Exploring Ecumenism

One Flock, One Shepherd

Image via Wikipedia

This is part of a series of posts based on the Churches Together in England publication one light: one world.  If you click on the link you will find the biblical texts.  This post of the same name covers the purpose of this series.

John 10: 14 - 16

This is a similar message to the last post.  The difference is a matter of emphasis.  You can read this passage as a vision of unity;  all the different traditions will in time be united.

Or else you are invited to understand there are others, not counted by the existing churches because they are peripheral.  They are people who Jesus died for (John is writing from after the passion) and are not a part of the recognised Christian traditions. 

There is a lot of debate these days about Universalism, the belief that ultimately all people will be saved.  One argument against Universalism assumes those who are saved must accept Jesus Christ as saviour. 

What is rarely discussed is, the identity of the saved.  It is easy to discount those who are on the margins.  It is very easy to condemn those who are peripheral to social norms, for example gays; people who are already oppressed because they are despised.

If the anti-Universalists are right, and the axe will fall, cutting some off from God, the question is where the axe will fall.  I suspect it will fall in unexpected places.

But it seems many are only too keen to leap to conclusions on God's behalf.  Those who are saved in this passage are those who listen to God's voice.  The key is not their goodness, you do not have to be good to qualify.  It is by entering into a relationship with God that we learn to be good.  It is those who 'listen to my voice' who are part of the flock.

Better that One Man Die for the People

Image by Happy A via Flickr

This is part of a series of posts based on the Churches Together in England publication one light: one world.  If you click on the link you will find the biblical texts.  This post of the same name covers the purpose of this series.

John 11: 49 - 52

Reading the passion narratives, it is obvious Jesus unites not his friends (they run away) but his enemies.  What united them?  Caiaphas does not speak for himself alone.  He's named because he was High Priest that year.  Those he represents agree because they are fearful of the Romans (v48).

The passion narratives show us the reality of human political and religious systems.  They will dispose of an awkward individual because they are under threat.  Make no mistake, their fear is not for the people but for their own power base.  We have seen this caricatured in recent weeks by General Gaddafi's self-serving rhetoric.

Of course, the reason CTE has chosen this passage is v52.  The idea is Caiaphas prophesied the gathering into one of 'the dispersed children of God'.  So, what are we to make of this? 

First, whatever it means it is obvious John is reading post-resurrection learning into his account of events.  So, why are the children dispersed?  We cannot divorce our understanding of this text from the passion narrative.  It is about oppression.  The children of God are dispersed because they are oppressed.  This story is uniting them, so they may act as one people.

These days in England, the children of God are neither oppressed nor dispersed.  They are not a people on the margins, but a people at the power centres.  To a degree, adepts themselves at oppression and dispersal.

We see the Christians in the Middle East suffering because of the activities of Western Christians, alienating the settled religious peoples and causing conflict between them.

What really divides Christians is power. 

We Are His People

Image by B A Bowen Photography via Flickr

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is part of a series of posts based on the Churches Together in England publication one light: one world.  If you click on the link you will find the biblical texts.  This post of the same name covers the purpose of this series.

Psalm 95: 1 - 7

This and three previous texts are meant to illustrate, as far as CTE is concerned, 'The Unity of God's People'.  I find these texts rather unconvincing.  I don't find nationhood theologically helpful and the last two, whilst moving onto more helpful ground, don't really lead me anywhere meaningful.

This last text in the sequence presumably invites us to see Christians worshipping the same God together.  The (Jewish) community for whom this was written will have found this helpful, they were a real, not metaphorical, nation.

When I read this in the context of unity, it reminds me of our divisions.  This is one kind of worship for one kind of people.  It is not my worship or any other Christian's.  The ways in which we worship tend to divide us.  From disagreement about what constitutes a good hymn (or song) through to the politics surrounding the eucharist, worship divides.

The frog croaks, the bird sings.  We don't believe their prayers are devalued because we like the noise of one but not of the other.  We worship according to our dispositions.  Genuine worship is accepted by God, whatever it is.  The problem is where we find we cannot enter whole-heartedly into another's worship.  But is it so difficult to find at least a little common ground?

Called to be God's Holy People

Image via Wikipedia

This is part of a series of posts based on the Churches Together in England publication one light: one world.  If you click on the link you will find the biblical texts.  This post of the same name covers the purpose of this series.

