Easter
C7 Sermon:
Have
you noticed that religious groups can be the most contentious organizations? There’s a joke about this that Fr. David
Sweeny told me:
A man was walking across a bridge one day, and saw another
man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So he ran over and said,
"Stop! Don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" the other said. The
man replied, "Well, there's so much to live for!" The other said,
"Like what?" The man said, "Well, are you religious or
atheist?" The other said, "Religious." The man said, "Me too! Are you Christian or
Buddhist?" The other replied, "Christian." The man said,
"Me too! Are you Catholic or Protestant?" The other said,
"Protestant." The man said, “Me too! Are you Episcopalian or Baptist?”
The other replied, "Baptist!" The man said said, "Wow! Me too!
Are your
My mentor Aelred
used to say that Church politics are dirtier than any national politics.
Recently
my eyes fell upon a text which could be one of the most terrifying verses of
the Bible. Here Paul speaks to the Galatians. “The whole law is summed up in a
single commandment, ‘love your neighbor as your self’. If however you bite and
devour one another take care that you are not consumed by one another.’”
Another translation puts it more graphically: “If you go snapping at one
another and tearing each other to pieces, you better watch out or you will
destroy the whole community.” Paul knows
what good Christians can do to one another in the name of goodness and truth. Why are fervent, devoted Christians so susceptible
to mutual destruction? Many died during the Spanish inquisition. Many died during the reformation on the
protestant side and on the Roman Catholic side.
People were thrown into prison for any difference of opinion and all in
the name of sincerity and orthodoxy. Now
the Anglican Communion is playing out this age old drama once again.
In
the Gospel today, Jesus prays for the Church.
He prays not only for the disciples who are with him, but those who like
us who became his disciples though the ministry of others: “I ask not only on behalf of these, but also
on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all
be one.”
Each
of us can identify those persons who told us about Jesus, who taught us how to
love the scriptures as the sacrament of God’s presence and who helped us learn
to pray. These people probably include our parents and relatives, Sunday school
teachers like Sandra Moss, Choir directors like Ruth Manning, priests like
Father Kilbourn, and perhaps our mentors or professors. I think first of my
Grandmother who taught me the Our Father and my other prayers. There is a chain of people, a soul chain, that
stretches back to Jesus. Tradition has a
name for this chain of souls. It calls them the ‘royal road’ and I picture a
long line of saints joined arm in arm stretching from the days of the Apostles
to our own. Tradition means handing down
from own hand to another this is not the dead hand of the past, but a chain of
living wisdom, of holiness, a soul chain of brothers and sisters who responded
authentically to the spiritual fullness of their lives and helped others, who
wished it, to do the same. The quality
of our faith is about our participation in a community of faith. The strength of our orthodoxy is about our
desire to learn from the experience of our fore mothers and our fore fathers
and our willingness to share with our friends and families. Right belief is not a competition to see who
has more of it, for faith is not quantifiable. Deep faith is deep connectedness
to one another and to the whole communion of saints. Deep faith is inclining the ears of our hearts
to the Word of Christ on the lips of our brothers and sisters, our own soul
chain. Deep faith shares and does not dominate
others.
When
Jesus said, “I have other sheep that are not of this fold”, he started the
ecumenical movement. That ecumenical spirit thrived in the last century when
ever Christians humbly admitted that the body of Christ was broken, the church
divided, and confessed they had contributed to the brokenness by their sins. The
ecumenical conversation begins when we confess our sins and the ecumenical
spirit lives when we place our love of the Lord above our love of our WAY to the Lord. I believe that the only way we can heal the
divided Churches or even our own Anglican communion is to put our love of Jesus
above our love of our way to Jesus.
In
the Gospel we heard today, Jesus prays that we may all be one. He prays, “As you Father are in me and I am in
you, may they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent
me.” When we offer each other the peace
today, let us remember that we are offering each other the peace of Christ who
prays that we may all be one. He prays
that we all may be one with the Apostles, the martyrs, the saints, to our soul
chain of those who passed the faith on to us, to all the members past and
present of Nativity and to all our brothers and sisters of other faiths. Jesus
leaves us Peace. Jesus gives us peace. Let
this peace begin and let it begin with us.