Sermon - Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

Reflection by: Rev. Susan Garrod-Schuster,

Appreciation and Thanks to Fr. Pat and the Newman Centre for their kind invitation as we begin the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Fr. Pat emphasized the unique and unusual nature of hearing a female voice deliver the message, so I feel some pressure on behalf of all my sisters, to do a good job!

All kidding aside, I do feel at home here. I spoke at the World Day of Prayer service last March, and have been part of worship on a couple of other occasions. It's not unusual for me to worship in a Catholic church. My husband Jim was baptized and confirmed Catholic, and even though he is now a member of the United Church, we often worship at the Church of Our Lady in Guelph, where we make our home. When my mother-in-law passed away in Calgary, the family invited me to share in the mass at her funeral.

I have had a rather eclectic faith journey in terms of the organized church, but one that has thoroughly prepared me for the role that I now play on campus as Ecumenical Chaplain. I was baptized in the Church of England, came to Canada where I became an Anglican, attended a Baptist church close to our house, until my Godfather stepped in and switched me back; joined the United Church of Canada when I married, and subsequently became ordained as a United Church Minister. I now serve this campus as an Ecumenical Chaplain, with an office at Knox College and funding from the Presbyterians! So when I consider the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, I feel as though the ecumenical spirit that infuses the movement, has been part of my whole life for as long as I can remember.

I asked for a Bible on my 9th birthday, long before I even understood that there were many different kinds of churches. In fact my Dad came back from the war with a healthy dose of agnosticism, so as youngsters we were not taken to Sunday worship. And yet I continued to be drawn to the places of spiritual expression.

Now as an adult, I feel as though I am equally comfortable listening to Joyce Meyer at the Air Canada Centre as I am in high church at Trinity College. It's really a wonderful feeling. Because I've come to understand that the outward expressions and structures of faith are simply the way in which we, in the material or physical world give voice to the nonlocal domain. And those outward expressions are as unique and different as we all are from each other.

So then what is our understanding of unity? And why do we pray for it? Do we hope to see our physical spaces become merged ? Are we looking for commonality in hymnody or doctrine? Do we want our leaders to wear the same vestments ? Do we just want to convert everyone to our way of thinking? Are we looking for validation that our faith expression is the right one? When we pray for unity, what are we praying for?....................Take a silent moment with your eyes closed and ask yourself the question.

In our epistle reading, Paul helps us come to grips with the reasons for our divisions, so maybe it is here that the answer will emerge.
He says there are all kinds of varieties and distributions of extraordinary powers that have become known as spiritual gifts. There are distinctions or differences in service, in ministry, and distinctive varieties of operation, that is working to accomplish things. Some of us can express wisdom, some have great knowledge, some faith, some can work miracles, others have prophetic insight, and on and on the list goes.

So is it any wonder that when we seek to make our spiritual gifts manifest in the material world, we come into conflict with each other as we attempt to interpret our understanding of the divine. We set up our own little bastion of sacred knowledge, or our own style of imparting wisdom in counselling or preaching, or we establish a healing ministry that becomes an exclusive sect. It's our human ego-centric way of bringing control and putting manageable boundaries around that which seems vast and unattainable. We become focussed in on our little corner of creation, our gift, our leadership, our empire; and we are unaware that you are just as committed and passionate about yours as well. We don't see the big picture-----

To me there isn't a better illustration of this, than the story of the 4 blind men and the elephant. They were each asked to describe the beast having never laid eyes on an elephant in their lives. The first one stood at the trunk and felt the long smooth surface. He said an elephant is exactly like the pipe that brings the water into my village. The second one stood at the tail and felt the thin wiry wisp. He said no, an elephant is like the snake I found in my garden. The third man stood at one of the legs and felt the thick rough surface. He said no, the elephant is like the trunk of the tree that grows outside my hut. Lastly the fourth man stood at the ear and felt the flat silky contours. No you're all wrong, the elephant is like the giant manta ray that floats in the river.

They were all partially correct, and conveyed a part of the truth, but none had the entire picture. Together they might have come a little bit closer to it, but they were too caught up in their own world view.

So this is the difficulty that Paul identifies when we become ego invested in our spiritual gifts. We get caught up in competition, and conflict, and one-upping each other. Divisions are the result of ego.

Fr. Thomas Keating, a Trappist monk, has led a contemplative life for over 40 years, and written volumes about it. I came upon his work last year and share with you that he has opened the doors of interfaith dialogue like few others. His dialogue is not about the worship space or the doctrinal differences......he has created an interface at the level of spirit, between Christian contemplative prayer and Buddhist meditation. There is so much in common in fact, that one has to ask where one ends and the other begins?

It is about getting back to the source of all that is.....to divine energy and light and love.....where ego melts away and all that's left is spiritual communion with God. Fr. Keating calls it stripping away the false self and getting to the true self.....the way that God meant for us to be. This is achieved through the daily practise of meditation.

By returning to the source of who we are, suddenly we discover something..........there are no differences, no boundaries, no ego-invested empires, nothing but pure potential as our spirits rejoice in their creative beginnings. We discover that we are one and the same.

If we go back to Paul's epistle to the Christians at Corinth, we see that he too is saying just that.......... V.4,5,6 etc.

And if we return to our source it's there that we find unity. The gifts might all be different, and take us in different directions. We might have them all in differing degrees, but at the level of spirit, we are unmistakably the same. The message is Areturn to the source. It is the same God who energizes and inspires us all.

I was awestruck this week by the landing of the Mars land rover. And even more so when the camera scanned the Nasa control room and literally dozens of men and women sat or stood at the monitors and panels. They had struggled together, and argued together as egos became inflated by their own importance. They had brought with them very different gifts, from many different places, for very different purposes.

But in the end at the moment of the landing, they were completely unaware of their individual separations, as they were united in a raucous cheer......unified by their excitement at a job well done. And the name of their special unity project? SPIRIT!

V.12 For just as the body is a unity and yet has many parts, and all the parts, though many, form one body, so it is with Christ the anointed one.