Not A Solo Endeavor
Elaine Poproski Download: Audio
Sermon Notes
Near the end of this sermon, the congregation was invited to spend a couple of minutes in silence, listening to God. That silence has been removed from this recording. You may want to pause the recording at the 24.5 minute mark.
Sunday Reflection
Read Heather Weir’s reflection, titled, “You Cannot Be a Christian Alone” from Sunday’s worship service. You’ll find it in the Sunday Reflections blog.
Scripture Reading: John 17:9 – 23
9 I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. Read More…
Looking to Sunday
by Elaine Poproski
I recently clicked a link in Facebook that took me to a series of paintings intended to illustrate what it’s like to be in a long-term relationship. There’s this one painting of a woman sitting on the toilet while her partner brushes his teeth. They’re clearly engaged in some kind of conversation. Feminine hygiene products are on display in the picture. The intimacy and familiarity of the painting’s subjects are obvious and endearing. But it makes me shudder. You see, I’m fully entrenched in my life as a single adult, which permits me a level of privacy that I quite enjoy. While there may be times I wistfully fantasize about being that connected to and shameless with another person, I cringe a bit at the thought of me being in that painting. I’m pretty sure I’m not alone amongst my single, never-been-married peers.
I’m o.k. being single. I long ago worked through the associated disappointments and sense of failure that are connected to being single in a society in which marriage and children is still largely the expectation – the norm. (An interesting side note: 59% of Walmer’s congregation consists of single adults and ¾ of those live on their own. These stats are pretty similar to the larger Annex demographics, but are also really rare in CBOQ churches – maybe in all churches.) And yet, there have been times when I’ve shared my space with other people in such a way that it became really clear that I’d probably be a better person for having someone like a spouse or even a roommate, witness my life close up like that.
Why am I telling you all this?
On Sunday, continuing our theme of sermons about the challenges of being a follower of Jesus, I’ll be focusing on Jesus’ words from John 17, in which Jesus prays that His disciples would be one. He’s praying that when He’s gone, His disciples would be intimately connected to each other in the kind of unbreakable, seamless unity that defines Jesus’ relationship with the Father – that defines the Trinity. Jesus prayed that this kind of closeness would define the church – His disciples. And I can’t help but think that us Christians in this highly independent, individualistic part of the world have hugely missed the boat on this aspect of being followers of Jesus. I wonder if I even want the kind of unity/oneness/intimacy Jesus asked the Father to ensure.
As you prepare for Sunday, I invite you to imagine what a church that was truly ONE would look like? I’m not suggesting we should all be prepared to hang out in the bathroom together and ditch all social boundaries with regard to privacy, but what would it be like if we were as intimately connected as siblings sharing a house together, or as best friends renting an apartment together? Does that idea excite you or terrify you? Does it exhaust you to even think about that kind of closeness? Or do you long for it? What would it take, in you and in our collective identity as the church, to make it a reality?