“In the Fellowship of the Son”

Second Sunday after the Epiphany

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Today’s sermon could have been alternately titled.

On the one hand, it could be titled, “The Ongoing Quest for Christian Unity”.  On the other hand, it could equally be titled “Why I am a Presbyterian Christian”.

Which might seem like a strangely ‘denominationalistic’ title for a sermon that is being preached during the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  This afternoon, at four o’clock, Christians from a number of different denominations will be gathering together at St. Paul’s Basilica to celebrate the 100^th Anniversary of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.  For one hundred years, Christians from many different denominations have been gathering together, during the third week of January, to pray for a greater unity in the Church of Jesus Christ.

It is interesting to realize just how much has happened, in the last one hundred years, in relation to this question of the unity of the Church. 

Just over one hundred years ago, in the late 1800s and early 1900s, many discussions were taking place, in this country, about the ways to better unite the Church. As we all know, those discussions resulted, in 1925, in the formation of the United Church of Canada. 

There was, of course, a great deal of debate about the merits of such an ecumenical venture.  No one, at the time, ever seriously suggested that one could only be a Christian by being a Presbyterian; but many did not see the benefit or the theological rationale behind that desire to form one united church. One of my predecessors in this pulpit, Stewart Parker, was one of the most outspoken critics of the Church Union movement. On November 16, 1923 – shortly after his arrival from Scotland– Parker gave a speech at Knox Church, in which he stated,

It is true that I am comparatively a stranger in Canada.  But I have been long enough in the country to see what is going on and to deplore it.  I have been long enough here to deplore the rending of a great Church – for that is what is being done in the name of Union.  The Presbyterian Church in Canada was doing a useful and godly work, functioning as an honourable member in the body of Christendom.  Now it is being torn asunder.  Surely it is a sight to move the angels to tears!

In spite of such opposition, however, the Church Union movement led, in 1925, to the formation of the United Church, which brought together two-thirds of the Presbyterian Churches, along with many Methodist and Congregationalist churches. 

This congregation played an interesting role in that historic event.   When the Presbyterian General Assembly, in 1925, voted to go into that Church Union, those who dissented from that vote – and who, therefore, were responsible for the continuing presence of a Presbyterian tradition in this country – gathered in this very sanctuary, and sat in the pews in which you are now sitting.

As an aside, it might also interest you to know that, in addition to church support, the leaders in the Church Union movement wanted the newly united church to be formed by an act of Parliament.  In January 1924, the leaders in the Church Union movement therefore approached the leader of the Progressive party, named Robert Forke, to steer the act through the federal Legislature, and a Conservative Senator, and sometimes Cabinet Minister, named Gideon Decker Robertson, to steer the legislation through the Senate.  There is a rather humourous irony in the fact that I am now the minister of St. Andrew’s Church, where the Presbyterian Church continued in 1925, in light of the fact that Gideon Decker Robertson, the great champion of the United Church in the Canadian Senate, was my great-grandfather.

But does the fact that the Presbyterian Church stayed out of the Church Union movement mean that we are not interested in the unity of the Church?

Certainly not.

Over the past hundred years, the Presbyterian Church in Canada has been, and continues to be, a very active participant in ecumenical ventures. The Presbyterian Church was a founding member, and continues to play an active role, in the Canadian Council of Churches, the World Council of Churches, and the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, all of which were founded, in the twentieth century, with the intention of furthering the quest for Christian unity.  A few weeks from now, I will be flying to Switzerland to participate in meetings of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches, and will be meeting with Christians from all over the world and from all of the major Protestant and Orthodox traditions, as well as with a delegation from the Vatican.

Perhaps even more important than our participation in these organizations and councils, however, is the fact that Christian attitudes have changed.  A few years ago, I was visiting with an elderly woman, and she mentioned that when she was young, Protestants and Catholics did not even talk to each other, let alone live in the same neighbourhoods.  But her Presbyterian granddaughter was about to marry a young Catholic man, and my friend was simply thrilled that her new grandson-in-law was a dedicated Christian and active in his church.

But there is nothing that is particularly new, in our time, about the quest for Christian unity; rather, the challenge of unity in the Church has been present from the earliest days of Christianity.

This lack of unity is particularly evident in the letters to the church in Corinth, from which we are invited to read today.  The Corinthian letters are filled with discussions about divisions in the Church, conflicts between believers, and scandalous situations which plagued that early community. 

