John 17:20-26 

Jesus prayed for his disciples, and then he said. "I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one. As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Father, I desire that those also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory, which you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world.

"Righteous Father, the world does not know you, but I know you; and these know that you have sent me. I made your name known to them, and I will make it known, so that the love with which you have loved me may be in them, and I in them."

A few months ago, Nancy Lee sent an email out to several lay people asking for volunteers to give a homily and personal testimony at the monthly Taize services. Upon receiving her email, I immediately responded to say, “Um, I’m assuming you sent this to me in error.” And much to my surprise, she responded, “Not in error! I hope you’ll consider it.” To which I could only wonder, “What is this? Who am I to stand in front of a congregation and preach?” Who am I, a woman who has variously classified herself over her lifetime as a Southern Baptist, a recovering Southern Baptist, a Zen Buddhist (yes, it was college), an agnostic, and only very recently, an aspiring Episcopalian. “What could I possibly have to offer in a sermon? Who am I?”

For the vast majority of my adult life, this question -- and a number of related ones -- has frequently plagued me, and prompted me to seek answers from a host of sources. Who am I? Why am I? What have I been placed here to do? I came from a tradition where questions were often frowned upon in the name of faith. And as my husband tells me, perhaps it is sometimes just simpler not to ask. But nonetheless, I find myself wondering. Maybe some of you have wondered these very same things. And as Carl Sagan wrote in his Gifford Lectures, “if a god of anything like the traditional sort exists, then our curiosity and intelligence are provided by such a god. We would be unappreciative of those gifts if we suppressed our passion to explore the universe and ourselves.”

And so, perhaps in an answer to those questions, John reaches out to us with his account of Jesus’ prayer at his final supper with his disciples, often called the high priestly prayer. The words give us insight in to not only who we are, but why we are. “The glory that you have given me I have given them, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become completely one, so that the world may know that you have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”