John 17, formally referred to as the high priestly prayer of Jesus Christ, is a wonderful place to see the work of reconciliation and unity in the body of Christ. In this prayer, Jesus rehearses the work of redemption between the Father and the Son and gives a clear blueprint of God’s design in how He has saved His elect people. This chapter serves the church by reminding the people of God that they are caught up in a work of reconciliation and currently reside in state of unity with God. To that end, the church’s work is to be situated in reconciliation and unity.  In John 17, Jesus speaks of the unified plan of redemption between the Father and the Son: “Father, the hour has come; glorify the Son that the Son may glorify you, since you have given him authority over all flesh, to give eternal life to all whom you have given him” (ESV, Jn. 17.1-2). Here, the work of redemption is described as a collective work of the Father and the Son (and the Spirit’s in prior chapters). That is to say, there is a spirit of the purest sense of unity in the Godhead in the effort to accomplish the work of redemption.  In addition, God’s work of redemption is also a work of reconciliation: “I have given them your word, and the world has hated them because they are not of the world […] They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth” (Jn. 17.14, 16-17). This work of redemption is a work of reconciliation, as these people are distinguished from a world full of hate and animosity towards God. It follows that the people who are afforded God’s work of redemption will also be people set apart from the hatred of the world to a life of reconciliation and unity among each other. This is fully expressed towards the end of Jesus’ prayer: “I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one” (Jn. 17.23). This language of oneness is unmistakably one of unity among God’s reconciled people. How then are these implications brought to bear in the work and life of the church? In an article concerning the state of the church, Mark Dever describes four particular problems facing the church today, one of which is the problem of sectarianism. Dever makes the point by way of contrast: “what unites us as Christians must always be valued more highly than the things that distinguish us” (45). The opposite of this is the reality of sectarianism in the church. But how is a church to practice unity in a context where contrasting denominational expressions are normative? This problem of inescapable sectarianism is perhaps the most prominent of the four within my own area. Locally, there is a diversity of denominations, music type, church size, and political leanings, all of which are often situated in churches right next to each other. This makes for a very consumeristic ‘free market’ of church shopping, and so long as churches are presented in this consumeristic way, there will inevitably be a type of tribalism or sectarianism present.  While nations should leave people free to find a church that matches their own theological convictions, there are instances when sectarianism goes well beyond issues of worship choice. Take for example an episode within my own church context. My presbyterian church recently received a family into our congregation who was an elder at a reformed Baptist congregation. This man recently became convinced that baptism is appropriate to be administered both to believers and their children, a view in conflict with his church teaching. However, his fellow elders responded not only by stepping him down from leadership, but also by voting his entire family out of the churchSupport the show