St. Mary Orthodox Church

A Call to Unity and Transformation

 

Sermon preached by Dn. Jeff Smith on Sunday, May 24, 2026 at St. Mary Orthodox Church in Cambridge, MA

In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Amen. Good morning!

In today’s Gospel, we hear something sacred: Jesus’ prayer to his Father on the night before he died. Christ prays to bring the whole world into communion, and his prayer reveals the meaning of eternal life. Jesus says, “This is eternal life, that they know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.” Our eternal life begins right now, in relationship, in communion with God and with each other.

Today’s Gospel reminds us that Jesus cares deeply about us. We belong to him. We have been given to him, and we have kept his word. I would like to discern two themes in this Gospel. The first theme is Unity. As we continue to live on in this crazy world, Jesus prays for unity, that we may be one with each other just as he is one with His Father. And the second theme is about Joy. Jesus continues to guard us so that his joy may be fulfilled in us. I think the 17^th chapter of John is the most profound prayer in the entire bible. The whole scene is improbable. The disciples have been with Jesus for years, they have seen his miracles, and yet, he is still a mystery to them. Until the very end, they don’t really understand his way of liberation.

But there is something so deeply moving in the way Jesus speaks to and about His disciples: He says, “I am praying for them, I have kept them in your name; I have guarded them.” Before His arrest, before the fear that will scatter them, Christ speaks tenderly of having protected and kept his disciples. He knows their weaknesses. Peter will deny Him and others will flee. Yet He still calls them His own. The Lord does not love them because they are fearless or consistent. He loves them and he loves us simply because we belong to Him. It’s that simple.

I’ve been watching episodes of “The Chosen” and have been trying to imagine hearing these words spoken by Jesus for the very first time. Jesus says, “They (meaning his apostles, but also us), they have kept Your word.” This faith means receiving and keeping the Word of God present in our daily lives. Can we be a beacon of light to others by being kind and not being a drag on them? That’s what we mean when we say, “Forgive us our trespasses, as we lift the burdens from others.” We keep God’s Word when we pray even when we are distracted, when we show mercy instead of retaliation, when we remain present to someone who is suffering, when we repent honestly rather than trying to defend ourselves. And we become holy in these small acts of faithfulness.

Today’s Gospel prayer calls us to unity and to transformation. Christ prays “that they may be one, even as we are one.” Unity in the Gospel does not mean uniformity. In reality, it is participation in the love that flows between the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. Every act of forgiveness, every refusal to hate, every effort to remain faithful becomes another avenue toward divine unity. The Church prepares our pilgrim’s path as we walk in a labyrinth, sometimes close, sometimes further away, as we lean toward communion.

This is not easy because we are fragmented within ourselves and between each other. We carry our resentments, our fears, our ambitions, and our anxieties, often unknown and hidden even from ourselves. We desire to define ourselves and we love to be recognized for our successes. But Christ speaks of another way. He prays, “I glorified You on earth, having accomplished the work which You gave me to do.” How did Jesus glorify the Father? He certainly did not spend His life seeking applause. Instead, He simply fulfilled his vocation by being open to God’s will. This can be profoundly liberating. Our misery comes from trying to live up to what we think other people expect, what we think our parents want, our colleagues, our partners want, endlessly trying to defend and prove ourselves. Christ teaches us instead, to discern the work that God has entrusted to us, tenderly and faithfully, with humility and love.

Christ says that He desires His joy to be fulfilled in us. Where do we find His joy fulfilled?  Where are our gifts hidden?  He prays, “That they may have my joy fulfilled in themselves.” We must remember that he says this on the night before he was crucified. The joy of Christ is the joy of communion with his Father. No suffering can extinguish that. The saints possess this joy even in persecution because their lives were rooted in something deeper. They knew they belonged to God.

I once knew a man who received a tough diagnosis. He was a mentor, and one day he said, “I’ve spent a lot of my life trying to control things. Now I can’t control anything.” Then he said, “Faith happens when you stop trying to control the outcome and allow life to be. Life is a series of letting go as we prepare for the final letting go. Now, I am ready to be silent. I am ready to prepare for my death.” In the following months, he became gentler, more prayerful, and more attentive. His suffering opened up a deeper and quieter way of being. He discovered that eternal life is not about survival, but about learning how to live and trust in God’s plan.

In a world filled with division, loneliness, and exhaustion, Jesus’ prayer becomes our hope. Christ continues to pray and to guard us. He continues to draw us toward a life with Him. And eternal life begins whenever we allow ourselves to enter into this communion—through repentance, forgiveness, and love. The Lord lifts up His eyes to heaven, and He does so while holding us in His heart. And that means, just as it was on the night before he suffered, that even in our confusion, our weakness, and our fear, we are with Him.

Thanks be to God.