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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2012 Graymoor Ecumenical and Interreligious Institute Sermon An Ecumenical Celebration of the Word of God January 20, 2012 Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos Associate General Secretary – Faith & Order and
Interfaith Relations
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the “We Will All Be Changed by the Victory of
Our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Corinthians 15:58) Week Theme: We Will All Be Changed by the Victory
of Our Lord Jesus Christ
Ecumenical Service Habakkuk 3:17 – 19 1 Corinthians 15:51 – 58 John 12:23 – 26 Day #3 Theme: Changed by the Suffering Servant
Daily Reflection Isaiah 53:3 – 11 Psalms 22:12 – 24 1 Peter 2:21 – 25 Luke 24:25 – 27 Thank you for welcoming me today to preach at this
Ecumenical Celebration of the Word of God for the Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity. It is a great honor for me to do this, because I do
so in the midst of faithful Christians whose vocations, and indeed whose
daily lives, are dedicated to the pursuit of Christian unity. For this
same reason, it is also quite intimidating to take on this task. And
so, having accepted your invitation, at the same time I find myself trusting
in another hallmark of your community: a welcoming, gentle – and
forgiving – spirit.
But perhaps a better way to describe the NCC is as a
place where, among their many common ministries, the churches send their
theologians to wrestle together with the theological issues that divide the
churches; their activists to advocate together in an imperfect world for
just policies that reflect our belief in God’s kingdom; and their educators
to produce together the kinds of materials needed to form our young people
into mature Christians. Given these common ministries, and others, it
is fitting that a representative of the NCC be invited to preach at this
service. But, at a time when the NCC, and indeed all ecumenical
organizations, globally and nationally, regionally and locally, are
undergoing severe challenges, in preparing for this homily I started to
wonder what I could say that would be meaningful. For this is a
difficult time for all of us who love this work and still see the relevance
of our goal. If only to mention these challenges and not to dwell on
them, they include financial challenges, missiological challenges,
organizational challenges, and even philosophical challenges. All of
these challenges, when it comes right down to it, threaten the very future
of the ecumenical movement. What, then, can we say about Christian
unity in a time such as this? What we can say, of course, is that “we shall be changed
by the victory of our Lord, Jesus Christ.” The theme of this week, and
the scripture readings chosen for this service, seem to point to our answer
to this question. And
so, what did we read in the epistle for today? In 1 Corinthians
15:51-58, we find the words that serve as the basis of our theme: “We
shall be changed…[by] the victory [of] our Lord, Jesus Christ.” But
what does Fine, fine, a skeptic might say dismissively. A
critic of ecumenism might chuckle at such seeming naïveté. Indeed,
what about the very real challenges we face that I mentioned a moment ago? Consider the financial challenges. The economy is
still weak, giving is down, investments are vulnerable. And yet, in
today’s reading of Habakkuk 3:17-19, we hear the prophet saying that,
despite a lack of resources, we should rejoice because God is still leading
us. “Though the fig tree do not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines,
the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food…I will rejoice in
the Lord…[because] God, the Lord, is my strength.” In today’s
situation, it might read: “though the checks are not coming in, though
we are spending more than we are bringing in, and though cash reserves are
depleting…God, the Lord, will sustain us.” Admittedly, this does
take faith to accept. But it also takes faithful action. If we
face these difficulties head on with methods and that are proven and not
just well intentioned, like a vinedresser and a farmer who apply their
skills year after year and are blessed with bounty after a season of
drought, our faith will be rewarded. And why? Because our task –
pursuing Christian unity – is right, and God is with us as we pursue it. If we move to the Gospel reading for today, John
12:23-26, we find more that responds to our prayer for Christian unity.
We might say it speaks to the organizational challenges we face. I
would guess that most preaching on this passage jumps immediately to the
last part of the reading, which says, “If anyone serves me, he must follow
me; and where I am, there shall my servant be also; if any one serves me,
the Father will honor him.” Of course, this statement, quite naturally, fits in as an
exhortation to those of us trying to figure out what is in store for our
future in the ecumenical movement. How comforting it is to know that
God is with us in our vocation. If we truly believe that what we do is
honorable in the sight of God, then God is working in our midst to help make
the goal of Christian unity a reality. But I don’t want us to focus on that part of the passage.
I would rather that we look a bit earlier in the passage. It is here
that we find something equally applicable to our situation today, but
perhaps not as comforting: “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain
of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it
bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his
life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” Could we not extend this verse to take in our own
situation? Could we not paraphrase it in this way: “He who loves
the ecumenical movement exactly like it is will lose it, and she who hates
it – or is willing to change it – will keep it”? I’m thinking about
the structures we have built, the rules we have adopted, the processes we
have affirmed, and even the oversight committees we have formed to oversee
these structures, rules and processes. Do they still fit in this new
era? Do they still serve their original purposes? Do they now
take up more of our energy than our ministries do? If we continue with our paraphrase, might we also ask
ourselves: “Are we to allow our ecumenical grain of wheat die as we
know it in order to let it bear new fruit in the future?” In other
words, can we let go of what we hold onto – even the programs that have
filled our ecumenical agenda for so long – and re-imagine them for a new
day? This is not an admission that what we have done has been wrong.
