Easter 7, 2009 – AGM Sunday
– ‘That They May Be One’
“And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I
am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given
me, so that they may be one, as we are
one.”
“That they may be one, as we are one.” There are some – many perhaps – who would hear that sentence and suggest that the theme for
today could well be, ‘Yeah Right!’ In the millennia since Jesus first prayed
those words how close have his followers come to being one? As we sit here
today, at a point where there are more churches and denominations than ever
before in history, how close are we to being one, as the Father and the Son are
one? Yeah Right!
The simple fact is that we live at a time when the ecumenical movement –
the deliberate and determined actions of separate denominations to work
together – is weaker than at any time in the past two hundred years. Forget
plans for Church Union – those ideas and ideals from the seventies have long
been ruled out – in this country we no longer even have a national ecumenical
body, making us one of the few nations in the world to having nothing like a
Council of Churches or its equivalent.
Let’s be brutally honest and say that for most mainline denominations,
the Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc., we have more than enough
challenges of our own without thinking about sharing in the challenges of
others. Outside the mainline churches there has never really been any emphasis
on ecumenism and that doesn’t show any signs of changing in the near future. So
it seems reasonably clear that we are, for the most part at least, a long way
from being what Jesus prays for us to be in this intense and impassioned
passage that is our Gospel reading today, and those are a couple of important
points for us to recall about this reading.
Here once again, as we have for the past few weeks, we have part of the
Gospel of John’s rendering of what we might call Jesus’ long goodbye, and it is
long. Right through chapters 14, 15 and 16 Jesus is saying goodbye to his
disciples before being arrested and crucified. It’s his final opportunity to
tell them what they need to know and while it’s quite likely that John has
taken a whole pile of Jesus’ sayings and teachings from throughout his ministry
and grouped them here in one place that doesn’t detract from the urgency of the
discourse. Now, in chapter 17, having said what needed to be said, Jesus looks
up to heaven and prays, not for himself – this isn’t the ‘Father, if it be your
will take this cup from me’ prayer in the garden that we find in the other
Gospels – but for those he leaves behind. “I am asking on their behalf,” this
is intense and impassioned, it is a heartfelt plea for protection for those
Jesus knows will be vulnerable and under threat, and an equally heartfelt plea
that regardless of that they might go on to do and be what he has just spent
three chapters telling them to do and be, including being one.
It’s an intriguing and in our cultural setting quite foreign concept,
this idea of being one. We declare it in our creeds, ‘we believe in one holy,
catholic and apostolic Church,’ but what does it really mean? The Catechism at
the back of our Prayer Book offers an answer of sorts, “[The Church] is one
because it is one body, under one head, Jesus Christ.” It’s a very Anglican
answer in that it’s really more of a description than a genuine attempt to
actually explain how that one-ness works or what it
really means, but it is an answer of sorts.
Of course Jesus wasn’t trying to describe or explain. When we hear those
words, “that they may be one, as we are one” we’re not listening to a
declaration of what is, but rather an impassioned prayer for what could be;
“Protect them Father, that they might become as close as you and me – that they
may be one.” So just how close is that prayer to being fulfilled?
At our offertory this morning we’ll sing Charles Wesley’s hymn, ‘Christ
Whose Glory Fills The Skies’ as a way of joining with those gathering in
Auckland today for the signing of the Anglican-Methodist covenant. If you want
to find out more about the covenant there’s a copy on the notice board in the
foyer, but for some of us this is personal. For me as an ex-Methodist this is sign
of hope. There are still huge differences between us and wide gulfs that we
haven’t yet bridged, but it’s something. For both our churches this is a symbol
and a sign that at this low ebb in the ecumenical movement’s life there are
still some faint signs of cooperation. A reminder for us, perhaps, just as the
cross behind me is, that this is still the Season of Easter, just, a time in
which we are reminded that hope is always present, even in the midst of
hopelessness, and that death need not be the end but perhaps just a prelude to
resurrection.
So the covenant signing today is a sign that we can still work across
denominational boundaries occasionally. For more evidence though we really need
to look beyond the institutions to what’s happening at a local and sometimes
even individual level. Creative partnerships still spring up between different
churches at a local level, and even something as small and simple as the Good
Friday Procession of Witness here in the Village can remind us that Anglicans,
Presbyterians, Catholics, Baptists and Pentecostals are still able to walk
together, at least occasionally, but does that make us one? I think you’d be
hard pressed to say it does.
“That they may be one, as we are one.” I would suggest that when we look
at what our Church is doing and what all the churches are doing those words
might take on a somewhat haunting tone, but hopefully also an inspiring one.
There is, of course, a danger of hearing these words speaking to us at
only an institutional level, although I want to say clearly that the institution
is important. Church historian Clifford Nelson once asked, “Are there many
Christian losing sleep over the scandal of division?”
The fact that in this country the Christian Conference of Aotearoa, New Zealand
drifted into obscurity with barely a whiff of acknowledgement from most of us
would suggest probably not, which really is a scandal, but the fact remains
that in the reading we hear Jesus is not praying for an institution or a
denomination, but rather for his followers, his disciples, for those whom just
a few verses ago he described as friends.
So let’s bring this a whole lot closer to home. As we hold our Parish
Annual General Meeting today this seems like a timely point to ask, how close
to being one are we? As a Parish, as congregations, as
those who have chosen to walk the journey together in this place, how close to
being one are we? For the past few weeks we’ve been hearing this message from
both our Gospel and epistle readings – love one another, lay down your lives
for one another, serve one another, now today we have added to that, be one
with one another.
I said it last week, I’ll say it again today – it’s all about
relationships. “that they may be one as you and I are one.” What makes Jesus
and God one? The close, intimate, abiding-in relationship
that they share. How close are we? Let’s take it down a step further
still and ask, how close are you and I? How close are
you and the person beside you, or behind you, or in front of you?
“That
they may be one.”
As a denomination we’re still a long way away from that, and not for
entirely bad reasons. But if we think we need to start at a denominational
level, we’re wrong. If we think we need to start at a local church level, we’re
still wrong. If we think we need to start at a personal one to one, one to God,
level, then maybe we’re beginning to really hear Jesus’ prayer with what St
Benedict called ‘the ears of our hearts.’
“That they may be one.” May the God who knows
us better than we know ourselves give us the strength and hearts to make that
prayer a reality among and between us. Amen.