Exploring Ecumenism

Let Us Love One Another

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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 John 4: 7 - 11

I'm a little surprised to find this passage amongst the ecumenical texts.  On a superficial reading it is a 'no brainer'.  Of course we're supposed to love one another.  We've already seen that the unity of Christians is the glory of God.

The problem is, to state we should all love one another is to beg the question, why the lack of unity in the first place?  Ecumenism is difficult because it is about the unity of people who belong to separate institutions.

Institutions have a positive role.  They are the means by which the faith is passed on.  To be formed as a Christian, it is beneficial if you are part of a community, under a similar discipline.  So, institutions are inevitable and can be beneficial.

That is, to a degree.  The problem is, when people belong to institutions they start to identify with them.  Sometimes this can become irrational.  From claims that women cannot be priests to the belief that my tradition is the only true church, the institution becomes an idol.

Where this happens the institution becomes demonic.  But a demon is simply a sick angel and where we use our institutions wisely, share and learn to love one another's institutions, we find they become angelic.

The message is we need our institutional differences and we need to learn to love them, just as we know we must love other Christians.

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• For Building Up the Body of Christ (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)
• Called to be God's Holy People (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)

We Love Because He First Loved Us

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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 John 4: 19 - 21

The message here is clear.  We can't love God and fail to love our brothers and sisters.  Our ability to love one another across Christian traditions is the glory of God. 

Defense of our own particular take on the Christian faith is not a priority.  Our priority is to love one another and to do that we must learn to love Christians traditions other than our own.

Failure to do so locks us into little redoubts, from which we issue defensive proclamations.  We must not use our peculiar take on the Christian faith as a bludgeon.  To say, 'believe as I do or else you are damned' is a blasphemy.  It is a misrepresentation of God.  If there is a single true version of the faith, we don't know whose it is.  More likely, our differences are a challenge from God. 

Some argue our differences are a gift to each other.  This is perhaps not quite right.  I don't need a Pope any more than Roman Catholics need a Conference.  The gift is in the dialogue and exchanges between traditions, which might lead us together into discovering something entirely new.

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Keep On Loving with All Your Heart

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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 1:22

I will focus on 5 words in four paragraphs.

'Obedience to the truth' raises a number of issues for the modern reader.  I have previously explored the meaning of the word 'obedience'.  It means to listen and the opposite of obedience is not disobedience but 'acting inappropriately'.  So, we must not  understand it as following orders; it may be obedient to refuse to follow orders.

So understood, obedience helps us understand the meaning of truth.  We see obedience to the truth as discerning the truth and then acting appropriately.

The fifth word is 'heart'.  An atheist friend told me the other day, the heart is only a pump.  Some argue it is the seat of emotion.  Maybe it is but I don't find this particularly helpful.  If we can use heart and emotions interchangeably, we are just using heart to obscure what we mean.

I prefer to think of heart as a way to stay focused on love.  Our thoughts too often get in the way.  When we need to act, the state of our heart determines how we act.  Through prayer we can change the disposition of our hearts towards love or away from it.  To be sanctified is to have a heart full of God's love all the time.  Is this possible?  There's only one way to find out.

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The Greatest Must be Like the Youngest

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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.

Luke 22: 24 - 30

This passage and the last both cover ground preachers address regulalrly.  The need for humility has been addressed several times in this blog.  The power of church hierarchies is an obvious target and so it is difficult to imagine what can be said that hasn't been said many times before.

There is a distinction between saying something and meaning it.  This passage invites us to question the use of power in the churches. 

"A dispute arose between the churches as to which one of them was to be regarded as the greatest.  They could see that kings, politicians and tyrants lord it over people and like to be thought of as benefactors.  The hardest thing for them to see was that the greatest must become like the youngest churches, the leaders as ones who serve.  They could see Jesus' example as the one who serves, and yet somehow the churches couldn't quite make the connection."

Does this work?  Possibly not.  In part, the problem is many Christians believe their version is the one true faith and all the others fall short.  This is not a problem residing solely with those in authority.

What does humility mean if you are a senior person in a church hierarchy?  In what practical ways can a leader serve which shows the way of Jesus Christ?  Power accrues power.

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You Should Wash One Another's Feet

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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 13: 3 - 15

Michael Scott was a Church of England vicar.  When he was in his forties, after a substantial time as a parish priest, he had a vicarage next to the field in Knebworth that hosted a pop festival.  His teenage son wanted to go but Michael objected on moral grounds.  His son suggested he was being unfair and challenged him to go and meet the people himself.

And so Mick the Vic became known as the priest who visited pop festivals during the seventies and eighties.  He became a hippy and washed festival go-ers feet. 

Mick was one of the founder member of the Christian Praxis Group and once washed our feet.  I don't know whether you have ever had each toe individually unscrewed, washed and then screwed back on, not necessarily in the right order?  I swore never again as I hobbled away.

I wanted to tell Mick's story, or at least this small part of it, because it illustrates the importance of this story, found only in John's Gospel, of Jesus washing the disciples' feet.

