Several nights ago I had a dream about our church. It was a powerful dream and I felt it was given to me knowing I was going to preach on unity. In the dream some of us were flying around downtown Silver Spring. We seemed to be looking for people who were wounded. I remember finding a wounded soldier lying on the ground. Quickly I flew back to the church and asked two people sitting in a pew, if they could come with me to help the soldier. They flew off with me to the rescue. The next wounded person we found was a person of color. This person was so swollen with wounds we could hardly see their face. Some of the details of the dream have faded at this point but I just remember several of us just being deeply present with this person—listening, holding their hand. It seemed as if the swelling seemed to go down—as if layers of wounds were melting away. There is a lovely ending to this dream which I will share later but I was very moved by this dream because it gave me a vision for all the possibilities for us a community to be united in our love and mission together.

We are not a country club, or the 4H Club, we are the church. What does that mean and what are we called to be and do in the world? In the text read this morning, Jesus, in his conversation with God, talks about what he wants for us and how that will happen. It’s clear that Jesus isn’t just talking about the present disciples. He is referring to all of us—all of us who have come to believe in the Love of God, that was found through Jesus and especially for the world who is ready to receive this love.

This is the last prayer Jesus prays for his disciples who are now us. In the previous chapters of John’s Gospel, 13-16, Jesus has been instructing and preparing the disciples for his departure. Now he turns to God to talk intimately about us. We are on the outside listening in. The essence of this prayer is—Make this community One as you and I are one! And when the church becomes One, the world will know that God is Love and they will come to know this love.

Jesus knows he’s about to physically leave them. Jesus is advocating, on our behalf, charging God to care and love us so we might love and care for each other and the world. Jesus releases us into God’s hands. We are to be given, this unconditional love what Jesus had given to the world, in order to manifest the glory of God in the world.

So what does this mean for us? It sounds pretty clear—doesn’t it? We are to learn how to be one with each other (united) so that we can treat the world as one. Much easier to hear than live it.

So this morning I just wanted to briefly talk about our oneness with each other and sharing this oneness with the world.

What does it mean to be One with each other. Several years ago I received a recorded tape of a retreat a friend of mine went on. The retreat leader was Rabbi Ted Falcon who leads a meditative community in California. Falcon focused the entire retreat on the "Shema" which is "Hear O Israel: The Lord our God is One God.".

Falcon developed a way to meditate on the Shema so that people could be constantly aware of the Oneness of God. Falcon stated at the retreat,

"I discovered along the way that Judaism is true. Our way is real—as a reality of being. The notion that God is one is beyond a matter of belief. It’s simply a matter of reality. There’s only one God and if there’s only one God then there’s only one ONE. If there’s only one One then there’s no where else to be except as part of that One. If there’s only one One then we are it. That One is in all of us. Our task is to reclaim our awareness of our true place in this universe and through that remembering to reclaim the essential joy and celebration of this life that we are given to live. We are literally a vehicle through whom that life manifest on this level of existence. We are the way God acts in this world. If we don’t clean up this place there is no heavenly Mother or Father who will come and clean it up for us. We are necessary existence."

He goes on to say that God manifests him/herself through the particulars—We are the particulars of God’s glory to shine brightly in the world. This notion is best expressed in the two names for God Adonai and Elohim. A-DO-NAI: Adonai is the Hebrew word for "Lord" not "God". Adonai simply replaces the Yud Heh Vuv Heh (YHWH) which are the four, holy, hollow and unpronounceable letters for God. It is from these letters the names Yahweh and Jehovah (the pronounceable names for God) are derived. When the letters Yud Heh Vuv Heh (YHWH) appears in a text it is typically replaced by Adonai.

Rabbi Falcon further explains the powerful meaning of YHWH. It is a noun that comes from the Hebrew root, "Heh Yud Heh" which comes from the verbal root meaning "to be". without beginning and without end….infinite being in one word represented by four letters. YHWH in the mystical tradition refers to the absolute transcendent aspect of the One. The One in whom all else is…the One without whom nothing could be, literally.

There is only one way to be-- beyond argument, beyond image, beyond concept, beyond name. Falcom claims, rightly so, there is no debate about whether God exists or not—God is the essence of being.

What are we listening to—the whole universe—every sensation, concept, feeling, etc. is in One and in that One, all is connected. NOTHING HAPPENS OUTSIDE OF THIS BEING—THIS ONENESS.

Finally—Elohim, which means Our God….only plural noun in the entire torah—elohim means the one manifesting as the many. YHWH is the absolute transcendent and Elohim is the absolute imminent…. the indwelling presence of God in every being..that particulars of the general. And we are the particulars of that essence—of that oneness. Each of us have that oneness in us—often shielded by our ego—but when our hearts are open—we get in touch with that oneness.

This is what Jesus is talking about in his prayer—that we might not only be able to see the oneness in each other—but in everything and everyone—(even in the symphonic melodies and botanical mess of our friends the cicadas have brought us)

Our culture has lost so much of this sense of oneness. We’ve isolated ourselves in front of screens—computers and TVs avoiding direct physical contact with each other. That’s not to say computers can’t reflect that sense of Being, for I do believe God is there if we are take Falcon’s theories seriously but maybe we can find a fuller sense of God in connecting with our community.

Joan Chittister talks about in her newest book "Illuminated Life"–"When a person lives alone, the ancients knew, it can be very beguiling to confuse practice with holiness. If the measuring stick of spirituality is simply rigid physical asceticism and fidelity to the rules, the fasts, the routines, then spiritual opening is simply a matter of some kind of spiritual arithmetic. To claim full human development, total spiritual maturity, outside the realm of the human community is to claim the impossible. We don’t have to withdraw from life to find God. The real contemplative hears the voice of God in the voice of the other, sees the face of God in the face of the other, knows the will of God in the person of the other, serves the heart of God by addressing the wounds, answering the call of the other. The most valiant monastics, the Rule of Benedict insists, are those who live in community. Let permission to live along be seldom given."

We are called to be at one with each other. Jesus is clear about this—and he clearly lived his life within a community context. This is the vision he has been talking about all through this Gospel and in his final prayer to God. We are here to manifest the glory of God with each other and to the world. We are the particulars of God.

So how do we do it folks—we are doing it. We do it everytime we meet together to worship, to talk, to commune, to struggle. 30 of us it did it several weeks ago for our anti-racism workshop. It was difficult for many of us to see how the color of our skin had given us such tremendous privilege in the world. And it takes energy and courage not only to say NO to racism but also to tangibly do something about power, which takes away the oneness from humanity.

And ultimately, it’s grace. In this prayer Jesus doesn’t give instructions about how to be one—he leaves us in God’s charge. It’s in God’s care—it’s grace.

Back to my dream…At some point I must have fallen—probably flew into a tree. Anyway, it seemed within seconds, Bill Carnahan was flying right over me. At first he picked me up by my ribs and I yelped, "Bill—my ribs—I’ve hurt my ribs." Then he gently took my arms and hands and flew me home. As we flew home, I said to him—Bill isn’t this so cool that our church can fly. Our church does have wings—we can fly with all the many resources we have. We have enough wings to spread over each other and this city. We are promised that God will raise us up on Eagles’ wings, bear us on the breath of dawn, make us to shine like the sun and hold us in the palm of God’s hand.