“On June 6, 1944, 156,000 Allied soldiers who stormed the beaches of Normandy faced one of the most formidable defensive systems ever assembled. The Germans had spent years fortifying the coast with concrete bunkers, artillery batteries, machine-gun nests, minefields, anti-tank obstacles, barbed wire, and carefully planned fields of interlocking fire. Defenders occupied elevated positions overlooking open beaches, giving them a devastating advantage against troops who had to cross hundreds of yards of exposed sand under relentless gunfire. The beaches themselves were littered with obstacles designed to destroy landing craft and trap advancing soldiers, while artillery and mortars pounded the invasion force from prepared positions. Many Allied units landed off target, lost leaders, became separated from their formations, and suffered terrible casualties within minutes. Yet despite overwhelming fire, confusion, and the constant threat of death, thousands of soldiers pressed forward, scaling bluffs, breaching fortifications, and opening the way for the liberation of Western Europe. What makes D-Day so extraordinary is not merely that the Allies won, but that they advanced at all against defenses specifically engineered to make success seem impossible.”

Our barriers? Not pain, but pleasure; not challenge, but distraction; not combat, but comfort.

20 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, even though the world does not know you, I know you, and these know that you have sent me. 26 I made known to them your name, and I will continue to make it known, that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them.”

The mission God gives succeeds through the unity God creates

The Mission God Gives

We are sent into the world just as Jesus is: “As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world,” (John 17:18). So, how was Jesus sent by the Father? “For I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will but the will of him who sent me,’ (John 6:38).

• Jesus came with enormous purpose, intentionality.

  • In the 1970’s, a gambling addict named Bill Friedman went on to help design how casinos could be even more effective in ensnaring victims. The many design principles he established eventually became effective techniques employed in social media designs.

  Friedman designed casinos similarly to shopping markets. Marketers long ago found that if you turned the entire store into a maze to navigate, one forgets their original intention and begins making impulse buys. Writer Gurwinder Bhogal explains, “Such an overwhelming environment would keep people distracted from themselves, so they’d remain instinctual rather than intentional, and hence compliant rather than resistant.” In this meandering casino maze, Friedman sought to (as much as possible) eliminate 90 degree turns. Why?

  Because sharp bends jolt pedestrians into awareness, since a decision must now be made to change direction. And when someone has to decide where to go, they’re liable to think about the time and whether they should in fact be heading for the exit. Thus, Friedman advocated for curvilinear paths that had no discernible corners, beginnings, or ends, and could thus be perpetually navigated on autopilot.

• Jesus was not of this world.

