Sermon preached by the Dean of Wells at Evensong attended by
Christians Together in Wells and Area in the Week of Prayer for
Christian Unity (25th January 2015)
Readings for the Conversion of St Paul:
Ecclesiasticus 39 v 1 -10; Colossians 1 v 24 – 2 v 7
In 1981 I went, on behalf of the Scottish Episcopal Church to the World Council of
Churches ‘Hearing on Nuclear Weapons’ in Amsterdam. I remember the occasion for three
reasons. Firstly, I remember the extraordinary experience of walking in a peaceful
demonstration of some 300,000 people through the streets of the city. The march was a
protest against NATO plans to deploy medium range nuclear missiles in Western Europe.
The second event that followed on from the heightened emotion of that day was going in
the evening to a piano recital of music by Mozart and Beethoven given by the renowned
Austrian pianist Alfred Brendel. The beauty of the music, and the setting of the
Concertgebouw, connected me to the great tradition of central European culture that had
been so battered by the wars of the 20th century. On that day in particular that culture felt
very vulnerable to the heightened tensions of the cold war between East and West.
But most significant was the experience of the gathering of delegates at the conference itself
where I was exposed to a vision of what the church could be. Men and women drawn from
all continents, protestant and orthodox and Roman Catholic, speaking and worshipping in a
rich variety of languages, discussing political and social issues key to the life of the world, and
conscious that ecumenism was not only about the coming together of the churches, but
about the reconciliation and unity of the whole human race in Christ. It is a vision that has
never left me and that has been renewed in various ecumenical exchanges in Wells, but also
in Greece and Rumania, South Africa and Germany.
How do we think of the church? It is easy to think of the church as the sum of a number of
different churches all of which have their own buildings, rules and constitutions. On such a
view the gathering of Christians from Wells and the surrounding area today is a kind of
umbrella church that links the different congregations in mutual good will and in an
acknowledgement of our common dependence on Jesus. St Paul in this afternoon’s reading
is, however, more demanding; in the letter to the Colossians he writes of the church as the
saints of God to whom the mystery of Christ has been made known. He is the servant of
the local churches in the gentile world of the Mediterranean and in his sufferings he is
‘completing what is lacking in Christ’s afflictions for the sake of his body, that is the church.’
For St Paul, the church is an integral part of the being of Christ, it is the way that God is
now revealed upon earth. He speaks of the church founded on a relationship that is more
intimate than what we believe about Jesus; the church is about how the life of Jesus is formed
in us, how it is found in our midst, and how it is shown in everyday life. For St. Paul, in
Christ, we are drawn into the central action of salvation, God’s love poured out in the
death of Jesus on the cross and God’s love victorious in raising Jesus from the dead. By the
power of the Holy Spirit this becomes no longer past history but present reality.
And so, as we look around at the churches in Wells and elsewhere we should acknowledge
that they are incomplete, only pale reflections of the church that God wills to be the sign of
his new creation in Christ. This is most obvious in two ways. The first is that the different
churches, be they Anglican, Roman Catholic, Pentecostal, Vineyard, Methodist or United
church are not one body but several different ones, with a variety of leaders and ministers.
St Paul though is insistent that the church in each place is called to be one with recognizable
leaders; presbyters and Bishops. For St Paul there can only be one church in a city or Christ
is divided. In his first letter to the Corinthians he is very stern about those who preach as if
there were many leaders, be they Cephas, or Apollo or Paul. The second obvious sign of
incompletion is that we act as if we are unwilling to recognise that we are really incomplete
without each other. We do not discern the Holy Spirit groaning in our midst, constantly
calling us to die to our partial identities and to grow to maturity in Christ.
Instead what we see is a variety of Christian congregations working sometimes in
collaboration with one another and sometimes in competition. And these congregations are
often ageing, deeply concerned with internal issues and problems of finance and
organisation, and find it difficult to entrust the future into God’s hands.
I think that many denominations know that they need to change but do not know in which
ways they need to die so that God can reshape the church. All of us represent gifts for each
other, gifts that have come from our traditions, and so all of us hold as precious different
aspects of the mystery of Christ. We cannot simply stop our current activities and patterns
of worship because that would risk losing some of the richness that God’s spirit has given,
and yet we cannot stay the same.
The challenge is to gradually unpick the unnecessary accretions of history and to recognize
what is essential if we are to show to the world today in our lives and in our worship that
Jesus is Lord of all the earth. I once heard the late and much loved Bishop John Taylor of
Winchester speak of change as being as if we were caught on a barbed wire fence. If we
move too quickly we tear our clothes, and yet we cannot stay caught on the fence for ever!
The ecumenical movement has always recognised that the impetus for change comes in two
forms. The first is through common action as we serve the community in the name of
Christ. This might be through good neighbour schemes, or foodbanks, or caring for visitors,
questioning politicians before an election, or through occasions of common witness.
Christians Together in Wells has taken many good initiatives in this way over the years.
The other path to change, and the one that in the ecumenical movement has been seen as
central until recently, is by seeking to discern in the practices of each other’s communities
the mystery of Christ. This involves asking each other with humility how our traditions, as
we live them now, show the pattern by which God is reconciling and renewing the whole
creation. This requires time and sensitivity and the ability to listen, to ask questions, and to
learn rather than to pass quick judgement. It may be that we have seen a little of this by
sharing in each other’s worship over the past week – some occasions may feel comfortable,
at other times familiar assumptions may be challenged.
In the last 50 years the barriers between denominations have become more porous. Instead
of asserting that our particular denomination is the only true and faithful church we have
learned mutual respect as brothers and sisters in Christ. But I fear that we have gone little
further in exploring the mystery of Christ in the church – in understanding how we
interpret the word of God, or different practices of Baptism, or how we can share regularly
in forms of common prayer, or explore the theology of the eucharist or ministry and
authority in the light of the New Testament. There are riches here that we can receive from
each other and from looking again at some of the ecumenical theological work of recent
years such as the World Council of Churches and Roman Catholic agreed statement on
Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry.
The media reminds us every day that we live in a fragile and fragmented world and this has
been reflected in our prayers this afternoon. It is in this present reality that we are called to
show the healing and forgiveness of the cross and the transforming power of God’s love. In
a world that can seem indifferent to faith this requires a journey both outwards and
inwards; outwards to those who are lost and who need to hear once again, or for the first
time, the call of God in Christ, and inwards to appropriate more deeply the mystery of
Christ, the common and separate traditions in which we have been formed so that each
tradition can be tested for its faithfulness to the gospel we proclaim.
St Paul said ‘Christ in you, the hope of glory’. We are to be an encouragement and a thorn
to each other – encouragement to each other on the way of Christ, thorn to remind us that
in isolation we are incomplete. In a moment we will sing the hymn written by my 19th
century predecessor as Dean of Wells, Edward Plumptre. I suspect, though I may be wrong,
that it was written at a time when the refrain ‘one faith, one church, one Lord’ was a rallying
cry easily associated with the Church of England and the British Empire. Today as Christians
from incomplete and fragmented churches we need to sing it with a certain penitence; to
sing it as a prayer for the Holy Spirit to renew and transform us into the church that God
wills; to make us one in our worship and united in a determination to seek a world restored
and the coming of God’s kingdom both in heaven and on earth.
John Clarke – 25th January 2015