Sixty years ago, in 1964, under the auspices of the British Council of Churches, a conference on faith and order was held in Nottingham and put out this statement:
“United in our urgent desire for one church renewed for mission, this Conference invites the member churches to covenant together to work and pray for the inauguration of union by a date agreed between them. We dare to hope that this date be not later then Easter Day 1980. We believe we should offer obedience to God in a commitment as decisive as this.”
Sixty years later, we meet as churches and fellow pilgrims in this city to celebrate while not union, a new commitment to work together in discipleship and in mission as one holy, catholic and apostolic Church, united in our commitment to Jesus and living out our calling to be churches who seek to serve our community. But why haven’t we sorted it? Why are we still not one? Let’s hear that light bulb joke:
How many church people does it take to change a light bulb?
Charismatics: Only one. Hand's already in the air.
Roman Catholics: None. They use candles.
Anglicans: Eight. One to call the electrician, and seven to say how much they liked the old one better.
Lutherans: None. Lutherans don't believe in change.
Methodists: 10- One to change the bulb. Nine to attack the minister, because someone's grandmother gave that bulb to the church!!
I want to encourage us tonight by using four words, tapestry, sheep, coin, hands… stick with me!
First, consider a tapestry. Beginning with one thread, one colour, one row followed successively by more threads of different colours and locations.
With every additional thread the pattern becomes more full, more vibrant, more depicting of what the grand weaver desired. The more threads added, the more beautiful it becomes until it is pronounced finished. From above it is the masterpiece of the creator, yet from the back it is quite another story.
Have you ever looked at the backside of a seemingly flawless tapestry? It is an absolute quagmire of loose threads, rogue knots and indistinguishable patterns resembling nothing of the other side. Scripture refers to the Church as living stones, the human body, a royal priesthood, and the bride of Christ, but I think the tapestry is a particularly telling demonstration of the process of the people of God.
We are to be one including people of such diverse backgrounds and qualities, and Jesus is weaving us into a fantastic one-of-a-kind work that is beautiful.
“But wait!” you may say, “from where I’m standing the Church looks like a messed up train-wreck of individuals.” That’s what makes this metaphor so fitting. Most of us are looking at the tapestry from the backside, and the truth is, it is not all that beautiful. Threads, are all over the place, doing their own things, abruptly cut…and knots galore. But the key is that God is not finished yet, and more importantly, God looks at the tapestry from the other side.
We are to be a messy church together. We might not agree on everything but we agree on one thing - to proclaim Jesus as Lord and Saviour and to share him in worship and witness. Christian unity is a lot of threads coming together. We won’t always agree, we will worship differently, we may have different priorities, what some of us do others may feel uncomfortable with, but tonight there is a new commitment to work at it, respecting each other and learning from each other. So we thank God we are part of his tapestry, offering what we can and respecting each other.
Secondly consider sheep and a coin. What is it all of us are called to do? To seek and save the lost. You’d expect after inviting a Methodist preacher to preach he might mention Wesley - and I’m going to quote him twice! Here’s the first quote. He said “you have nothing to do but to save souls, so spend and be spent.”
The three parables that make up chapter fifteen of Luke’s Gospel all focus on the central theme of the lost getting found, and the joy that is shared in the finding. Many scholars believe they were told as a single unit from the beginning of the Christian era, passed along through the oral tradition that Luke used to compile his gospel account. Tonight’s gospel reading focuses on the first two of these parables. In order for the lost to be found, it had to belong to someone first. The lost sheep was not a wild sheep that the shepherd came upon and added to his flock.
That sheep had belonged to the shepherd from the beginning, and had strayed away. The coin that the woman lost had been part of her life savings. It belonged to her. When she found it, she rejoiced with her neighbours that something of her very own had been restored to her. When Jesus told these stories, he was describing things that had once been where they belonged, but had somehow gone missing.
Jesus is saying that sinners and tax collectors, the misfits of society, all belong to God, just as much as anyone, and God is eager to restore all of us to himself. Once we accept that we belong to God and choose to serve him, we can’t slam the door in other people’s faces. It’s our job to hold the door open for everyone, even those we might consider outcasts. Especially those we might consider to be outcasts. We are to rejoice with God whenever one of these outcasts ‘gets found’ because all are precious to God. And we are also to join with God in the work of finding lost ones, and pointing them toward Christ.
The parables were given to religious insiders – Pharisees and scribes. Whether or not we want to admit it, we fall into that category, too. We are the religious insiders in our society.
And if we read these parables closely, we may realise that the ones who need to repent are the ones hearing the story. A coin or a sheep cannot repent. Perhaps Jesus is asking us to repent, as members of the “already found” group of insiders. Perhaps Jesus is asking us to repent of our smugness, our complacency, our failure to include sinners and tax collectors as part of “us.” We commit ourselves tonight in many diverse ways to commend the Saviour, be it through a cathedral being open, projects like Renew Ripon at Holy Trinity, Methodist coffee mornings, conversation with a Salvation Army officer in the market square, free church worship, shared witness at festivals through the year. Why are we here? To share Jesus. Together. In different ways but together. And all are welcome. Woe betide our churches become insular little clubs where we vet those who want to engage with us. Or we avoid encounter with some who aren’t easy to talk to or help. The shepherd and the woman don’t rest until the lost sheep and the lost coin are found.
The church as a tapestry, the church as a seeker and offerer of salvation, and finally the church as friends. This is where hands come in. John Wesley described religious liberty as the “liberty to choose one’s own religion, to worship God according to one’s own conscience.” He insisted that every person living had a right to do this. Wesley’s essay, The Character of a Methodist, says this “from real Christians of whatsoever denomination they be, we earnestly desire not to be distinguished at all. Dost thou love and serve God? It is enough. I give the right hand of fellowship.” In his sermon on the Catholic spirit he wrote “if your heart is right with my heart, give me your hand.”
Tonight we recommit ourselves to friendship and a journey together. We recommit ourselves to seeking the lost. We recommit ourselves to learn from each other, to celebrate each other’s unique part in the team, to not be strangers but friends supporting each other. We all have our strengths and we need to offer what we can. Let’s not dis those we don’t get how they do things, let’s be glad we are different and reach out our hands to each other.
And let’s not spend too much time focussing on what divides us but what binds us together.
Tapestry, sheep, coins, hands.
“Nothing offends God more than for the church to be in a disunited state, because it bears to the world a very bad testimony and example." Tonight, we recommit ourselves to work together. Then tomorrow we face outwards to our city. When we do the work of Christ there will be rejoicing as we find people and offer them his grace and freedom. God has given us this chance to sort ourselves out, to be one United church with all our different bits.
Through us he will build his Kingdom, and his name will be glorified. Be encouraged tonight in our unity and our diversity, this recommitment, this internal reboot, then go and be his church. Amen.
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