  • They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. - John 17:16
  • What does that mean? We are chosen out of but not of the world: “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world.” (John 17:6).
  • What is the “world”? It is what makes sin look normal and righteousness look strange or stupid. It is that curvilinear maze that puts us on autopilot. We were born into it, but we have an identity that pre-dates our birth. We belong to God. He has chosen out of this world.
  • We are like children who have been raised in the impoverished orphanage of the world, taught its customs and appetites and norms, who then one day have our long lost parents return and bring us home, where we both unlearn what the world taught us, and learn the rules of our new household.
  • Examples of worldliness:
    • Commitments: do you keep your commitments only when it is convenient?
    • Generosity: what is cemented in your budget? Is generosity one of those?
    • Church attendance: regular church attendance is considered at 50%. Is there anything else in your life that you believe to be important that you would be content with a 50% participation rate? Mom and dads, what if your children went to half of their soccer practices, attended school for half of the year, said they planned on showing up to work 50% of the time, or joined you for dinner for half of the nights in the week?
    • Dreams for your children: 88 percent of parents say that it is extremely important for their children to be financially independent and working careers that they enjoy. But 75% of young single people say that they feel no pressure whatsoever from their parents to get married. This seems to only make sense in a world that has made money, status, security, and self-expression unqualified goods—though they are never described that way in the Bible. While marriage and children, always spoken of as wonderful blessing in the Bible, are relegated to just another lifestyle choice: Hey, if having kids is your thing, cool…I like pickleball instead.
    • The point of this isn’t too try to make you feel guilty to coerce you into repentance; that won’t work anyway. It is to reveal to you what is influencing you most.
  • Thus, Jesus prays: “Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth,” (John 17:17)
    • To be “sanctified”, “consecrated,” or “made holy” literally means to be set apart. A priest would be “sanctified” in the Old Testament because his vocation was unlike anyone else. A sacrifice would be consecrated because it was an animal being devoted to God, not for anything else. Jesus Himself is “sanctified” for the mission that God gives Him in the great work of salvation (see vs. 19). And so the Church is “sanctified” just as Jesus is for the mission that God gives.
    • But we are sanctified in “truth”—what does that mean? He tells us: “your word is truth.”
      • Jesus: The truth (John 14:6) and the Word (John 1:1-3, 14).
      • The Spirit of Truth who leads us into all truth (John 15:13).
      • The Bible: The Scriptures who are penned by the inspiration of the Spirit to testify to Jesus (2 Pet 1:21; Luke 24:25-27, 44-45).
      • The world is under the power of the evil one, the father of all lies (1 John 5:19; John 8:44)
      • So, if we are to “set apart” from this corrupt, deceptive world, then we need Truth.
    • Your word is truth, not true.
      • For something to be true means that it corresponds with truth, with Ultimate Reality, with Being in of itself. If I say that a testimony or report is true I am saying it accurately conveys the truth of what really happened. But the Truth is what really happened—the testimony is true to the degree that it corresponds with Truth, so it is downstream from Truth, dependent on it.
      • Truth is the final arbiter.
      • God’s Word is Truth.
    • This is important for us to see because of what Jesus earlier prays: “I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one,” (John 17:15).
      • How will God keep us from the evil one, the father of lies, who sits at the fountainhead of the water the world swims in? With the Truth of His Word. Like a pillar of granite dropped into a river, God’s Word pushes against the deceptions of the world and the devil.
      • I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. - John 17:14
      • Jesus says “I am not of this world”—and He was hated.
  • We are like Jesus because we share the Word just like He did
    • For I have given them the words that you gave me, and they have received them and have come to know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. - John 17:8
    • I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, - John 17:20

• How do you make decisions?

  • The world operates on pre-rational appetites, feelings, vibes. It feels exciting, attractive, scary, depressing, you are afraid you are going to miss out on something. Marketers and political advisors have long known that the more emotionally riled up you are, the more susceptible you are—which is why advertisements appeal to your emotions. They are manipulating you. Attractive people with attractive friends laugh together and they all are drinking that beverage and the lower part of your brain says: I want to be attractive, I want friends, I want to have fun, and you associate the beverage with those things. The attack ad for the opposing politician never simply states what the opponent believes, but demonstrates in dire and dramatic tones how disastrous it would be.
  • What is troubling is that being more intelligent doesn’t necessarily help this. Studies find that the higher your IQ is, you are not necessarily more objective, you are just better at making post-hoc justifications for rationalizing why it really is a good idea for you to buy that boat.
  • Feelings matter, but they must align with Truth.
  • Our first question must always be “What does God’s Word say?” And then second, “What do God’s people say?” The Church is the “mouth house” of God (Luther) because we speak God’s Word in love to one another.

The Unity that God Creates

What kind of unity?

• that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us - John 17:21
• The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, - John 17:22
• I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, - John 17:23

A unity analogous to the unity of the Godhead. The Father and Son are distinguishable from one another as persons, but are united in being. So the members of the church are not melded into one blob, we remain distinct, but we are united into one being—we are the body of Christ, each different members of that body, but together we are an integral unity.

The diversity of the body underlines the power and weight of what unifies us. The Word.

• Contra dorm-room unity

Why is this so important?

• that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. - 17:21
• The unity of the Church is the means of the mission.
• A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. 35 By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” - John 13;34-35
• The mission of the church to go out into a world and testify to the reality of God through our unity and love for one another.
  • This must indicate that one of the primary species of worldliness is division.

…

• It is a unity that God creates. Jesus is praying, not just commanding; and how effective are the prayers of Jesus?

9 Let love be genuine. Abhor what is evil; hold fast to what is good. 10 Love one another with brotherly affection. Outdo one another in showing honor. 11 Do not be slothful in zeal, be fervent in spirit, serve the Lord. 12 Rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer. 13 Contribute to the needs of the saints and seek to show hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse them. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. 17 Repay no one evil for evil, but give thought to do what is honorable in the sight of all. 18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.