Readings
Ezekiel 36:24-28
Ephesians 4:30-5:2
John 17:20-26
(3 people eventually take part in the dialogue. A begins, as if with a solo reflection)
You will want to re-write and adapt this, perhaps to add and omit. The later separate paragraphs are ideas that may need to be left for another time, but feel free to make this your own . .
A Today we look forward to the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Ever since Jesus prayed for the unity of his followers in the passage we read from John 17, this has been a challenge. Perhaps it was for the disciples: a diverse group, including a tax collector, a militant nationalist, and a traitor, after all! Yet at a critical moment just before his betrayal and death, Jesus prayed for his followers to have the sort of unity he shared with his heavenly Father.
B (rising from the congregation to “heckle”) Hang on a minute! That’s all very well, but there are thousands of different churches! How can we be sitting here – in our church – talking about it as if all Christians are one when there are so many different organisations, buildings, ways of worshipping and so on? What is this “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” anyhow?
A Well, I suppose we need a bit of history. At the beginning, churches formed where Christians travelled around the Roman world, and must have varied a bit. As time went on the churches in the Greek speaking East became separated from the Latin speaking west – and there was a formal split in the year 1054. Then, of course, the Western church divided at the Reformation – and the Anglican church became one of an increasing number in the 16th century!
A (continues) It gets a bit better about 100 years ago. The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity was first proposed in 1908 as an observance within the Roman Catholic Church. Then the the World Council of Churches was founded in 1948 many other Christian denominations around the world started to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Since 1968, there has been cooperation to produce materials for 8 days of prayer for Unity, either in January or before Pentecost.
C (coming to join in). Does that mean that everybody counts as Christian, and we have to include the humanists and pagans and everybody else?
B I don’t think we can. Christians are followers of Jesus Christ, after all, aren’t they. Didn’t that reading from Ezekiel talk about how God would sort his people out ?
A Yes, but that still leaves us with the problem of bringing Jesus’ followers together. Perhaps we have to accept that we are very different people . .
B . . . and have gathered into groups with very different traditions of prayer, worship, and even the ways we make music.
C So perhaps starting with prayer would be a good idea. If we’re all praying to the same Jesus
A , , and listening to the answers!
C we should find that we come closer together as we come closer to Jesus!
B OK. I think I am beginning to get a grip on this. That Ezekiel reading talked about God taking his people back to their land, and giving them the motivation to live as they should. They would be his people and he would be their God. I can see that might be what the churches – or rather, The Church, is supposed to be. But where does the reading from Ephesians fit?
C Well, Christians haven’t always been polite about one another, let alone kind or loving. I’ve heard that there was a breakthrough in one Welsh village when the Vicar and the Minister were seen walking down the street together, talking as if they were friends.
A You mean, people expected them to shout at one another and argue?
C . . or just refuse to talk at all. Yes. Perhaps we have learnt a bit more generosity since then.
B Kindness is important, though we mustn’t lose sight of the need to follow Jesus honestly. We mustn’t be diverted by trivial things, nor should we be afraid to say what is important in our faith.
C We may have “got rid of bitterness, rage and anger” as Ephesians says, but we still have a long way to go.
A I can’t really see what Unity will look like. Does it mean we have to have just one organisation, one way of worship? I think that would leave lots of people out.
C Which wouldn’t bring unity. I think we have to rely on God to sort us out. I can begin to imagine how it might be, though . . Suppose we started by talking and praying together, and then found that we could do some things as a joint effort.
B You mean, it wouldn’t belong to one or other group, but be a joint Christian thing?
C Yes. If that happened with a variety of different activities, we might find the separate organisations less important, and eventually work out ways of bringing them together.
A But do you think we could keep the people who want to do doing things in the same group as the ones who want to spend time praying
B . . and both of them with the ones who like to study and discuss?
C I’m not sure that WE could, but I think God must be able to manage to deal with them all, so . .
C So, how can anyone be against unity? It seems strange that Christians haven’t taken it more seriously and got something worked out by now.
A I think the problem is working out who is a follower of Jesus. Just as there were warnings in the Old Testament about God’s people getting too friendly with others and losing their faith, so there are New Testament warnings, too. There is a verse in 2 Corinthians 6:14 which tells Christians “not to be yoked together with unbelievers”. It has been interpreted to point out the danger of marrying someone who doesn’t share your faith, or forming a business partnership with such a person.
C Oh, I see. Unity is for people who share – well, share faith.
A Faith in Jesus, yes. But we know that many people get that mixed with loyalty to a building, an organisation,
B . . or just a particular set of hymn tunes, yes. That’s part of the problem.
C Do you think God worries about the way we are divided as Christians?
A I’m not sure that God “worries”, but it is pretty clearly not the way Jesus wanted it. It is helpful to look at the New Testament letter written to a church that had split.
B Which one is that? I don’t remember hearing about that.
A Well actually there was more than one in danger. When Paul writes to the Corinthians he talks about how they had become very divided they had become – one for Paul, one for Apollos etc But the first letter of John refers to some who have left, apparently in a church split: “they went our from us, but they did not really belong to us, “ (1Jn 2:19). This is a letter that has much to say about God’s love and reconciliation, but also reflects a sadness about those who refuse love and continue to sin.
B I must have another look. It sounds like a real warning