The Ecumenical Window: No Creed but Christ (Ephesians 2: 17-22)
This week as we continue our series of sermons and reflections on the stained-glass windows in our sanctuary, we will take a look at the window in the corner to my left. This one is called the Ecumenical Window and it was sponsored by the children of Hilda Tyner, in the honor of their mother. In a sense it is a sort of sister window to the one we spoke about last week, the Disciples of Christ window. That is because ecumenism, or the work of building relationships of unity among Christian churches, is a primary goal of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ). As mentioned in last weeks sermon, unity among believers in Christ was very important to the founders of this movement. In fact, you may be familiar with the denominational slogan, “Disciples of Christ: a movement for wholeness in a fragmented world.” The founders aimed to be reformers and restorers of the church. They believed that by restoring the church to its former, apostolic nature, meaning led by Christ’s apostles, they could help Christianity to overcome the many divisions that had crept in over the years due to disagreements in doctrine, interpretation, and belief. So, they wanted to take things back to the beginning, to recreate the conditions of the church that we read about in the book of Acts, where there was “no creed but Christ.” Without all these things to disagree over, they believed Christians would have no reason not to come together, united as the one church, as the one body of Christ.
We spoke about some of this last week when we spoke about our Disciples heritage, but focused mostly on the act of communion, which we share in each week. Barton Stone, one of the founders of our movement, described the movement toward Christian unity this way: In The Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery, one of the founding documents of the movement, Stone wrote, “We will, that this body die, be dissolved, and sink into union with the Body of Christ at large; for there is but one body, and one Spirit, even as we are called in one hope of our calling.” This writing brings to my mind the image of taking communion by intinction. Which is when we partake in communion by take a piece of bread, usually ripped from a larger loaf, and it is dipped into a cup of wine, or whatever is being used as a wine stand in. The bread absorbs the liquid and begins to dissolve, and then, does so further when it is taken into our bodies. As it dissolves it becomes part of the larger body. Stone called on those who followed him to let the things that divided them dissolve and vanish until all that was left was a belief in Christ and the desire to follow his example in the world.
Another one of the founders of the Disciples of Christ, Alexander Campbell, wrote these words in response to the question, who is a Christian? “Every one that believes in one’s heart that Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah, the Son of God; repents of one’s sins, and obeys him in all things according to one’s measure of knowledge of his will.” This quote can also be found in the red, Chalice Hymnal at #338. You might remember that a paraphrasing of these words is used when welcoming a new member into the church. The only criteria any of us are asked to meet is belief and trust in Jesus and that we act on that to the best of our current understanding. That’s why you may hear people say about the Disciples of Christ, “We have no creed but Christ.” Those other criteria and the beliefs that might divide us are allowed to be dissolved away.
The artist who crafted this stained-glass window uses a different metaphor to look at the idea of unity in the Christian Church. This makes it unique among the windows in our sanctuary. The other windows use fairly straight forward images to tell the Christian story. Consider what we have already seen. The image of the chalice is the symbol of our denomination. The chancel window tells the story of Jesus by using well known icons to illustrate the best-known parts of the story; water for baptism, wheat and grapes for the Lord’s Supper, three crosses for the crucifixion. However, the ecumenical window has on it the image of a ship at sea. Not the first thing one might think of when thinking about Christian unity. The reason is that it is inspired by the words of St. Hippolytus, a 3rd century theologian who said, “The world is a sea, in which the Church, like a ship, is beaten by the waves, but not submerged.”
So, what are those waves that beat upon the ship of the Christian Church today? Is it the type of persecution that the church in Hippolytus’ time would have experienced? Probably not. At least not in the United States, though there are Christians in other parts of the world who face violent persecution for their beliefs. If we are looking at the ship as a symbol of Christian unity, though, I think the waves we have to be aware of are those things that look to tear the ship apart. The voices that see to divide us. It is often said that we live in very divided times. We live in a time where it seems as if there are so many things that divide us, and we are led to believe that the things that divide us are the most important things. And, slowly but surely, we are moving into the most divisive of all times -at least in recent memory- Presidential campaign season.
