Easter 7A
RCL
Rev.
Adam T. Trambley
May 28,
2017, St. John’s Sharon
The gospel today is the beginning a long prayer
that Jesus prays at the end of his Last Supper discourse in John’s gospel. He is praying for his disciples, and for all
those who will come to know him through the witness of his disciples. Among others, he is praying for us, which is
pretty amazing if you think about it. If
you ever wonder where you might show up in the Bible, you are there, in John
chapter 17, as someone whom Jesus is praying for.
In the final line that we read today, Jesus
says, “Holy Father, protect them in your
name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.” Jesus prays for the unity of his church. More than that, he asks God to protect it,
which seems to say that any of our divisions are the result of temptations,
assaults, or other small victories of the enemy. History has shown us, time and again, that
the divisions in the church are the result of arrogance, abuse of power, a lack
of faithfulness, love, or vision by church leaders, or some other issue besides
the call of Jesus. This disunity of the church has greatly hindered our work,
both in the mission field and in predominantly Christian communities. Yet,
whenever the goal of those on all sides has been to share the Good News of
Jesus Christ, to love God, and love our neighbor, we have found a way to work
together in mission and ministry.
Jesus’ prayer remains powerful, and we know that in the end we
will all be one. This vision of a united
church praising God is the vision laid out in the book of Revelation. Over the past 150 years, Christians have
become much more intentional about becoming one, while also allowing that
Christian unity to express itself in a wide diversity of legitimate
expressions. We have not tried to create
a Christian Borg that assimilates everything, but have been able increasingly
to recognize in each other the faith of Christ, the fruits of the Holy Spirit,
and a legitimate answer to Christ’s call.
Within the Episcopal Church, this movement toward unity took a
huge step forward in the 1880’s when an Episcopal priest, William Reed
Huntington, proposed four essentials that a reunited church would contain. The Episcopal General Convention, meeting in
Chicago in 1886 adopted them, as did the Anglican Lambeth Conference in
1888. This Chicago-Lambeth
Quadrilateral, as it came to be called, recognized these four elements as essential
to unity among the divided branches of Christendom. 1) The Holy Scriptures of the Old and New
Testament; 2) The Nicene Creed as the sufficient statement of Christian faith;
3) The Sacraments of Baptism and the Supper of the Lord; and 4) The Historic
Episcopate, locally adapted. More
information on the Quadrilateral can be found on pages 876-878 in the Book of
Common Prayer. These four elements provided
a concrete way for the Episcopal Church and Anglican churches generally to
begin having conversations with other denominations.
Another huge step in church unity within our tribe of Christendom
occurred after World War II in India, when the Churches of North and South
India, of Bangladesh and of Pakistan were formed. India was, and remains, a minority Christian
area, and the churches realized that their mission was impeded by their
competition instead of their cooperation.
Anglican, Methodist, Presbyterian, Baptist, Disciples of Christ, and
Church of the Brethren churches came together to create one church body, which
remains part of the Anglican Communion and part of other various networks, and
which maintains the four elements of the Quadrilateral. While this coming together into a single
church body was a unique solution to the situation in India, it shows that
various denominations can set aside their issues to join together in witness to
the gospel.
One particular step in Christian unity in this valley has been the
work of Christian Associates. Begun at a
time when Catholic, Orthodox, and Protestant churches often refused to
recognize each other as legitimate churches, and when few clergy or lay people
could attend each other’s churches, Christian Associates brought the Church in
the Shenango Valley together for common ministry and understanding. Christian Associates hosted Unity Services
and Choir Concerts, launched the Community Food Warehouse, and had a variety of
other unity and service activities. Many
from this parish participated in that work.
I would especially like to take a moment to thank Lois Tamplin who
served for many years as the Executive Secretary of Christian Associates. A few weeks ago, the board of Christian
Associates voted to disband, with other groups picking up most of Christian
Associates remaining work. However,
their legacy is important to our shared ministry in this valley.
Another important point in the Episcopal Church’s movement toward
unity was the full communion agreement, Call to Common Mission, adopted
with the ELCA Lutheran Church about 15 years ago. This agreement included a recognition of each
other’s bishops, priests, deacons, and sacraments as valid, and allows us, with
the same approvals that would be required of our own clergy, to minister in each
other’s churches. For us at St. John’s,
this has meant we have had the blessing of Pastor Martin Roth’s ministry with
us, as well as that of his wife, Sally, who, by the way, will be coming up for
a blessing for their 50th Wedding Anniversary today. That they can celebrate that here, and are
choosing to, is a significant statement of how far we have come together. They don’t have to be Episcopalian and we
aren’t Lutheran, but we can recognize each other as fully Christian and work
together. This agreement has also meant
that in one rural area of our Diocese, two small Episcopal and two small
Lutheran congregations are being served by one Episcopal priest, and in
Franklin the Lutheran congregation meets in the Episcopal Church’s chapel and
they share a Sunday School and other ministries. In 2011, the Episcopal Church celebrated a
similar agreement with the Moravian Church, called Finding Our Delight in
the Lord.
