Sermon for Churches Together in Headington –
Service of Prayer for Christian Unity
Preached by
the Revd Richard Finn, OP
Head of
House, Blackfriars,
during
Choral Evensong at All Saints' Church, Highfield, Headington
You may remember
the joke about the shipwrecked Welshman who built two chapels on his desert
island? When finally rescued after many years, they asked him ‘Why two?’, to
which he answered, ‘That’s the one I go to, and that’s the one I don’t’. It’s
not really about Welshmen or Methodism - Methodism has been in the forefront of
work for Christian unity. No, it’s about all of us. As fallen men and women, we
have a deep need for something to disagree with, to define ourselves against. We
create a semblance of unity by scapegoating an unfortunate victim. Even
children in a playground may form a gang by ganging up on someone else. They even
say that in some ancient cultures a town would be built over the remains of a
human sacrifice. It’s certainly a graphic symbol of how we turn to violence in
search of security. As someone said, ‘Better that one man should die for the people
and that the whole nation should not perish’. It would be great to think that
as Christians we were exempt from all this. Sadly, our track record doesn’t
look that good. Otherwise we wouldn’t be here as part of a week of prayer for
Christian unity! Or at least there might be a few more of us? The mighty
African theologian,
Yet, at the
Last Supper Jesus prayed for unity to the Father: ‘Holy Father, keep them in
thy name, which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even as we are one.’ It is a highly instructive prayer. It shows
that God took flesh in Jesus not simply to reconcile individual human beings
with Himself, but to secure mutual reconciliation, the unity of divided men and
women. Just as important, we hear what kind of unity this is: we are to be one,
as Father and Son are one. But we need to unpack what that means.
It’s first about
sharing a common purpose. Earlier in this great prayer, Jesus speaks of having
glorified the Father in carrying out the work which the Father had given Him. We
shall find our unity as we accept our role in Christ’s continuing mission
through common discipleship. What does that look like on the ground for divided
churches? All kinds of things: the myriad ways in which Christians can pool
their gifts to proclaim the Gospel, but no doubt joint action for the poor, for
the asylum seeker and migrant worker, for prisoners, the sick and elderly,
whether that’s cooperation between chaplains and visitors, or between agencies:
Christian Aid, TEARFUND, and CAFOD. No doubt, especially in this
But there’s
more to this unity than work. Christ’s human obedience to His mission is the
expression on earth of the Son’s eternal love for the Father. It belongs to
that perfect exchange of love within the godhead which is the life of the
Trinity. So, our unity also is about mutual love: ‘this is my commandment, that
you love one another as I have loved you’. Jesus calls us friends, not
servants. How can we be His friends
if we are not friends ourselves? What does that look like on the ground for
divided churches? Perhaps it’s there already in marriages between members of
different denominations, and the friendships that spring up through common
discipleship. It’s here at All Saints, when we are welcomed this afternoon,
given hospitality, each of us here from our different congregations. How much
more, though, could we do to befriend each other?
We still
haven’t unpacked a key point. Because to be one as Father and Son are one, is
to be united as they are by the Holy Spirit. Christian unity isn’t just like the unity of Father and Son; it is our share in the love they share.
That’s the joy of it. As Jesus prays a little later: ‘The glory which thou hast
given me I have given them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them,
and thou in me’. Christ is the one centre and source of our unity.
For the
prayer which Jesus voices at the Last Supper is embodied in His Passion. There,
as Isaiah says in the King James’ version, he ‘poured out his soul unto
death... and made intercession for the transgressors.’ We’re not
dealing with two separate prayers. And that one prayer was not in vain; it didn’t
go unanswered. This was the prayer of our one and eternal High Priest, who has
offered in his body the one perfect sacrifice of love. It has been answered
definitively by the Father raising Jesus from death to pour out the Spirit. The
spirit-charged waters of baptism are the well-spring of unity. We already
belong together. In the Body of Christ no church exists in isolation from the
others.
Now, what
does that mean on the ground for divided churches? It must certainly be about
recognizing the Spirit, and the gifts of the Spirit beyond our own doorstep. That
means a profound respect for each other, an expectation that we can learn from
each other. Jesus says that the Spirit is sent to teach us all things and lead
us into the remembrance of all that he has revealed.
It also
means not slipping back into some kind of complacency. If the Spirit has been
poured out on us for our reconciliation, if this new perfect unity in God is
meant to be made visible in the Church, our divisions remain a scandal in the
original and literal sense of that word, a stumbling block in the way of faith;
they obscure that unity-in-love we should proclaim. It’s pointless pretending
that our different denominations are somehow normal expressions of
diversity.
But last of
all, and best of all, we have grounds for hope. The Spirit of God is abroad in
our hearts and minds, prompting us, drawing us, sustaining us, liberating us
from sins of bigotry, hatred, and wilful ignorance. Christ’s prayer for unity
has been and will continue to be answered in God’s unfolding providence. The
victory of God is not in doubt. And for that let us unite in profound thanksgiving.
This
sermon was preached to Churches Together in Headington during the Week of
Prayer for Christian Unity in January 2008.
Churches Together In Headington Home Page