What is interesting to notice in today’s reading, however, is that before plunging into discussions of those conflicts, Paul first celebrated the unity that the followers of Christ already possessed in Christ.  “I give thanks to my God always for you because of the grace of God that has been given you in Christ Jesus…”  And then, after celebrating the gifts that God had given to them, Paul writes, “God is faithful; by him you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.”

What a wonderful phrase – by him you were called in the fellowship of his Son.  In spite of our apparent conflicts and divisions, there is a pre-existing, God-given unity to which we are called in Jesus Christ.   Because of what Christ has accomplished for us, we have already been drawn into the fellowship of the Son.

But being together in this fellowship of the Son does not mean that we are all exactly alike.  Nor should this lack of complete uniformity be a cause for lament.

After all, it is in the coming together of different people, with different gifts, that a time of fellowship with others becomes enriching and meaningful.  The question that we might ask ourselves is whether we might be enriched, rather than weakened, by the differences that exist between us.

Which adds a slightly different nuance to the nature of this quest for Christian unity at this present moment in our culture and history.  That is, one hundred years ago, the goal of unity was the formation of one united church.  And, since that time, there was a great deal of discussion, through the twentieth century, in which Christians gathered together in ecumenical settings, and tried to celebrate all that they had in common.  “What we have in common is so much greater than what is different between us” would be frequently stated, with the implicit discouragement of speaking about anything which makes us distinct from one another.

But we may be entering a different time.  We may be entering a time when we need to reconsider whether diversity necessarily implies disunity.  Is it possible that we might find ways, with Christians of other traditions, to hold up our differences not as hurdles to be overcome on the journey to unity, but rather as gifts that we might offer to one another to strengthen the wider fellowship of the Son? 

In my own experiences in ecumenical situations, I have often found my faith has been enriched not by what I have in common with others, but rather by learning from the strengths of traditions that are different than my own.

But this creates a profound challenge to us. That is, if we, as Presbyterian Christians, are going to have anything to offer to the wider fellowship of the Son, then we must know what are the strengths that might be offered as gifts to others.

This is not only a question for those of us who are engaged in official ecumenical situations.  Rather, it is important to realize that each one of us has ecumenical interactions every day.  In our homes and families, in our workplaces, in our times of leisure, every one of us finds ourselves in situations where we interact with Christians from other backgrounds, to say nothing of our interactions with people of other faiths.  So what gifts do we have to offer?

A number of recent authors have sought to explore what the distinctive elements of the reformed or Presbyterian tradition might be. 

One such list is found in a book entitled An Introduction to the Reformed Tradition by John Leith. I offer the following summary of his comments for your consideration, with the assurance that there will be no test on them later:

Leith suggests that the distinctive ethos of the reformed or Presbyterian tradition is rooted in a combination of nine qualities

1)     faith in the majesty and sovereignty of God;

2)     a resistance to idolatry;

3)     a belief that the divine purposes are being worked out in human history;

4)     an emphasis on the call to live ethical and holy lives;

5)     a treasuring of the life of the mind in the service of God;

6)     an emphasis on the value of preaching;

7)     a desire for order and organization in the church and in its pastoral care;

8)     a desire to live disciplined lives;

9)     and a respect for the value of simplicity. 

Whether we realize it or not, Leith suggests that Presbyterian spirituality is shaped by these nine elements in significant ways.

A different way of viewing our tradition is offered by the Rev. Dr. Stephen Hayes, in a short book entitled “Being a Presbyterian in Canada Today”.  Hayes offers three important defining qualities, suggesting that the Presbyterian Church is an evangelical, a catholic and a reformed tradition. 

Hayes suggests that we are evangelical – which is based on the Greek word which means ‘good news’ – because we believe that there is good news in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ.  The word evangelical, in our modern culture, has sometimes been misused by those who embrace an aggressive and an overly individualistic understanding of faith.  But, in spite of these misuses of the term, we nonetheless continue to be an evangelical tradition.

Second, Hayes suggests that we are catholic, by which he offers the reminder that we are a part of the universal, or catholic, church.  So often, people wonder why we say “I believe in the holy catholic church” when we say the creed.  The reason for this is that the term ‘catholic’ means ‘universal.  When the adjective Roman is added to the word catholic, we are referring to that particular stream of the church which finds its unity through its allegiance to the Bishop of Rome.  Although we respect the Pope as a brother in Christ, we believe that our unity in Christ and our place in Christ’s Church is not defined by our relationship with one particular man in Rome.  We believe that the catholicity of the Church is larger than that tradition that places Rome at the center – and so we can say, with all integrity, that we believe in the catholic (or universal) church.

