Sunday 14 September 2008 Ephesians John 17 The Unity of the Church, Melanie

There was once an old monastery that had fallen upon hard times. Centuries earlier it had been a thriving monastery where many dedicated monks lived and worked and had great influence, but now only five monks lived there and they were all over 70 years old.
This was clearly a dying order.
A few miles from the monastery lived an old hermit who many thought was a prophet. One day as the monks agonized over the impending demise of their order, they decided to visit the hermit to see if he might have some advice for them. Perhaps he would be able to see the future and show them what they could do to save the monastery.
The hermit welcomed the five monks to his hut, but when they explained the purpose of their visit he could only commiserate with them. ‘Yes I understand how it is’, said the hermit,’ the spirit has gone out of the people, hardly anyone cares much for the old things anymore’. ‘Is there anything you can tell us’, the Abbot enquired of the hermit, ‘that could help us to save the monastery?’
‘No I am sorry’, said the hermit. ‘I don’t know how your monastery can be saved. The only thing that I can tell you is that one of you is an Apostle of God’. The monks were both disappointed and confused by the hermit’s cryptic statement. They returned to the monastery wondering what the hermit could have meant by the statement ‘one of you is an Apostle of God’.
For months after their visit, the monks pondered the significance of the hermit’s words. ‘One of us is an Apostle of God’, they mused. ‘Did he actually mean, one of us monks here at the monastery? That is impossible. We are all too old, we are all too insignificant. On the other hand, what if it is true and if it is true, then which one of us is it? ‘Do you suppose he meant the Abbot? Yes, if he meant anyone, he probably meant the Abbot. He has been our leader for more than a generation. On the other hand he might have meant Brother Thomas. Certainly Brother Thomas is a holy man, a man of wisdom and light. He couldn’t have meant Brother Elred. Elred gets crotchety at times and is difficult to reason with. On the other hand, he is almost always right. Maybe the hermit did mean Brother Elred. But surely he could not have meant Brother Philip? Brother Philip is so passive, so shy, a real nobody. Still he is always there when you need him. He is loyal and trustworthy. Yes, he could have meant Philip. Of course the hermit didn’t mean me, he couldn’t possibly have meant me. I am just an ordinary person.
Yet suppose he did. Suppose I am an Apostle of God. Oh God, not me. I couldn’t be that much for you. Or could I?’
As they contemplated in this manner, the old monks began to treat each other with extraordinary respect on the off chance that one of them might actually be an Apostle of God and on the off chance that each monk himself might be the apostle spoken of by the hermit, each monk began to treat himself with extraordinary respect.
Because the monastery was situated in a beautiful forest, many people came there to picnic on its lawn and to walk on its paths and now and then to go into the tiny chapel to meditate. As they did so, without even being conscious of it, they sensed the aura of extraordinary respect that now began to surround the five old monks and seemed to radiate from them, permeating the atmosphere of the place. There was something strangely attractive, even compelling, about it. Hardly knowing why, people began to bring their friends to show them this special place, and their friends brought their friends. As more and more visitors came, some of the younger men started to talk with the old monks. After a while one asked if he could join them, then another, then another. Within a few years, the monastery had once again become a thriving order and thanks to the hermit’s wisdom a vibrant centre of light and spirituality throughout the region.

This is a lovely story of growth, and it sprang to mind when I read the two readings set for today. In our first reading we have Paul talking about the church. Through the church the wisdom of God is to be made known to the rulers and authorities. There is a sense in this passage of the coming together of Jews and Gentiles. It was such a radical message that we can’t begin to imagine it today. The idea of Gentiles being placed alongside Jews would have been anathema to the Jewish people. Theirs was the chosen race, they were the people of God, they were predestined to be the ones who were saved, the whole of the Old Testament is about the history of the Jewish people, they occupied a unique place in Christianity.

A good Jew believed that the Gentiles were created by God to be fuel for the fires of hell, that God loved only Israel of all the nations that had been made. It was not lawful for a Jew to render help to a Gentile woman in childbirth for that would be to help bring another Gentile into the world. If a Jew married a Gentile, the funeral of that Jew was carried out. Even to go into a Gentile house rendered a Jew unclean. Paul himself was imprisoned after being wrongly accused of bringing the Gentile Trophimus beyond the barrier (Acts 21.28-29).

For Paul to say that the Gentiles were part of this great plan was as radical to them as eating pork, or abandoning ritual washing. It would have been unheard of. Yet here was Paul saying that this was the great mystery – the mystery that the church was to proclaim. That there was unity between Jews and Gentiles, unity amongst the faithful people of God.

Then we had the passage from John. A prayer spoken by Jesus for his disciples – that they may be one.

But this time it is spoken with the heartfelt cry of one who knows that unity must come from within rather than without. He speaks of unity with the Father, that ‘they may be in us’. On the one hand we have a passage talking of external unity amongst the Jews and Gentiles, and on the other hand a passage speaking of internal unity, between God and ourselves. It is important to bear both perspectives in mind when we think about unity. As the monks in the story discovered, growth and unity doesn’t happen unless there is a focus on both the inner and the outer. Today the reality is that despite all the moves towards church unity, there are as many if not more divisions today than ever, splinter groups breaking away over questions of doctrine, worship and church practice. All too often, instead of testifying to the love of Christ, our relationships with other Christians speak instead of our human fallibility, turning people away from the Church instead of drawing them towards it.

How then do we achieve unity that moves beyond the external, that moves beyond papering over the differences, a unity that comes from the depths, rather than glosses over the surface? Perhaps we will always have to start with what is external – what can be seen by the human eye. Perhaps we have to allow the natural conflict of human relationships.

If any of you remember the TV series The Monastery, shown a few years ago, you will remember how much conflict there was between the participants, as they lived and worked in the environment of the monastery. Yet it was only through allowing that conflict to surface that each of the people in the series realised how much they had to address at a deeper level. In other words it was only through coming to terms with external relationships that each was able to discern something of the inner union with God that Christ was praying for in our second passage.

Inner and outer unity are inextricably linked.

Unity in the church through the wisdom of Christ is something that we can achieve. But if we are to achieve a meaningful unity, then we must go beyond the surface, and look to the inner unity that Christ wanted for each one of us. This means healing at a deep level – and is something that we should allow time and space to happen. Like the monks in our opening story, once it starts to happen we will experience an inner transformation, and that will be reflected in an outer transformation of relationships.
Perhaps our prayer for today and next week should be that we allow Christ to change us from within, and that we experience union with God, and unity in the church.

Questions for Discussion

Read John 17. Can you imagine Jesus describing unity in the church as optional? How essential is it for you?
What have you found that most helps you to get on with other Christians? And what makes it difficult?
Which of the things from question 2 are internal, and which external?
Read Ephesians 4:1-6: how can we live this out?