Another proposed step toward us all becoming one is a recent full
communion proposal between the Episcopal Church and the United Methodist Church
called A Gift to the World: Co-Laborers for the
Healing of Brokenness. This
full-communion agreement, which is not a merger, would be very similar to our
agreement with the Lutherans. We would fully
recognize each other’s ministers and sacraments. Since 2006 we have had an interim Eucharistic
sharing agreement, but it is very particular and requires lots of things being
done just right with various permissions.
When we have come together with First Methodist for our joint services,
we have done them by invitation. We have
all gone over there for a Methodist service where Pastor Doug did communion or
we have invited Methodists here where I have done communion. This full communion agreement would allow
those services to be even more united.
This agreement is likely to be voted on at the 2020 United Methodist
General Conference and the 2021 Episcopal General Convention.
As we look at this agreement, is a good time to
review some of our history and theology, including at what does and doesn’t
separate us today.
First, there are no doctrinal or theological
differences about matters of faith or about the Eucharist that separates the
Episcopal and United Methodist churches.
Both came out of the Church of England in the time of the American
revolution. The branch of the Church of
England that became the Episcopal Church was decimated for a number of years when
50% of parishes closed and half the priests fled. Eventually we got bishops ordained
from England and Scotland. Meanwhile, John Wesley, a Church of England priest,
decided to appoint superintendents to care for his Methodist societies.
This Methodist system thrived with a different
history than the Episcopal Church over the last two hundred years. Methodist churches sprung up early in frontier
communities as circuit-riding preachers went from town to town to minister over
relatively huge areas. Many of these
ministers had little formal training, but gave their lives to a call to serve
people of all classes in various places.
Being on horseback, they tended to carry the needed Bibles and hymnals
and pay less attention to formal worship books.
The Episcopal Church continued to grow on the East Coast in big cities,
eventually coming West as the train lines came in and as Episcopalians there
wanted an Episcopal Church. St. John’s
history is one example, where Episcopalians moved here and then started their church. We also know from our history, that St.
John’s, like many Episcopal Churches, was the church of the upper classes. We had the Buhl’s and the Perkins and others
who could design and pay for beautifully decorated sanctuaries, trained
musicians, and highly educated clergy – which were the elements that led to the
appreciation and development of a more formal worship style. Even as the class make-up in many churches has
changed, the worship styles have endured, in part because churches tend change
very, very slowly. Our differences in
worship stem primarily from differences in education and wealth, including
those differences among our early clergy, and there’s no reason not to
recognize both styles as authentic expressions of Christian ministry, even if
we may prefer one or the other.
The wine and grape juice difference is another
historic issue. In early America,
alcohol consumption was significantly higher than it is today, with the
accompanying problems of abuse, domestic violence, injuries, and fraying social
fabric. Pretty much all churches,
including the Episcopal Church, pushed hard on the temperance bandwagon. In that same era, pasteurization of grape
juice became possible, so a choice between alcoholic and non-alcoholic fruit of
the vine was available for the first time.
Our two churches made different choices at that point, but we have no
reason to think that Jesus can’t show up in both. In fact, the Methodists statements on the
presence of Jesus in the Eucharist have at least as high a view of the presence
of Jesus in the Eucharist as most Episcopalians hold. Their practice may be
less liturgically Catholic, but the understanding of the sacrament is like
ours.
Some people have also asked about apostolic succession, and if the
Methodist’s have it. A document in 1985
of the World Council of Churches called Baptism, Eucharist, and Ministry
that was endorsed by over three-hundred churches including the Episcopal Church
says that: “The primary manifestation of apostolic
succession is to be found in the apostolic tradition of the Church as a
whole.” Instead of having some sense of
hands being laid by an apostle onto a bishop onto the next bishop down through
history, most churches have agreed that what is important is maintaining the
tradition that has come down from the apostles as a whole. Both the Episcopal Church and the Methodist
Church recite the Nicene Creed, perform Baptism and Eucharist, read the Bible,
and have bishops (in fact, I don’t know any Episcopalians that would give their
bishop the kind of authority that Methodist bishops have).
Finally, this agreement would not yet bring full Communion between
us and the historic Black Methodists and Methodist Episcopal Churches. Many of these churches were formed as
African-Americans left highly racist Episcopal and Methodist congregations and
dioceses. Hopefully, if we adopt this
agreement, however, it would open a door to healing these huge wounds of racism
that continue to plague the body of Christ.
I would encourage you to visit the African-American churches in this
area, especially those who have a common heritage with us in the Methodist and
Episcopal family of churches. These
include Ruth AME Zion Church, which is across the Reyers parking lot from us,
and Greater Morris Chapel, the AME Church in Farrell on Darr Avenue.
We have much praying and working to do before we live into the
fulfillment of Jesus’ prayer at the Last Supper that we all may be one. But we can be grateful that this congregation
and others throughout the Body of Christ are taking steps to restore our unity
in faith and mission.
