That They May Be One (John 17)

Last week I started the sermon by sharing a saying that was popular among early Disciples:  “No creed but Christ; no book but the Bible.” 

Here’s another one:  “Unity is our polar star.”

One of the reasons that early Disciples leaders like Alexander Campbell and Barton Warren Stone left their own denominations and started a new movement on the American frontier was their frustration with how divided Christians were.  The Presbyterians wouldn’t welcome the Methodists, the Methodists wouldn’t welcome the Baptists, and the same was true for the Lutherans and the Episcopalians and so on.  And of course none of them would welcome the Catholics.  Each denomination believed that they – and they alone – were right.

Michael Kinnamon is a contemporary Disciples scholar and theologian, and a leader in the movement for Christian unity.  He just recently served as the General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA, and has also been active with the World Council of Churches.

Let me share with you something Michael Kinnamon wrote.  He wrote:  

[Calls to Christian Unity] ring throughout Disciples history. In the early nineteenth century, Barton Stone spoke of Christian unity as our polar star. “If we oppose the union of believers,” wrote Stone, “we oppose directly the will of God, the prayer of Jesus, the spirit of piety, and the salvation of the world.” The seminal document of the Disciples movement, Thomas Campbell’s Declaration and Address, calls division among Christ’s followers “anti-Christian,” “anti-scriptural,” and “anti-natural.”

Peter Ainslie, a leading Disciples pastor in the early years of the twentieth century, declared that Disciples constitute “the first definitely organized movement in the history of the church for the healing of its schisms.”

“Take Christian unity out of the message of the Disciples,” said Ainslie, “and their existence only adds to the enormity of the sin of division by making another division.”

When Disciples gathered in 1909 to celebrate the centennial of the Declaration and Address, they listed “the unity … which Christ prayed might continue to exist among all those who believe on Him” as the number one principle for which we stand.

So it should be no surprise that one of our modern principles of identity reads:

We hear a special calling to make visible the unity of all Christians, proclaiming that in our diversity we belong to one another because we commonly belong to Christ.

One way Disciples make visible the unity of all Christians is by welcoming all to the Lord’s Table.  As I’ve mentioned before, 200 years ago, if you weren’t a member of a particular denomination, then you probably wouldn’t be welcome to participate in communion in that particular denomination’s worship service.  Alexander Campbell and other early Disciples leaders came mostly from Presbyterian churches, but the sharp denominational divides existed in just about all churches of the time. 

Some early Disciples leaders voluntarily and intentionally called for the death of their own congregations and associations, so that they could “sink into union with the body of Christ at large.”  In other words, they would no longer be Presbyterian churches, but Christian churches.  One of the most important documents in the early days of our movement was, in fact, titled: “The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery.”

They wanted to start a movement that was not bound to any denomination.  They wanted to form a non-denominational movement.  For this reason, they did not consider the movement they started to be a denomination.  Instead, they said it was a fellowship of Christians and congregations worshiping not in the style of any particular denomination, but in the style of the earliest Christians from the first century, before the body of Christ was divided.

Even as late as the mid-20^th century, you’d hear Disciples insist that we weren’t a denomination, even though, for all practical purposes, we had been acting like a denomination for many decades. 

Then, in 1968, we re-organized.  This was an important moment in Disciples history, a moment which we refer to as the Restructure of the church.  [Gee, I should be making you all take notes on this!]  Restructure was a moment in our history when we finally admitted that, okay, perhaps we are a denomination, and maybe we should start acting like one … maybe we should strengthen the ties of the covenant that bind us together as a body … but do so in a way that continues to emphasize the unity of all Christians.

There are a number of churches today that claim they are “non-denominational…”  That was us.  We just did it about 200 years before it became trendy, and have matured since then!

By the way, if you were paying attention, you may have noticed that our scripture for this morning included Jesus’s prayer for unity among his followers.  Actually, what we heard was just an excerpt from that prayer, since it is in fact the longest recorded prayer of Jesus in scripture. 

And in that prayer, Jesus prays that his followers may be one.  That they may be united. This is what Jesus prays for in his longest recorded prayer.

We have two principles of identity to cover today, so let’s move on to the next one. 