1 Corinthians 1: 2 - 3

The image of Christendom haunts our ecumenical conversations because, whilst many of us long for unity, we dread the idea of a single institutional church. 

Perhaps in the second half of the last century, when the British churches were enthusiastic for unity, Christendom was a distant historical memory.  Today, many movements are suspicious of unity schemes.  Radical Christian movements see Christendom as an aberrant form of Christianity and seek church structures that resist it.  I suppose radical Islam, at least as it is represented in the Western media, also reminds some Christians of the dangers of theocracy.

I share these suspicions.  I don't see any value in a future where we are subject to a single institution.  I have always understood holy obedience, not as obedience to institutional power, who justify their actions through claiming God's support, but as listening and discerning the will of God.

Paul is writing to the church in Corinth, a church which is prone to delusions of power.  Paul doesn't build them up in terms of authority.  Their unity is through Jesus Christ and their calling is as one community amongst many.

They are defined as church not through a single coherent church structure but with reference to their calling and the many other communities who share their calling.

The key to unity has to be in mutual recognition and solidarity, not through the imposition of a single universal church structure.

Related articles

• The Holy Nation (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)
• Harmony in Diversity (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)

The Holy Nation

Image via Wikipedia

This is part of a series of posts based on the Churches Together in England publication one light: one world.  If you click on the link you will find the biblical texts.  This post of the same name covers the purpose of this series.

1 Peter 2:9 - 10

Once again we have the image of Christians as a nation.  I suppose, despite our differences, nationhood implies we're all one at base.  But it equally could mean we're separated from others because we are a nation and they are not a part of it.

Christendom is still an idea active in the minds of some Christians, often unconsciously.  It was a time when the Christian faith was a nation.  Or at least Christendom was the basic idea behind the nations of Europe. 

This passage is larded with grandiose ideas - we're not only a holy nation but also a chosen nation and a royal priesthood.  I hope the author meant these terms ironically, although they have often been taken as a literal justification for the status quo of the wealthy.

I suspect the author was saying to a weak and despised community, 'Look, it might seem you're the dregs but actually you have been called to be like kings.  Don't let the kings of this world tell you otherwise.  Glory in your poor status, knowing you have been called by God.'

This is a call to humility, not a reason for priests to lord it over the rest of humanity.

A Great Nation

Image via Wikipedia

This is part of a series of posts based on the Churches Together in England publication one light: one world.  If you click on the link you will find the biblical texts.  This post of the same name covers the purpose of this series.

Genesis 12:1-3

It is difficult to believe many people in the modern West see themselves as children of Abraham.  The story goes, he is not only father of the Jews but also (directly through Ishmael) of Muslims and (indirectly) of Christians.

I suppose this passage is here to make the point that we are all of one nation.  But the very concept of nation implies there are other nations.  Can this be read as divisive, as well as implying the unity of all Christians?  Certainly insisting that we're all part of the same nation will cut little mustard in the entrenched conflicts around the world.

We are it seems divided according to whether we bless or curse Abraham.  The final clause however says, in Abraham all families of the earth shall be blessed.  Perhaps there is a glimpse here of the final Oikoumene.

I can see the logic but I must confess I am indifferent to this line of argument.  Christians are one in the Spirit, in our recognition of Jesus Christ and in our hope that ultimately all shall be reconciled in Christ.  Abraham seems a little superflous to me although I appreciate others might disagree.  Perhaps it is a helpful text where there are conflicts between Christians, Jews and Muslims?

To God be the Glory

Image via Wikipedia

This is part of a series of posts based on the Churches Together in England publication one light: one world.  If you click on the link you will find the biblical texts.  This post of the same name covers the purpose of this series.

Romans 11: 33-36

In this passage Paul builds upon what it means to love God.  The Good News is God's Kingdom is present in the here and now.  Paul can hear God's call to the whole of creation to explore God's riches, wisdom and knowledge.

But these things are just out of reach.  Who has known the mind of the Lord?  The question invites a positive answer but implies no-one can quite give such an answer.  It is this longing that draws on not only the churches, but the whole of humanity and indeed the whole of creation.

What we learn from modern cosmology is the whole creation is itself a response to God.  Evolution is matter's way of responding to God.  Against the constraints of entropy, life responds in ever more ordered ways.

