Acts 1:15 – 17, 21 – 26 / Psalm 1/ I John 5:9 – 13 / John 17:6 – 19
This is the homily provided for St. John’s, Huntingdon, by Fr. Gene Tucker, for Sunday, May 16, 2021.
“WHAT SORT OF ‘ONENESS’?”
(Homily text: John 17:6 – 19)
“Holy
Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me, that they may be one,
even as we are one.” These words are part of what has come to be known as
Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer”.
This
prayer occupies all of chapter seventeen of John’s Gospel account, and it ends
John’s extensive reporting of the things that happened during the Last Supper.
John devotes five chapters (13 – 17) to these events.
In
this prayer, our Lord is looking back at His earthly ministry, but He is also
looking forward to the post-Pentecost unfolding of the Good News (Gospel), as
His followers will go out into the known world, carrying with them the
wonderful news of what God had done in sending Jesus Christ into the world.
The
Lord prays that His followers will be “one”, even as He and the Father are one.
(It’s worth noting that our Lord will pick up this idea again near the end of
the prayer.)
What
sort of “oneness” might the Lord have in mind?
Would
it be an organic, completely unified “oneness”, or would it be some sort of a
“unity-within-diversity” oneness?
The
evidence seems to show that it was the second model, and not the first, that
emerged as the Church was formed and sent into the world.
Let’s
explore this a little.
One
of the most valuable books I made use of in seminary was the late Raymond
Brown’s[1] book
The Churches the Apostles Left Behind. Taking a close look at the New
Testament, Brown came to the conclusion that the early Church had no less than
seven different models of organization, of theological focus, and so forth. If
his observations are correct, then, there was no organic, completely unified
Church, even from its very early days. Such an idea must be, if this conclusion
is correct, a fiction and not a reality.
Could
Jesus’ citing of the relationship that He enjoys with the Father give us a clue
as to the shape of the about-to-be-born Church? Perhaps so. For we understand
that the Father, the Son (and the Holy Spirit) are one, completely one. And yet
we affirm that there are differences between the three Persons of the Holy
Trinity.
In
similar fashion, the Church would be unified in its common purpose and its
common witness to the risen Lord. But its governance would vary as the local
needs of the congregation demanded, and its theological concerns would also
vary from place to place, according to the local setting of each congregation.[2]
Such
a model can inform us about the shape of the “oneness” of the Church today.
It’s been estimated that there are no less than about 34,000 different
denominations or groupings of churches in the world. That’s an astounding
number. And in many cases, many of these church groupings differ from one
another almost not at all, which raises the question about why there are so
many quite similar denominations. There are, perhaps, a number of reasons why
unity, organic unity, between churches that are virtually the same, doesn’t
take place. (That isn’t a concern of this homily, but something that could be
explored at another time.)
Yet,
there are encouraging signs of growing cooperation and mutual respect and
unity-within-diversity among differing bodies of Christ. For example, not too
long ago, Pope Francis invited the (Anglican) Archbishop of Canterbury and a
representative of the Eastern Orthodox to Rome in common witness to Christ.
What a positive development!
Locally,
St. John’s works closely with other churches in the Forum of Churches, and we
cooperate in outreach ministries when hardship or disaster strikes our
community. There is also growing mutual respect and a shared love of Christ
among these churches. Sadly, there are some Christians in our community who
purposely seem to stand apart from such a cooperative witness.
We
Episcopalians, who are inheritors of the Anglican way of being Christian, are
uniquely positioned to appreciate the diverse nature of the Christian family,
for we incorporate into our self-awareness a Catholic thread and a Protestant
thread. We are, rightly, called the “Bridge Church” between Catholic and
Protestant. Moreover, we have never claimed to be the “one, true church”, so we
are able to see in other Christians those good things they bring in their
witness to Christ. We are blessed to be able to see such things and to make use
of them in our own witness to the Lord.
May
the Holy Spirit enable, illumine and guide us into greater and greater levels
of unity-within-diversity, in common witness to the risen Lord.
AMEN.
[1] Brown was a renowned New Testament scholar and a Roman Catholic priest.
[2] Such a distinction between what is essential to the Christian faith and life, and what is adiaphorus (not essential), is in view here.