On the contrary, it is a testament to their strength and maturity, that we
can start afresh. After all, that grain of wheat that falls to the
earth comes from a mature wheat stalk, and when it does fall to the earth it
starts to grow wheat anew. Has our ecumenical movement as we know it
matured as much as it can, and is it now time to start anew? Do we
have confidence enough in God to bring a new kind of ecumenical witness to
life, and do we have confidence enough in ourselves to responsibly and
effectively steward this new kind of ecumenical witness so that it bears
fruit? As part of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, each
day has a set of readings for reflection. Today’s has to do with the
suffering servant, as described in Isaiah 53:3-11 and interpreted as Christ
in Luke 24:25-27. As you might imagine, they also can be read to
pertain to our ecumenical life. In Psalms 22:12-24, we read the following: “I am
poured out like water, and all my bones are out of joint; my heart is like
wax, it is melted within my breast; my strength is dried up like a potsherd,
and my tongue cleaves to my jaws; thou dost lay me in the dust of death.”
Can it get any more dramatic than that to describe how tired many of us are
from the work we have done only to see it questioned for its relevance and
diminished in the sight even of our churches? This speaks directly to our missiological challenges.
In an age when all premises of church life are questioned by those inside
and outside the church, does what we do really matter anymore? More
fundamentally: does Christian unity have anything to do with Christian
proclamation? I think we would all answer that it does. I know
that, as the 100-year anniversary of modern mission was celebrated last
year, this connection was affirmed. After all, Christian division does
not lend itself easily to a coherent proclamation of the crucified and risen
Christ. But such a connection requires us to stay committed to the
task, and to know that God is with us even as we seek unity “so that the
world may believe” (John 17:21). And so, to shore up our commitment, let us
look at how this psalm ends: “For [God] has not despised or abhorred the
affliction of the afflicted; and he has not hid his face from him, but has
heard, when he cried to him.” Even in the midst of the afflictions we
face in what some consider a post-Christian time, God has heard us.
Let us rejoice! Finally, the philosophical challenges. What is
Christian unity anyway? Is it theological unity, as it was envisioned
when the ecumenical movement first started, and as it is still largely
affirmed in Faith and Order? Is it unity in witness, as can be
achieved through a coalition of faith groups cooperating in advocacy
efforts? Is it maximal unity that we seek, one that conflates unity
with uniformity? Or is it minimal unity, a common denominator?
Our founding documents say that we seek to “manifest the visible unity of
the Church,” but we don’t exactly say what this means. To some, it
means that we celebrate the degree of unity that we already have in our
common confession of Jesus Christ; to others it means that we lament the
degree of disunity we still have as reflected by the absence of a common
Eucharistic fellowship. Of course, this is the tension with which we
live, and the tension we hope to one day resolve, all the while living with
this tension and knowing that our current state is a blend of these two
polar opposites. But still, it requires us to ask, especially at this
difficult moment in our history, do we really want unity, or are we resigned
to our divisions? Do the churches formally involved in the ecumenical
movement see their covenant with one another as ancillary, or as central, to
their own mission? Will we allow these challenges to end what we have
started? Let us look to the epistle reading for today’s reflection, 1
Peter 2:21-25, for the answer to this last question: “For this you
have been called, because Christ also suffered for you, leaving you an
example, that you should follow in his steps…When he suffered, he did not
threaten; but he trusted to him who judges justly.” He didn’t give up.
He trusted God. So may it be with us. And may we trust one
another as we work through these difficulties together, and come refreshed
to our task with a renewed vision of what we truly seek. My friends, let us indeed celebrate this week, knowing
that the last 100 years or so have brought forth much fruit: bilateral
unions, doctrinal agreements, reconciled relationships, common witness
against injustice. Let us pray for those who have gone before us in
this work, those who work alongside us, and those who will come after us to
take up the cause. And let us go forth from here, fully aware of the
challenges before us, but not afraid of them. For we know that, as we
rise to meet these challenges, “we shall all be changed by the victory of
our Lord Jesus Christ,” and that this change shall enable us to walk further
on the road toward Christian unity. For this we pray. Amen.
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An
Orthodox Christian theologian, I myself come to the vocation of ecumenism
through my work at the National Council of Churches. Formally, the NCC
describes itself as “the leading force for ecumenical cooperation among
Christians in the United States [whose] member faith groups — from a wide
spectrum of Protestant, Anglican, Orthodox, Evangelical, historic African
American and Living Peace churches — include 45 million persons in more than
100,000 local congregations in communities across the nation.”