Third, Hayes suggests that we are reformed.  That is, we embrace the insights of the Protestant reformers, and the call to continue to be a reformed and a reforming tradition.  This call to be reformed invites us, in every age, to be willing to explore and embrace change for the sake of an ever greater faithfulness to the truths and duties of Christian discipleship as they are revealed to us in Scripture. 

There is much to ponder in the lists of distinctives that the reformers offer to us, and that modern authors continue to explore.  But it is good, at some point, for each one of us to construct such a list for ourselves.  It is good for each one of us to ponder what gifts we, as Presbyterian Christians, might bring into the fellowship of the Son so that the unity of the Church might be strengthened.

As I reflect on this question, I offer, to you, what are, for me, six of the most important gifts that the Presbyterian tradition contributes to the wider fellowship. None of these are exclusive to the Presbyterian tradition; but the way that our tradition combines these various strengths creates a rather distinct form of Christian spirituality.

So what are the six gifts that I feel we might offer to the wider fellowship?

First, we value the heart and the mind.  Jesus invited us to love God with our hearts, our souls, our strength and our minds. We embrace the insights that come to us from other intellectual disciplines; but we do not do so to the detriment of our emotional lives. There is much laughter and many tears among us. And this constant striving to balance the heart and the mind creates a situation in which we are neither paralyzed by arid intellectualism nor swept away by emotional exuberance.

Second, we value the importance of shared leadership through the elders in a congregation.  The word ‘presbyterian’ itself is based on the New Testament Greek word for elders – the ‘presbyteros’.  As a result, leadership is shared and truth is discerned through the shared wisdom of the congregation, the elders and the ministers in our tradition. As Presbyterians, we do not have any one leader who dictates, to us, what we believe and how we should live out our faith.  While this means that it sometimes takes time to make difficult decisions, we live with the confidence that when the decision has been made, it has not been arbitrarily ‘imposed’ on us by some distant church hierarchy.

Third, we value the centrality of Scripture and of preaching.  While the music, the liturgy, the sense of community and the wisdom of the tradition are invaluable aids in our experience of worship, what stands at the very heart of our spirituality is the importance of an engagement with Scripture.  We value those services in which bridges are built between the world of the Bible and the world in which we live.

Fourth, we value a balance between order and freedom in worship.  Presbyterian worship can take many forms – from highly formal styles with wonderful classical music to services with a guitar around a campfire – but there is an order that guides us regardless of the context.  And within that structured order, there is freedom.  We are not required to use certain prescribed prayers, but can bring our own creativity into the experience of worship. 

Fifth, we value our connectedness with others.  To be Presbyterian means that we are not individual congregations, only concerned with our own well-being, but we always exist in relationships with other Christians in other congregations.  In the city of Toronto, this means that we now are enriched by our relationships with Presbyterian Christians from a wide variety of cultural, racial and linguistic communities.  To be Presbyterian means that we are always connected with others.

Sixth, we value the ministry of all members of the church, both clergy and laity alike.  To be a part of the church is neither an invitation to a spectator sport nor is it analogous to membership in a social club.  Rather, to join a church is to become a partner in the ministry of that congregation.  Although some of us have ‘priestly’-type responsibilities, we do not refer to our clergy as ‘priests’ since we are all part of what the Bible calls the ‘priesthood of believers’, and we all have ministries that we are called to offer in the service of God and of the world.  We believe that all people are called to exercise their gifts for ministries.

These are only a few of the riches of our tradition. Other traditions, to be sure, have these and many other strengths.  But these are strengths that we must hold up, as Presbyterians, not only for ourselves but for the good of the wider fellowship of the Son, the Body of Christ in this world. 

But we do not celebrate these gifts in order to perpetuate the Presbyterian Church.  The issue is not whether the Presbyterian Church continues; what is important is that the ministry of the Church of Jesus Christ is strengthened in this world. 

I would like to conclude with words that were offered by the Rev. Dr. Samuel Kobia, the General Secretary of the World Council of Churches at a recent meeting in Geneva, just over a year ago.  After discussing the challenges and joys of the quest for Christian unity, Kobia concluded his remarks with the following words:

“I have called you friends,” Jesus told his followers (John 15:15), prior to his prayer that we may all be one (17:21).  Friendship is at the heart of all we do.  In the end, our talk of a fellowship of churches, integrated models of working, interactive programmes and new patterns of ecumenism, depends on the formation of friendships that will abide....

 

It is true that there remain some honest differences among the churches... But we have a friend in common.  So let us...build relationships of trust and love, and continue our journey together to the glory of the Triune God.