On Being One

I ask not only on behalf of these but also on behalf of those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one […] so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. 

— John 17:20,23

Preparing to share a meditation on this text called to mind for me a conversation I had this previous autumn with Lee Kosa, a pastor with Estuary Church in Delta. I was interviewing him for a school assignment, and we got to talking about the colonialist history that we inherit and still live in, and how interwoven it is with church. Lee shared an image of plants that still sticks with me, as an image of what has been, and of what could still be. He said that “Christendom was essentially exported from Europe in potted plants, still in imperial soil—but  what if faith had been shaken loose and planted in local ecosystems, in mycelial entanglement with the local flora and fauna of a place, where there’d be a giving and receiving of nutrients and wisdom?” 

What if the oneness that Jesus prays for us and for the world is a whole lot messier than we’ve often taken it to be? What if this oneness is not the tidy togetherness of a potted plant, but rather an ongoing, shapeshifting process of listening and revealing, giving and receiving, as we seek to inhabit the position of guest and neighbour in places that aren’t our own, those that we come into? After all, we come into contact with the way of Jesus not as original Jewish disciples, but as diverse peoples whose lifeways are brought into dialogue and mutual transformation with this Jesus way that emerged out of a particular context. 

This way spreads out post-Pentecost into place after place, as the Spirit blows in surprising directions and brings together people who might never be expected to cross paths and somehow live in love with one another. 

The temptation to seize control of the process and uniformize it, tidy it up, turn church into something invulnerable and unbending—this temptation remains with us. But so will the invitation into something messier, more incarnate. This too, will remain. 

Jesus prays for this incarnate ‘oneness’ so that the world may know God’s deep and abiding love for each person, each creature, each place, in all their particularity—so that hope might come alive in the places where love goes to work. 

Peace, 

Madison Friesen
Community Life Coordinator
Southpoint Church

Deep peace and blessing,
Anne

Rev. Anne Baxter Smith
Pastor, Southpoint Church

Deep peace and blessing,
Anne

Rev. Anne Baxter Smith
Pastor, Southpoint Church

Deep peace and blessing,
Anne

Rev. Anne Baxter Smith
Pastor, Southpoint Church

Deep peace and blessing,
Anne

Rev. Anne Baxter Smith
Pastor, Southpoint Church