Yes, soon we will be subjected to months of relentless texts and phone calls and emails and television advertisements filled with terrifying, infuriating, depressing messages. These ads that do their best to bring to our attention to how broken the world seems or how close we are to losing everything. These ads that are meant to make us scared and suspicious of one another and make us believe that only certain ideas or certain candidates can pull us back from the brink. These ads would have us believe that the only way forward is to cast aside or leave behind those who are different or those who disagree with us. These things that try to divide us by taking advantage of our fears and doubts, and trying to motivate people to the voting booth by offering certainty. In the case of political elections that certainty comes in the form of a particular candidate or political party or ideology. The more scared people become, and the more certain they become that the only way out of their fear is by sticking to the idea or belief or candidate they believe in no matter what, the more divided things become. It is hard to come together when we are convinced that the only way to overcome our fears about the world is our way, and the only right way to see and understand the world is the way we see it or the way we understand it.
However, before we get too bogged down by all that mess let us turn to our reading from Paul’s letter to the Ephesians to give us some hope. This week’s reading comes from the part of the letter to Ephesians in which Paul is explaining to the church that they are called to be one body in Christ. The early church in Ephesus is made of Jews and Gentiles, which as you can imagine, creates some friction. Paul writes here to their concerns about how they might live in community together, despite their differences. This reading is a call for unity, and a reminder that unity is a gift we receive from God. As with any gift we receive from God, we are called to share it, and use it for the good of others. As the body of Christ, we are called to come together in unity.
How do we respond to this call? What do we need to do to foster a sense of unity among ourselves and those we are in fellowship with? Even in the early church of Paul’s time there were already rifts forming. Which is why Paul writes here about bringing peace between those born Gentiles and those born Jews. Finding a way for these two very different groups of people to live together based on their shared belief in Jesus Christ as the Son of God. Here Paul uses his own metaphors for unity and disunity. For disunity he describes a wall form by the hostility between two groups of people. A wall that must come down for there to be peace.
Like unity, peace is also a gift of the spirit. Also, like unity, peace is more than simply getting along with one another. We can tolerate one another, be polite, mind our own business, but these are not the same as peace or unity. They are based not just on cooperation with others, but it is based in a love and acceptance of ourselves and our relationship with God. Peace refers to the fullness of salvation that comes from God. It is the ‘peace that passes understanding.’ So, we are called to be ‘eager’ in our search for peace. This means to be actively bringing peace and unity to our communities, rather than reactively working for it only after a fight breaks out. This means always having consideration for the wellbeing of others, at all times, not just when there is disagreement.
Disciple scholar Michael Kinnamon writes, “Disciples [of Christ] came into existence because of the vision our founders had that the church of Christ on earth could embody unity and peacemaking.” As a denomination committed to unity, we must also be committed to eradicating the things that stand in the way of unity or create disunity. This includes things like war, or poverty, or racism. Moving toward wholeness means that we cannot ignore the factors that lead to fragmentation. We must find the cracks and try to address them. We patch over the cracks -make whole the fragments- with traits like humility, patience, gentleness, peace, and the bonds of love. These are the ethical building blocks that Paul believed would make the church. The founders of the Disciples of Christ sought to create a church in this image. An apostolic church, centered on belief in Christ, love of God, service to one another. The church as is it was before it was pulled in many different directions by the ideologies, creeds, and doctrines that formed denominations up to that point. This is one way in which we can share that gift of unity that God presents to us.
The metaphor Paul uses for unity is that of a building with the Apostle’s sharing the teachings of Jesus as the foundations, and Jesus himself as the cornerstone. So, when we share that gift of unity, we are adding to that building. We are making more room within it for more people and the more people that come to reside and form this building from a sense of unity and shared belief in Christ the sturdier it becomes. As Paul says, it becomes a dwelling place for the Lord. So, that is why I prefer looking at Paul’s metaphor, seeing the church as a building, set on a firm foundation with Christ as the cornerstone. A ship can get tossed about by the waves of life, and there are many of them. But, a dwelling place of God with Christ as the cornerstone can hold firm and withstand the beating, and something new is continually being built.
My hope and prayer going forward is that this church and this denomination can continue to do the good work of creating unity among the children of God. Furthermore, despite the fact that the world is constantly trying to nudge us apart and send us to our separate corners until a little friction is needed to get things going, I hope that we realize the important place this Biblical notion of unity plays in all our lives. It is fundamental to all our lives of faith because love is the basis of unity, and unity is created from a place of love. The love that God bestows on us all at creation, and the love we see exemplified in the life and teachings of Jesus Christ. I hope we recognize that as the body of Christ we are called to unity so that Christ himself can move and act in our world. And through the creed of Christ-like living, we live out this unity so that this love of Christ continues to grow from that foundation until our fragmented world finds itself whole. Amen.