We have lost touch with the reality of dirty feet in an age of shoes, socks and showers.  Until a few decades ago, most people had dirty feet.  I remember an exhibition in London a few years ago, with paintings by Raphael and Caravaggio.  Raphael was the last of the artists who drew stylised devotional pictures, where angels and saints were all impossibly clean.  Caravaggio normally painted only the top halves of people because then he didn't have to show their feet, which as a natural painter, he had to paint dirty. 

The thing is we cannot ignore the fact that Jesus had dirty feet.  It was usual for a guest to have their feet washed when they entered the home of their host.  Many New Testament stories revolve around this custom, from the wedding of Cana in John, to the story of Simon the Pharisee in the Synoptics.

It is hard to imagine what the modern equivalent would be.  Perhaps it is the vicar with his sleeves rolled up washing hippies' feet at a pop festival.

God's Gift of the Spirit

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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.

Ephesians 3: 14 - 16

The author prays for the church, that according to the riches of God's glory ... you may be strengthened ...

God's glory is the means by which we know God is present.  God's glory is in the united community.  To overcome divisions and function as a community, despite very real differences, is a sign of God's real presence.

We sometimes expect God to be manifested in miracles, defying the laws of nature.  With these expectations, we lose sight of what God is actually saying or doing.  When belief in miracles or hell becomes more important than the love we have for one another, something is wrong.  When I criticise someone for being literalistic about the Bible, I am forgetting the pre-eminence of love.

The challenge, and the reason we all need to be strengthened, is learning to love with integrity.  It is easy to feel I need to compromise my beliefs for others.  Our challenge is to love others whilst remaining faithful to the vision of God each of us has experienced.

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The Gift Each One Has Received

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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 4: 8 - 11

Again this passage emphasises mutuality.  'Maintain constant love for one another'.  We forget this is something understood by many traditional communities.  It is essential for survival.  It is natural to practice it. 

But this passage goes on to suggest wherever we do love one another, we are expressing the reality of God.  God is manifested in the community where people love one another.  God speaks when someone speaks, God's strength is used in service.

It is easy to forget this command to love one another applies to all Christians and all people.  The church is supposed to show the world how it is done.  This is why the church is divided, so that our ability to love each other across the divisions can be seen.

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One Body in Union with Christ

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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 12: 3 - 5

What does it mean to be 'members one of another'?  We are not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought because we need each other.

This passage is about mutuality.  Unfortunately this concept has fallen out of modern political discourse.  Arguments are usually around altruism and selfishness.  'Scratch an altruist and find an hypocrite'. 

Like everything else, we can absolutise altruism; turn it into an ideology.  No one is purely altruistic but this does not mean all actions are selfish.

'Love your neighbour as you love yourself' is a single commandment, not two.  We're not being told to both love our neighbour and ourselves or that loving ourselves is an essential prerequisite to loving our neighbours (true as these positions might be).

As we learn of God's love, we discover God loves all people and I am one of the people God loves.  God expresses God's love for us through our neighbours and love for our neighbours through us.

For Building Up the Body of Christ

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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.

Ephesians 4: 7, 11 - 16

This builds on the previous passage.  The point of disciplined listening and sharing is to attain maturity and the full stature of Christ. Note unity here is not something imposed through church structures but something which grows from genuine sharing of faith (v13).

The experience of unity flows from sharing between Christians of different traditions.  In such sharing we learn of the ways we are deceived by our doctrines, tricks and schemes.

And as we overcome out delusions we find the body is joined and knitted together.  The body builds itself up in love.

One problem ecumenists have is ecumenical reception.  The councils of the churches make an agreement but have difficulty passing it on to local churches.  The problem is where a formal agreement is imposed on others not party to it.

It is no surprise formal conversations have had a high degree of success.  Of course they have.  When Christians get together and share they will find common ground.  The problems start when  successful leaders impose their findings on others. 

The body builds itself in love. 

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• Let All the Peoples' Praise Him (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)
• Called to be God's Holy People (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)

Not Disorder, but Peace

Image by ESP Indonesia 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.

1 Corinthians 14: 31 - 33

This passage tells us we are indeed different and so need to organise ourselves accordingly.  If we prophesy one by one, then we will hear something new, we will learn and be encouraged by the breadth of faith expressed.

Peace is not a result of uniformity but of a disciplined approach to faith.  Our call is to learn to listen to others and in turn share our own experience of God.

Much talk of unity ignores the impossibility of knowing God fully.  No one tradition can possibly embrace all there is to know of faith.  Indeed, if we put every tradition's understanding of God together we would still not know God.

The task is to perceive God in the here and now.  To do this we can pool our experience.  We need to do this in a disciplined and so peaceful way.

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• That They All Be One (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)
• Let All the Peoples' Praise Him (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)
• He Has Broken Down the Dividing Wall (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)
• We Are His People (chrississons.typepad.co.uk)