Two stories: A seminary professor tells of ministering to a church that had a major fight over wood piles. This church had a wood stove in the center of the sanctuary that heated the building. Two groups that didn't get along with each other took turns stoking the fire and keeping it lit. However, one group clamed they were working harder than the other group to provide the needed wood. As a result, both groups provided the wood but in separate piles. One child while reading the scripture on Sunday used his own version of the well known text from Ephesians: "One faith, one Lord, one baptism …and two wood piles."

During the Depression, a man living in the Appalachian area went to Knoxville for the first time to transact some business. While there he saw a refrigerator that made ice. Since it was summertime, he thought it was a miracle of God. When he returned to his home town in the mountain, his church was in the middle of a revival service. He arrived to the service during the time when people were giving testimonies. He told of seeing ice in the middle of the summer. A dispute broke out. Many claimed there was no such things, others wanted to believe him. It resulted in a schism within the church, with one group leaving to form a new church. It's name – "no ice in the summer southern Baptist church."

This morning is the last Sunday after Easter. We stand poised to celebrate the birth of the church at Pentecost next Sunday. Our gospel text comes from the Farewell Discourses of Jesus. In the days leading up to his arrest and crucifixion, Jesus gathers the disciples in the Upper Room and shares with them the desires he has for them. It is in effect his last will and testament of what he hopes to leave with the disciples. What he offers to them is not riches and material goods, but a cry of his heart: "I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one – I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and loved them even as you have loved me." In these farewell words Jesus places confidence in the disciples, that they will be effective. In the unity of the disciples, and later in the unity of the church, it is Jesus' prayer that the world will believe as it witnesses this unity.

It is a prayer of unity that we sometimes despair of in the church. As early as the 6th chapter of Acts, the Hellenist Christians are complaining about the Hebrew Christians because they feel food is being unevenly distributed among the groups of the church. Factions about in the stories from the epistles of the New Testament, and by the year 325 the church experiences its first major split in part over the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, and we have often been found "fighting over wood piles" ever since. Today we speak of ourselves as members of a denomination and talk of being baptized Catholic, or Methodist, or Lutheran … instead of being baptized into the Christian community.

That is the bad news of where we have been and in some cases where we are. The good news is much stronger than our divisions, and in the end much more compelling. We should take heart in knowing that Jesus uttered those words of one-ness for us …it is what he prayed for us. And he had faith that we would be effective. When leaving his last will and testament in this text he prayed to God that the unity he shared with God would also be the way of his disciples. It is the will of Christ that we claim this power of being united together.

While the book of Acts speaks of the shortcomings of the early church, it also witnesses to the power of the early church when united. Next week we will read about the birth of the church in the Pentecost story. This week, our lectionary text from acts tells the story of Paul and Silas imprisoned, yet witnessing to the love of God:

About midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the prisoners were listening to them. Suddenly there was an earthquake, so violent that the foundations of the prison were shaken; and immediately all the doors were opened and everyone's chains were unfastened. When the jailer woke up and saw the prison doors wide open, he drew his sword and was about to kill himself, since he supposed that the prisoners had escaped. But Paul shouted in a loud voice, "Do not harm yourself, for we are all here." The jailer called for lights, and rushing in, he fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. Then he brought them outside and said, "Sirs, what must I do to be saved?" They answered, "Believe on the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household." They spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. At the same hour of the night he took them and washed their wounds; then he and his entire family were baptized without delay. He brought them up into the house and set food before them; and he and his entire household rejoiced that he had become a believer in God.

In October of 1985, the Association of Space Explorers was convened in France. The astronauts and cosmonauts met together to explore their shared vision of the planet, derived from their experiences in space, which united them in a way that transcended their cultural and political differences. As Saudi Arabian flier Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz remarked in the Opening Ceremony: "The first day or so we all pointed to our countries. The third or fourth day we were pointing to our continents. By the fifth day, we were aware of only one Earth." (link)

That remark captures a glimpse of the unity that Christ prayed for in setting the disciples to be the church. Know that Jesus loved enough to make this his desire for us before God in those closing moments of his life should make us stand up and take notice. That he had faith we could do it, should make us stand up and take further notice. Finally, knowing the depth of love Jesus gave should make us know that we will be given in the strength of God's love the ability to carry out this task of being the church. We want the world to shake their heads and amazement and wonder: "who are these people?!" In faith and grace we are sent out stronger together than alone.

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