St. John’s Lutheran Church, Phoenixville
January 19, 2025
This
is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, which is a yearly observation that
has been promoted by the World Council of Churches for almost a century now
with varying degrees of effect. The
Evangelical Lutheran Church and the Lutheran Church in America became the ELCA,
but I don’t see the Missouri Synod or Wisconsin Synod singing “A Mighty
Fortress Is Our God” with you anytime soon.
Likewise, the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren came
together as the United Methodist Church in 1968, but last year the Global
Methodist Church broke off. In December,
in Nigeria, arguments between the Global Methodists and United Methodists
resulted in two churches being burned to the ground and two children dying. Is this Christianity – let alone Christian
Unity?
Whatever
happened to Jesus’ prayer for his followers recorded in John:
“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 loved them, even as you have loved me”?
[John 17:21-23]
That was hard enough when Jesus was praying for a
relatively small group people who had been following him around Galilee for a
couple of years. One of them had already
at that point turned him in to the authorities.
Others were within less than a couple of hours from running away and
abandoning him, although in their fear they did find their way back together
following his death and lock themselves inside an upper room together. After nearly 2,000 years of trying to make
sense of what came next and of asking each other, “What now?” compounded by
trying to do that in multiple languages and cultures and occasionally getting
seriously on one another’s nerves, is Christian unity a possibility?
Yes. It is.
I’d say that it exists and that we see it every day. The reason we think of Christian unity as
something that we try but fail to create, instead of seeing it as a reality
already present. It’s a blessing from
God, ours to accept as a gift of the Holy Spirit.
Mind
you, I am not one of those people who considers everything up for grabs. I do think that the church is more than a
bunch of people hanging out and talking about Jesus and singing “Silent Night”
once a year. I see a clear need for the
creeds as a statement of what is in bounds and out of bounds when we get to
talking theology. I don’t believe that any
church can exist as a lone congregation any more than one person or even one
household can exist on their own for very long. I would be a lousy Baptist.
On the other hand, I
don’t see the essence of the church in one single form of organization and
don’t see one format of worship as being the true, pure means to experience
God’s presence. I see the clergy as
necessary to keeping things on track, so I wouldn’t be a good Quaker, but I
don’t think should have the last word all the time, either. I would be a lousy Catholic.
The
New Testament came into being at a time before we had loaded a whole lot of
baggage onto what it means to follow Jesus, and one of its earliest leaders,
Paul, wrote to the Christians in the city of Corinth, where they had begun to
divide themselves into cliques or parties, and told them to think of themselves
as one body, made up of different parts.
“Now there are varieties of gifts but the
same Spirit, and there are varieties of services but the same Lord, and there
are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them
in everyone. To each is given the
manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the
utterance of wisdom and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the
same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing
by the one Spirit, to another the working of power deeds, to another prophecy,
to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to
another the interpretation of tongues. All
these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one
individually just as the Spirit chooses.” [I Corinthians 12:1-11]
I have heard (and preached) a lot of sermons on how
that works out in a local church. Here’s
an idea: what if we were to apply those same principles to denominations or
theological families or liturgical siblings or historical forebears?
None
of these categories will apply to every situation everywhere or at all times. It might help us all simply appreciate one
another better for who we are, though, instead of trying to recreate one
another in our own images.
Be thankful for the
Lutheran emphasis on faith.
Be thankful for the
Methodist and Wesleyan insistence that faith without works is dead.
Be thankful for the Catholic
search for holiness.
Be thankful for the
Orthodox insistence on the centrality of worship.
Be thankful for the Anglican
and Episcopal appreciation of tradition; and thankful for the Pentecostal
appreciation of free response to the Spirit.
Be thankful for the
Presbyterian and Reformed concern for orderliness; and be thankful for the
Baptist reminder that the ministry of the laity is a universal calling.
Learn singing from the
Moravians and silence from the Quakers.
Learn
from the churches of Africa to dance and from the churches of South America to
serve the poor.
Learn
from the Salvation Army how to share our gifts, whatever they may be, with
God’s people.
Learn
from the Lord that we are one in him, as he, the Father, and the Spirit are one
– distinct and undivided.
Amen.
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