One reading which is often wheeled out at this time during the
Octave for Christian Unity is the 17thchapter
of John?s Gospel, often known as ?the High Priestly Prayer? of Jesus.
In that prayer, Jesus prays that his disciples ?may be one, so
that the world may believe?.
I was at a Conference of Churches Together in Britain and Ireland at
Swanwick a year or two ago, and the daily devotions through the week
were led by one of the most colourful Catholic priests in Scotland,
Father John Fitzsimmons. He is a formidable scholar, and was
something of a thorn in the flesh of the late Cardinal Archbishop Tom
Winning. At the time he was the parish priest in Erskine.
One morning he was leading that august body in studying that
verse from John 17:21. He read it out, paused, looked at the
gathering and said ?If I had a pound for every time I have heard this
used on ecumenical occasions, I wouldnae be standing here talking to
the likes of you ? I?d be on the beach in the Bahamas?.
So, I decided not to go down that road this year. It is a verse
which I have just about worn out, I think. I have been an
ecumenist since my boyhood, when our village Rector, Father Joe
Williamson, who later became famous in the East End of London, used
to work together with our small village Methodist congregation ?for
the good of the village?, as he used to say. Then in 1962 I sat
on a sub-group in the East African Unity talks with The Revd Gavin
White, and we discussed baptism. Then we were into the Anglican
Methodist Conversations in the mid 1960s, and so it has continued
until now.
To preach about Christian Unity to the congregation here at St John?s
is, I have to say, for the most part preaching to the converted.
For almost 10 years (yes, it was 1997) you have accepted a
Methodist minister among you. For my part, I have to say, that
I have found you to be a warm, accepting and supportive bunch of
Christians, good-humoured (again, for the most part) and deeply
committed to living out the gospel. For me, it has been both a
delight and a privilege, and I applaud you all.
Now we are to take all that has happened over these 10 years a step
further. As most of you will know, plans are afoot to forge
even closer links between the Episcopal Church and the Methodist
Church. The Chair of the Methodist Synod in Scotland, the Revd
Jim Jones, and the Primus, Dr Idris Jones, are very keen that our two
churches should build on the foundation which has been laid here.
This year, if all goes well, we shall see a Covenant signed
between us, which will mean that any Methodist, say, who comes to
live in this locality, will find a home in this congregation, and be
able to participate fully in its life. Indeed, we hope this
will happen in many other places too.
?Why does this matter??, you may ask. Let me say briefly why I
believe that it does matter. I wonder if you remember my four
?Cs?, which chart the way churches have looked at one another over
the years? Once upon a time, churches were in Conflict.
Then they were in Competition. Then there was
Co-operation. And then, finally, there is Commitment. You
can look around the churches in Dumfries and ask ?which letter C are
we on, are they on?? For us here at St John?s, as regards the
Methodist Church, we are about to move decisively from ?co-operation?
to ?commitment?.
At Christmas I had an interesting conversation with a lady in Tesco?s
who was handing out promotional leaflets. She had wished me a
Happy Christmas, and asked me how I would be spending it.
?Mostly in church? I replied, to her astonishment! We
continued to chat, and she told me that the churches in Stranraer,
where she lived, were in a poor state, for they were having to unite.
I told her that it wasn?t always bad news, and that if we can
commit to one another from a position of strength, it is much better.
She seemed amazed at such an outlandish notion! Why do it
if you are OK? ? a common response to all things ecumenical in some
quarters, I?m afraid.
So why does it matter? I have purposely stayed with this
morning?s gospel to search for an answer. This passage is often
seen as a sort of personal manifesto for Jesus. There he is
back to his roots, to tell family and friends that he is about to
start a new life, laying out his programme for ministry. He is
going to proclaim good news to the poor, release to the captives,
recovery of sight to the blind, freedom to the oppressed. That
is some manifesto for one man, but according to Luke it went down
well at first with the good folk of Nazareth., as you will see when
it comes to next week?s gospel. .But then they all said ?Och
aye! We kent his faither!?, and then they lost their tempers and
kicked him out.
Ah! The fickleness of it all! And so from that time on,
as followers of Jesus have struggled to get this message across, we
have been beset on all sides with all sorts of weights and sins which
beset us. Still we wrestle with God?s mission while the world
either ignores us or treats us with contempt as argumentative and
awkward people, who have dismally failed to do the things Jesus gave
us to do. People still live in poverty, of body, mind and
spirit, are still bound by so many things which weigh them down,
still stumble around blindly trying to find direction for their
lives, and are still oppressed by all the things which clutter their
lives and deny them fulfilment.
We as Christians claim to have the solution. Hold to Christ! we
say. But most of the time it falls on deaf ears. What the
world sees is the Christ of the Episcopal Church, or the Christ of
the Methodist Church, or the Christ of the River of Life, or the
Presbyterians, or the Catholics. That is how the world sees us,
if they take the trouble to look, that is. Most of the time we
are an irrelevance, and the world passes us by.
I cannot claim that bringing together Episcopalians and Methodists
will somehow transform even Dumfries at a stroke, let alone Scotland,
or, indeed, the whole wide world. But I am sure, absolutely
sure, that this is a step change, and a step in the right direction ?
yes, so that the world may believe.
So there it is ? the big picture, we as the church carrying on with
the manifesto of Jesus himself, good news to the poor and so on.
Then there is the situation here at St John?s, which
demonstrates the patient laying of the foundation for a degree of
unity over the past 10 years ? Episcopalian and Methodist ? to enable
the Body of Christ to proclaim the Good News more effectively. .
Let my try to pull that together and contextualise it in
closing with this.
Archbishop Oscar Romero, who was murdered in El Salvador 27 years
ago, said something which resonates with what I have just been trying
to say. He said:
"This is what we are about.
We plant seeds that one day will grow.
We water seeds that are already planted,
knowing that they will hold future promise.
We lay foundations that will need further development.
We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything,
and there is a liberation in that.
This enables us to do something
and to do it very well.
It may be incomplete
but it is a beginning, a step along the way.
We may never see the end results,
but that is the difference between the master builder
and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders;
ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future which is not our own."
Christ is both the foundation and the master builder So let us
build together with him.