Chapter 17 of the Gospel of John sets the intimacy
and immanence Jesus has with the Father as the relationship he wills for his
followers to the Father. Jesus sets this desire further as not only a good
wish, but almost as a necessity.
The followers of Jesus have to become rooted
somewhere or to someone else, because they are no longer of this World.
I think you feel this. You try to find affinity through your civil
and civic connections and associations – through political parties, benevolent
associations, garden clubs, and the like.
Even your choice of Church membership, while
fulfilling on some level, might carry with it a degree of baggage that is
foreign to you. But you put up with it for
what you consider a greater good. Some
cynics, though I wouldn’t know any of them personally, would agree that the
Church is other-worldly, but the other world is, “La-La Land.”
In both the Nicene and the Apostles’ Creeds
we profess our belief in the four marks of the Church as One, Holy, Catholic,
and Apostolic. All these characteristics
can be seen and easily understood in the person of Christ himself.
Jesus is One person with two natures: human
and divine.
Jesus is One in the Godhead with the Father
and the Holy Spirit.
Jesus is of course holy – fully integrated
not only to the Godhead but to the purposes of God’s creation reflecting God’s
Glory and of God’s creation rendering that Glory and praise to God.
Jesus is universal in that his call,
purpose, and mission is to reunite all humanity to the mind and will of the
Creator.
Some might even understand that sense of universality
to extend to all creation itself. (The reuniting of all creation introduces a
lot of controversy, yet also expands on the very idea of redemption itself – a subject
too complex to consider here today.)
To return to the metaphor of the Church as
the mystical Body of Christ, Jesus is Apostolic in the sense that his mission,
strictly speaking, is not his own. The mission for which Jesus is sent is the
mission of the Father, who sent him. In John 6:46, the Evangelist further
establishes Jesus’ authority as One sent not merely by discerning the Father,
but by having seen him.
Not that anyone has seen the Father
except the one who is from God; he has seen the Father.
In the time between the Ascension and
Pentecost, the birthday of the Church, it is fitting to remember that to which
we are called.
The Church is called to be One. Just as the
natures of Jesus co-existed without annihilating neither his humanity nor his
divinity, there are natures of the members and Churches comprising the Body of
Christ which cannot exist at the expense of others.
1 Corinthians 12:16-18 tells us
And if the ear were to say, ‘Because I am
not an eye, I do not belong to the body’, that would not make it any less a
part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If
the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is,
God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.
As members of the Body of Christ, we are
called to be Holy – not sanctimonious. It is not enough to be holy to the
degree we fulfill our expectations of what it means to be holy, but to seek the
uncomfortability of Jesus’ union with His Cross, tackling the comfort zones set
up by our various Church traditions and our own petty limitations and
boundaries. It has always been useful to me to interchange the words “holy” and
“whole.”
Am I fully One with Christ, or is there part
of the puzzle that is me that I want to hold back? Is there something about the
Church I’m ready to let slide as a necessary evil for the Church’s greater good
or for its comfort? For Episcopalians particularly, we sometimes confuse our
valuing of reason with rationalizing.
But concluding with the principle of unity
within and among the Christian Church, the sin that is disunity is usually
fostered by the sacred cows in our own spiritual corrals. (One of my favorite
book titles is Robert Kriegel’s and David Brandt’s book, Sacred Cows Make the Best Burgers:
Developing Change-Driving People and Organizations, Warner Books, Inc, 1997. Dewey: 658.4’063. ISBN-13: 978-0446672603. Kriegel is also author of, If it
Ain't Broke...Break It!: And Other Unconventional Wisdom for a Changing
Business World ISBN-13: 978-0446393591)
Set this against our call to also be
Catholic or Universal, the tension particularly for Episcopalians becomes even
greater.
We say to one another, “Well, we’re almost
Catholic anyhow, aren’t we?” And THERE’S
the rub! It seems that the largest Church in the Christian world survives and
thrives by requiring its members to ascribe to what appears to be certain
nonnegotiable, universal truths. What I
think is lost to those who are not Catholic and increasingly to Catholics in
its highest echelons is the vitality derived from a commitment to universal
truths without being controlled by universal definitions. The ordinary teaching
magisterium of the Catholic Church used to be far more collegial – far more
committed to consensus than conformity.
“Conformity” is mentioned only a few times in the New
Testament, twice in Romans
Romans 8:29-30 29For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn within a large family. 30And those whom he predestined, he also called; and those whom he called he also justified; and those whom he justified he also glorified.
If you notice, we don’t do the conforming. We are conformed by God to the Image of His Son.
Again
in (Rm 12:2)
Do
not be conformed to this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your minds, so that you may discern what the will of God—
what is is good and acceptable and perfect.
There is a difference between assent and
conformance. Assent can only truly and
freely happen with the renewing of our minds.
More than a few of you heard me say that I
became an Episcopalian, so I could remain Catholic – inclusive, inquiring, and unfortunately
– very uncomfortable.
Any Anglican that isn’t at least a little uncomfortable being one sent by
Christ, an Apostle, is missing something that I think is essential to
Anglicanism and certainly to true Christianity. Particularly in the context of
the Holy Communion or Holy Eucharist, are we allowing ourselves to see the One
sending us under the forms of bread and wine in ever newer and deeper ways? Or
is Eucharist the thing we do once a month to stay on the Episcopalian Radar?
Similarly in the context of today’s gospel
passage, we see and hear Jesus in a somewhat formal address to the Father,
ruminating over his mission and pondering the time after his departure. Being
Apostolic is recognizing our responsibility not only to pass on the faith
authentically and faithfully as we have received it, but also to pass it on in
the light of our specific and unique union with God.
Apostolic Faith is dynamic, not static.
Jesus, the same yesterday, today, and
forever. This Jesus of the Apostles has
been handed on to us from generation to generation through the experiences,
trials, and glories of all those who have proceeded before us.
My cherishing of the Faith doesn’t come
merely from the Apostles of yore, but from the unique (if not the quirky) perspectives
of my Grandparents and parents, from my crazy neighbors, and from those people
I come to know little-by-little, the saints of yesterday and today, so that,
please God, I too might pass this faith on, forgiven for my liberties, yet
remembered for the faithfulness of my own sincere heart – and yours. Amen.
