In high school, I decided to try out for the Drill Team. They were so cool, doing these intricate and precise routines where everyone was perfectly in sync with one another during football games half times and what not. Now, I was not a kid who was full of team spirit or school spirit. I didn’t live for Friday night football games. But the Drill Team captivated me. So I tried out, even though I knew before I started I wasn’t going to get in and that was because of my hair. I had short, curly hair and every single person on the Drill Team had hair long enough to be braided in a very certain way. The hair was part of the uniform and was part of the deal.

Troupes like this are often based on being as uniform as possible, right? They move the same, look the same, smile the same and all that precision is part of the magic. It is amazing for humans to be that in sync and precise. So, I don’t know if there was any level of skill that I could have brought that would have overcome my hair problem. Not that I was any good. I don’t think I was, but even so, my unruly hair would have done me in.

These sorts of groups demand a certain level of conformity to create the spectacle they were aiming for. And my high school Drill Team was so good that, on the surface, they looked flawlessly unified, working together with such precision. Perhaps that’s why I wanted to be on the team. They seemed so clearly connected with one another and committed to this passion of theirs.

Afterall, who wouldn’t want to be part of a cohesive, apparently loving group that is deeply passionate about what they do? Don’t we all long to belong to something larger than our own small selves? To feel purpose and meaning while knowing we are truly in an all-for-one-and-one-for-all situation? Sounds amazing, right? I think the Drill Team looked a bit like that and I wanted in.

The appearance of unity, however, does not always mean that there is a deep down, genuine unity. The appearance of unity can, and perhaps often is, an expression of enforced conformity. The Drill Team looked so unified because they were good at what they did, but they also had rules of enforced conformity.

It’s quite possible that what I interpreted as unity was in actuality the veneer of conformity. And when we’re conforming to belong to a community, that depth of that community and connection is only so deep.

Over and over again in human history, it seems that we long for deep, foundational unity and connection but what we settle for is surface level conformity. Over and over again, we get snared into thinking we need to believe the same things, look the same, talk the same, love the same sports team, or whatever in order to have unity. And so we draw these lines in different ways, forming groups who enforce rules about who is in and who is out in order to create unity. We may pick things like how long your hair is, for example.

The early church struggled with these questions a lot and we struggle with these questions now. We don’t worry about who is circumcised now, like the early church did, but we do worry about other distinctions. For example, there are lots of folks who can’t imagine the possibility of a peaceful outcome in Israel/Palestine because there is no way that “those folks” could see beyond their differences to acknowledge one another’s shared humanity. However, there are many peace advocates who are either Palestinian or Israeli who love one another across these divisions. They are declaring to all who will listen about the beautiful unity that exists under the crust of surface distinctions.

Our text in John today is all about unity and being one within the church. In this text, Jesus is praying that we’ll know our unity with one another and know our unity with God and Christ. He is praying that we will be unified in our sense of purpose and passion in the world and that this will be grounded in our one-ness with God and Jesus. He says, “As you, Father, are in me and I am in you, may they also be in us.” However, the Greek words for one and in are almost identical. The author of this gospel seems to be playing with the distinctions between being one with one another and in one another.

So, what does it mean to say to someone I am you are in me and that I am in you. Who might you say this to? A child? A spouse? We’d say this in our most intimate relationships of our lives, like that old jazz standard lyric, “I got you under my skin.” This is a declaration of intimacy.

For intimacy to be real, though, we must allow the other person to be themselves. To love them truly is to allow them freedom to have their own set of idiosyncrasies and not have to hide themselves for the sake of fitting in. When we love someone, we don’t ask them to conform, but to be most fully themselves which means different from us. Unique, quirky, sometimes annoying perhaps, but fully themselves. Relationships of intimacy allow for all kinds of differences because, in that intimacy, there is an underlying unity that is deeper than the surface distinctions that holds the relationship together.

We humans do get confused, though. We confuse conformity with unity. And I wonder if this is so, because conformity is faster. We can look at folks, assess them in a flash (we think), and quickly know if we’re likely to be friends or foes. Last week, I said that the folks at Grace Lutheran are like automatic friends, because we are part of the same church (ELCA) and live in the same town. Due to our relative conformity, we’re likely to be friends easily, right?

I do think that’s likely to be mostly true, but that sort of decision-making isn’t the call of the church. It’s expedient, but not bold enough for God. God is always calling for us to reach out to the sick and suffering, to the poor and orphaned, to the marginalized and be of service and to see Christ in them. That is to say, we are to see and acknowledge our unity with folks in the absence of conformity. We are to take the time and take that leap of faith it takes to see our shared unity, our shared oneness. To see how indeed we are already in one another, even if we are essentially strangers. That is the intimacy of being one in Christ.

What I find curious is that various people’s one-ness in Christ still has a lot of diversity. Families, congregations, organizations, and communities can have a great deal of authentic unity that is based in honoring our shared humanity and yet still be quite diverse from one another. One lovely place to worship can be different than another lovely place to worship. And isn’t that lovely. So that means Celebration gets the joy of experiencing one-ness in Christ with each other and the whole world and yet do it in a way that is unique to us.

In our upcoming congregational conversation on June 7^th, we’re calling Finding the Thread, we’ll be discerning our shared values as a congregation. We’ll be listening to each other’s unique voices and seeing where patterns emerge. We’ll be listening for that deep bass note of unity in Christ that is expressed in a particular way in this particular place. We’ll be asking ‘what is the unique character of us’ that flows from our individuality and from God. No doubt, the Holy Spirit is at work here, in you and me and all of us. So, we’ll be gathering to listen and hear the wisdom that emerges.

Celebration is already a place of deep care for the community and welcome for each other and our visitors. There is already a lot of grace and love here. People talk about the sense of peace they feel in this place when they come to visit.

However, we are entering a new phase in Celebration’s life. As we look to the future, questions emerge. How will we grow? What decisions will be made with the land? Should we partner in new ways with local nonprofits? How should we prioritize opportunities? Should we be getting involved in volunteering in the community or focus on small group ministry? Or both?

This church is not a place of conformity that masquerades as unity. We are a place of yearning for Christ’s unity that also holds diversity. This is a real and beautiful strength. This I know for sure, if Celebration had a Drill Team, I could have my short and curly hair and still be on the team. We could have all sorts of individuality and non-conformity, because we know our unity in Christ. So, the question for June 7th is what is our particular unity in Christ like? What is the “Drill Team” of Celebration up to and how might be uniquely unfolding as we look to the future, holding the promise of Jesus’ love for us, Jesus’ unity with us in our grateful hands.

AMEN.