We witness to the Gospel of God’s saving love for the world in Jesus Christ, while continuing to struggle with how God’s love may be known to others in different ways.

I like that word struggle.  If I’m hiking to the top of a tall mountain, make no mistake: that hike is a struggle.  When it comes to hiking up that mountain, the opposite of a struggle isn’t an easy walk; the opposite of a struggle is to give up.  But to struggle is to keep pressing onward.  To struggle is to recognize that you haven’t yet arrived at your goal, but you’re making progress.

Scripture is full of struggles.  Abraham struggled.  Jacob struggled.  The disciples struggled.  And every struggle was a learning opportunity.

As Disciples, we are most definitely Christians.  We follow the way of Christ.  For us, it is the way.

But as we grow in understanding, we come to realize that it is not the way for everyone.  Others have found different ways, different paths.

I think it was Marcus Borg who addressed this when he spoke at Chapman University’s Founders Day a few years back.  He acknowledged that scripture says that Jesus is “the way, the truth, and the life.”  How, then, can one say that there are other paths to God, other “ways?”

Marcus Borg explained it like this.  He, like many other men who love their wives, refers to her as the one for him.  There is no other.  She is the one. The only one. 

I can say that about my wife.  Many of you can say that about your spouse.

This is the language of love.  This is not meant to be a scientific fact.  Of course there are other women in the world.

But for a husband, there is only one woman.

Jesus is the way, the truth, the life.  There is no other.  This, Marcus Borg says, is the language of love. 

Maybe you need to struggle with that a little bit. 

If it helps, know that Marcus Borg is a Biblical scholar who has studied extensively the Bible, examining the original manuscripts, paying close attention to how language was used in ancient times.  And he’s not the only scholar to come to this conclusion.

You know, it wasn’t until I came here to Bixby Knolls Christian Church that my interest in the interfaith movement took off.  I had worked previously for Christian unity, but didn’t do much with the interfaith community.  I wasn’t really sure, as a Christian, that it was even appropriate.

Today, I thank God for the ways this congregation has ministered to me.  Bixby Knolls Christian Church has been involved in the interfaith movement through the South Coast Interfaith Council, and in these past six years I have learned a lot.

I have learned that there is truth and wisdom to be found in Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and other world religions.  I have learned that the people who practice those religions are as devoted to peace and compassion as Christians are.  And through my own struggle, I have come to realize that, yes, God’s love is known to others in different ways.

And I have reached the point now where comments that reflect poorly on my Muslim or Jewish brothers and sisters really upsets me.  I see things posted on the internet about how all Muslims are murderers and my blood starts to boil.  The Muslims I know are people of peace.  Many of them show far more compassion than some of the Christians I know.  And they are as upset about the actions of a few radical Muslims who commit acts of terrorism as Christians are upset at the actions of a few radical Christians who commit acts of hate and violence in Christ’s name.

If we as Christians want to target extremists, we’d do better to start with those in our own house, lest we go about pointing at splinters in other people’s eyes while we walk around with logs in our own eyes.

Too often, we talk about the hostile extremists of other faiths while ignoring the hatred that spews from the mouths of Christians.  Until we can learn to work on developing our own compassion and grow our own understanding, erasing the ignorance of other cultures and religions that is so prevalent among American Christians, then we have no right to judge other cultures and other religions.

This, I believe, is consistent with the teachings of Jesus, who welcomed Samaritans even though his fellow Jews would have nothing to do with Samaritans, and would rather hurl rocks at them than engage in dialogue. 

And I am thankful that my faith is nurtured by a movement that does emphasize the unity of all Christians, a movement that, at the same time, struggles to understand how God’s love is known to others in different ways.

I never want to stop struggling to understand.  I never want to close my mind.  I never want to stop learning.  When we do that, not only do we confine ourselves to the swamp of ignorance, but we also perpetuate the ideas that in fact have caused so much suffering on this planet.  Fear of the other, fear of what we don’t understand, and especially fear of religions we don’t understand, is perhaps the greatest threat to world peace.  I don’t know, it might be tied with mismanagement of the world’s resources. 

But certainly, one of the surest ways to work for peace in our world is to overcome the misunderstandings and ignorance we have concerning other religions, and to start treating all people of all religions with kindness.