayerfully, passionately, pouring out unity on us like gushing oil, water, and prayer. This is God’s mission. There has been some disagreement over who is being poured upon and prayed about, which feels like a “Who’s my neighbor?-sort-of-dodge.” Is it literally (and only) blood siblings? Extended family? Southern and Northern Kingdoms? Is it only those who profess belief in God? Ultimately, the psalm suggests there are no boundaries to kinship. Water and oil have no bias. They go wherever they want and spread beyond their points of origin and find every little crack. God is the gravity and source that pulls such gifts down upon us and no one is beyond them, not even those who haven’t been born yet or “the world,” Jesus says (John 17:20-21).

By the way, how do you feel when someone prays out loud for you? Maybe one of the reasons it is so easy to turn unity into a “to do” list for ourselves is that such a list is easier to manage than an experience as intimate as being prayed for. We are so obviously not in control as we listen to people talk to God about us. They, not we, are the ones in control with our vulnerabilities, our frailty, our fragility. If Jesus were exhorting his disciples, and by extension us, we could strive to meet his expectations then. If he were exhorting us, we would have a mission and try not to disappoint him. Instead, we overhear a prayer and are humbled in that moment that the Father and the Son spend their time praying for the likes of us. When we come to understand that all of these values are gifts of poetry and prayer, by God, from God, we actually learn that we can’t disappoint him and that "better together" is God’s destiny for us and not our design for ourselves.

And that's because at the center of the prayer is the relationship of love that God has within God’s self and the divine mission of love that the Father sent the son to draw everyone into that relationship.  Jesus intercedes not only for his own but also for the world. He asks for unity and love between those given to him and the Father, “so that the world may believe that you have sent me” (John 17:21). Nothing less than the reconciliation of all things is in view. The telos–the goal–of the prayer is that even those who had been hostile to the coming of the Son (a.k.a. “the world”) may believe that the Father sent him and have life in his name (cf. John 20:31).

So, Harris, I’d like to amend my statement. The actions we make are not so much actions that have us shouldering the battering rams of togetherness in order to tear down ramparts of separation and estrangement. The actions we practice are to cross over with God's poetry and prayer, to celebrate our diversity with dinners and care, to practice unity by recognizing that it is falling down, down, down, to us from God through Jesus like dew that gushes down into a 200 mile raging river, like oil that pours down over our heads and down to our feet, like a prayer made by God himself. I struggled so much with how to end this sermon because I’ve not told you really anything to do, not given you a task, not offered you a job. So here goes – in the spirit of Psalm 133 and Jesus’ prayer. Listen, it’s so gorgeous and good to be together with others. It’s like waiting in an airport with family members, holding signs of welcome for someone about to come through the doors. Better together is like hearing our favorite song at a wedding and asking our partner to dance. Better together is like receiving a surprise gift when it isn’t our birthday and ripping into the wrapping. Better together is recognizing that God has prayed for us and the wall is already gone, love and togetherness are pouring down. Better together defines your work like that.