Sermon for the Episcopal Church of St John the Baptist, Capitola,

given by Rev. Eliza Linley/May 20, 2007

  The Episcopal Church of Saint John the Baptist welcomes all to worship God and to share

Christ's love in the world.  We are a parish family committed to provide liturgy, Bible study, music, counseling, and Christian education for children, youth, and adults, and to equip all our members for life and for service to other

A plane full of archbishops crashes and they all go to heaven where God is waiting for them.

God says to Rowan Williams. "Rowan, what do you believe?"

Rowan replied, "Well, I believe that my weakness brought the Anglican Church to the brink of destruction, but I truly did what I did to try and keep everyone together."

God thought for a second and said, "I admire your love for my Church. Come sit at my left."

God then addressed Katharine Jefferts Schori. "Katharine, what do you believe?"

Katharine replied, "I believe I should have been a lot more assertive at the meeting of primates in Dar Es Salaam. But I wanted the boys to accept me. I was being vain."

God thought for a second and said, "Because of your honesty, you are forgiven, my daughter. Come sit at my right."

God then called on Peter Akinola, Archbishop of Nigeria. "Your Holiness, what do you believe?"

Big Pete said, "I believe you're in MY chair!"

Akinola was in Falls Curch, Virginia Saturday a week ago to install Martyn Minns as a bishop in the CANA, the Convocation of Anglicans in North America. CANA is made up of congregations formed of members who have disaffiliated from the Episcopal Church. Minns, former rector of Truro Parish, was elected and consecrated by the bishops of the Anglican Church of Nigeria to serve as CANA’s missionary bishop. Akinola came despite written requests from both Rowan Williams and Katharine Jefferts Schori to stay home, stating that his actions would not help the efforts at reconciliation which are taking place in the Episcopal Church and in the Anglican Communion as a whole. It remains an open question whether Akinola will be able to shatter the Anglican Communion, or to sever the bonds of affection that bind us together. But in the light of these developments it is all the more poignant to hear Jesus’ prayer in this morning’s gospel: “I ask that they all may be one”. Oh, we are so far from being one! In the pursuit of following Christ as best we can, we seem to be heading in the opposite direction. How can this morning’s readings help us to address this predicament?

In the Book of Acts, Paul and Silas free the enslaved spirit of a young girl, resulting in their own enslavement. They are brutally punished for giving freedom to a girl who is being used by her owners for financial gain. Ironically, they are then thrown in prison themselves, allowing themselves to be punished on the basis of assumptions about what they represent, not on the truth of the matter. But next, by holding on to their convictions, by praying and singing all night long for all to hear, they move their jailers to set them free and join them as baptized members united in Christ. So, in this case, it was slavery and imprisonment that led to unity and enlarging the community of faith. They found unity in the midst of controversy.

How is God leading us to do the same? Can we find unity for the church and the world in the midst of our controversies? Can we, like the jailer, learn something from those we have imprisoned or marginalized by our judgments and assumptions? This story of Paul and Silas is a metaphor for resurrection and the Christian hope. So it leads us into the question “what does it mean to be united”? How is it possible to get the slave girl, Paul and Silas, the jailer and the crowd all on the same page? 

The unity that God calls us to is not one that makes us all the same. The God who made us in all our stunning diversity is not asking us to erase those differences for the sake of unity, but to bear with one another in love. We are to be reconciled with love and compassion to a higher purpose, of which unity is one of many fruits. Jesus’ prayer invites us into being with God as God is with us. This past Thursday the church celebrated the Jesus’ Ascension to the right hand of God. Theologically, this means that God is with us in a new way, in which the very life of God is in us, and the hallmark of that life is love. This awareness of God in our lives and in all of creation, though understood in many ways by different cultures, has one unifying product: shalom. As Katharine Jefferts Schori describes it, “shalom has to do with the restoration of all creation to right relationship with God”. This is the unity that comes from God. And it involves relating to one another inclusively, affirming each person’s expression of God in them and God with them. It is God’s call for us all to unite in mission; that is to say to release those imprisoned by poverty, lack of education, gender inequality, environmental injustice, lack of health care.

Last Tuesday Njongonkulu Ndungane, Archbishop of Capetown and successor to Desmond Tutu, spoke to a Bishop’s Forum in Capetown on the subject of unity. What he had to say is worth hearing:

We know from experience that unity is a divine given but requires constant effort to be realised; a journey that requires tolerance and grace so that no one should be hurt and all should feel that they belong. Our own journey continues to remind us of the need for a generosity of spirit and the respect for diversity. We urge the Anglican Communion to choose to remain united in accordance with the will of the Triune God whom we seek to serve. We understand that, given the situation in which we find ourselves at present, there is no simple or quick solution to the difficulties we face. We urge every part of the Anglican Communion to recognise, in one another, our common sanctification in Christ and to seek steps that, in time, will lead to reconciliation and the unity and peace that Christ wills for his Church. We pledge ourselves to continue to pray and work with all concerned for such reconciliation and unity and are ready to assist in this process where appropriate.

I am an eternal optimist - and not because I am retiring soon and leaving this behind, but because Jesus has risen, and in him we have the victory, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against his church!

When we look back on the history of the Church, it has always been assailed with divisions to be overcome. The unity of Christ's people is one of the prime targets of the devil, who does not want the world to look at us and say 'See how these Christians love one another!' The devil's purposes are far better served when people look at us and see us fighting and quarrelling, and doing so in ways that fail to reflect the spirit of charity, tolerance and gracious magnanimity that has always characterised the best of Anglicanism!.

So whether it was the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles, or the precise understanding of the Eucharist, or the various models of salvation, or slavery, or usury, or contraception, or women's ordination - or even questions over vestments, and whether, and how high, to raise up the bread and wine with the words of consecration - well, God is bigger! And the unity that God grants us is a gift of grace that can overcome all manner of human disagreement. It is not where we stand on this or that particular issue which is definitive for our salvation - nor even our understanding of this or that passage of Scripture. What matters is our relationship with Jesus Christ, who gave his life for us on the cross, and who was raised to new life, so that we too might find new life in him. 

Whether it is the life of the Anglican Communion that concerns us, or our own divisions and lack of charity in our relationships, the same love of God, when given away freely, unites us in community. When we work toward the same end and greater good, we can afford to celebrate our differences. This is what sets Silas, Paul, the slave girl and the jailer free. This is the hope of the visionary language of Revelation:

Let everyone who is thirsty come.

Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift. ..

Amen. Come, Lord Jesus.