One final point about this sequence of posts about the creation.  My purpose has been to make a theological point.  I have not attempted to prove God has a role in evolution.  What I'm suggesting  evolution itself is a response to God.  It is not that every individual aspires to know God but individuals are themselves a response to God.  It is not terribly important whether scientists agree with theologians on this point.  It will always be possible to understand evolution from both atheistic and theistic perspectives. 

Related articles

• All of Creation Waits with Eager Longing (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)
• It Was Very Good (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)
• The Lord Encompasses All (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)
• The World Belongs to the Lord (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)

God Loved the World so Much

Image via Wikipedia

This is part of a series of posts based on the Churches Together in England publication one light: one world.  If you click on the link you will find the biblical texts.  This post of the same name covers the purpose of this series.

John 3:16

Whenever I see the word 'perish', I think of a state somewhere between life and death; a sort of undead state.  Remember where Jesus warns his disciples, those who live by the sword will perish by the sword?  Perish here means the act of using the sword erodes the moral person; we become driven by something which is not of God and so might as well be dead.  To perish is to give up on life.

To long for God's Kingdom is to choose life.  It is to choose to enter into dialogue with God, to respond to God's questions, to embrace the pain of being alive.  It is ultimately, the most difficult thing of all, to learn to love.

God's example to us is in God's love for the world.  The God we saw challenging the world in Isaiah is the God we find loving the world and suffering for the world.

Somehow the churches are called to join in on this enterprise of love.  This means to share in God's pain as well as God's love.  We learn to do this and experience unity through our divisions; the ways in which we are challenged to love one another despite our differences.

All of Creation Waits with Eager Longing

Image via Wikipedia

This is part of a series of posts based on the Churches Together in England publication one light: one world.  If you click on the link you will find the biblical texts.  This post of the same name covers the purpose of this series.

Romans 8:19-23

Why evolution?  Why not create everything by design?  An answer is in this text.  We can see a purpose for evolution in this text.  All creation, living and non-living, strains towards God and is in some pain as it does so. 

Once again we are with the Oikoumene.  It is as if creation knows there has to be more than its immediate experience.

Our experience of modern cosmology is one of ultimate futility.  All things will come to an end.  Eventually, not only our own sun but all stars will burn out.  Creation will return to a soup of energy free chaotic matter.

But there is hope this creation is somehow a stepping stone to something else, it is as if the whole of creation is moving towards not death but new life.

We sometimes hear of the second coming, the belief that Jesus will return and put an end to all things.  This is sometimes known as eschatology.  Some people say the unity of the church is something we will discover at the end time; unity is eschatological.

But the thing that distinguishes life from death is its dynamic, life changes into more and more complex forms.  To give birth is to bring about new life.  Perhaps the eschaton is not so much unity as a new and reconciled life, increasingly diverse?

Related articles

• one light: one world (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)
• The Lord Encompasses All (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)
• It Was Very Good (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)
• Harmony in Diversity (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)

Good News for All Nations

Image via Wikipedia

This is part of a series of posts based on the Churches Together in England publication one light: one world.  If you click on the link you will find the biblical texts.  This post of the same name covers the purpose of this series.

Matthew 24: 14

In my last post I wrote of things evolving in order to respond to God's call.  In what sense are we asked to respond to God's call?  It is not merely recognising God's role in creation; to recognise God's role is to submit to God's rule.

Jesus spoke of the Kingdom of God.  Once again we need to see this as an opportunity to respond to God's challenge rather than submit to control.  We need to be highly suspicious of those who argue the Kingdom is like an earthly Kingdom, only bigger with scarier punishments.  This sort of argument merely masks their own lust for power.

It is obvious as we read the Gospels, Jesus is ironic in his use of the word Kingdom.  This Kingdom is one where the powerful serve the powerless.  We are invited to compare it with the Kingdoms we experience on earth.  There would be little point in doing so if God's Kingdom is essentially business as usual for despots.

This is why the Kingdom is good news and needs to be proclaimed across the whole world.  It would not be good news if this were a proclamation of business as usual.

Matthew is of course aware of how unlikely radical obedience to God will be.  Once it has been proclaimed to all nations, the end will come.  The end appears to have been indefinitely postponed!