Last Sunday, I preached about how having the Incarnation of Jesus at our center makes us distinctive as Anglicans. The core conviction that Jesus, the Son of God, lived and died a human life influences how we view Creation, mystery, and ourselves. Several people mentioned that they found it to be helpful in understanding who we are as Episcopalians, so if you missed it, do go back and read or listen to it. Today’s sermon is the counter-balancing corrective to that sermon.
While
it is true that Anglicanism has its own distinct heritage, flavor, gifts, and
flaws, Anglicanism is nothing compared to the Body of Christ. As much as I
enjoyed being in England last summer, as proud as I am of what The Episcopal
Church strives to be, as glad as I am to be in this tradition, our denominational
and theological distinctiveness amounts to nothing compared to what we have in
common as followers of Jesus, at best. And, at worst, too much of a focus on
our distinctiveness can lead to division instead of unity and idolatry instead
of genuine faith. Again, I stand by everything that I said last Sunday, just don’t
take that to be the only or the final word on what our identity is. Ultimately,
we are not Episcopalian, or Protestant, or Catholic, or any other label. No, we
are “in Christ.”
This
emphasis and prayer for unity is at the heart of Jesus’ mission – as he prayed that
we might all be one and tells us that he longs to be like a mother hen,
gathering all of the chicks under her protective wings. Unity does not mean we
have to give anything up, rather unity is about becoming more fully who we are
made to be. And this bias towards unity is a part of our Anglican tradition. Rooted
in Anglicanism’s inclination towards common prayer is the desire for us all to be
one.
There
is a document that was adopted by the Episcopal House of Bishops in 1886 and
then by all of the Anglican Bishops in the world at a conference at Lambeth
Palace in London in 1888. The statement is known as the “Chicago-Lambeth
Quadrilateral” and is one of the historical documents found at the back of our
Prayer Book. I want to read one of the sections because it tells us, as Anglicans,
what our priority is around Christian unity:
“That
in all things of human ordering or human choice, relating to modes of worship
and discipline, or to traditional customs, this Church is ready in the spirit
of love and humility to forego all preferences of her own.” In other words, all
of those things that make us distinctively Anglican: our Book of Common Prayer, our Constitutions
and Canons, our preferences for how things ought to be done should be things
that we are ready and willing to give up for the sake of Christian unity. Now,
I’ll admit, as someone who generally thinks that my way is the best way, this is
a challenging proposition. But Christ’s prayer that we all be one is more important
than me having things ordered the way I prefer.
Now,
you might wonder – why then are we here? Why has The Episcopal Church not ceased
to be and joined another denomination? Why don’t we close St. Luke’s and join
Soldiers Memorial, or Sacred Heart, or LifeChurch? The Quadrilateral, as you
might guess by the name, has four parts to it that outline what is necessary
for unity. It refers to these foundational aspects of our faith as “sacred
deposits” – things that we have received from the Apostles and which are the
only foundation strong enough to hold all of the diversity of the Church together
in a beloved community. These four things are also all connected to Baptism, as
we will see. These four things are:
One - That the Holy
Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the rule and ultimate standard of
our faith. This means that we do not get to make up our own theology because we
are grounded in the faith that has been received. As Psalm 29 proclaims, “the
voice of the Lord is a powerful
voice, a voice of splendor.” Scripture is a place where this voice is recorded
for us to hear in our own day. Most Christians do agree on this point. We might
not agree on our interpretation of Scripture, but we agree on its importance. Embedded
in this point is another thing that unites all Christians together – grace.
Just as we do not earn our salvation, we do not have to create our own
tradition – we receive it. Baptism, like a bath, is about the ritual washing
away of our sins. Baptism reminds us of the message of Scripture and the
message of grace – that we are forgiven because of God’s mercy, not because of
our contrition or deserving.
Two – That the Creed is
the sufficient statement of the Christian faith. This does not mean that the
Creed tells the whole story, but it covers all of the essentials. Is looking at
a baseball box score the same thing as watching the game? No, but if you read the
box score, you understand the contours of the game. This is a point where,
sadly, there is not as much unity as we pray for. Some Christian traditions
reject the Creed as being incomplete, antiquated, or restrictive. Others, while
affirming the Creed, do not refer to it as “sufficient,” and they add all sorts
of other doctrines, Confessions, and rules.
This claim maps onto Baptism,
which we heard about in the reading from Mark. The Baptism of Jesus includes
the presence of the Father, Son, and Spirit, as does the Creed. Baptism is what
unites all Christians because, at the most basic level, Baptism is the entrance
and initiation ritual of faith. We say that Christians are those who are “in Christ”
and Baptism is how the “in” part of that equation happens. The Creed tells us
what the shape of the faith that we enter through Baptism is. And Baptism unites
us to Jesus, particularly his Death and Resurrection, which the Creed lays out
for us.
Third – that the
Sacraments of Baptism and Eucharist are central. We’ve just seen how Baptism is
entrance into the faith, and one theologian has said “The Church makes the
Eucharist and the Eucharist makes the Church.” The Eucharist is that shared
meal that is meant to nourish the faithful and support our growth in Christ.
Again, sadly, not all Christians can agree on this point and this becomes a
sticking point to unity. Some traditions only allow their members to participate
in Communion and others rarely celebrate this feast of beloved community. Questions
about wine versus grape juice are irrelevant, but when Christians refuse to share
in the Lord’s Supper together, well, that tells us just how far we have to go
in pursuing unity.
What animates these
Sacraments is the Holy Spirit, who blesses and sanctifies. The Spirit makes the
water of baptism become the waters of new birth and makes the bread and wine
become the bread of heaven and the cup of salvation. It is as we heard St. Paul
ask in Acts, “Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you became believers?” The
Holy Spirit is one of those things that unites us as followers of Jesus. As we
know from Ephesians, “There is one body and one Spirit: one hope, one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.” This oneness comes from the
fact that there is one Spirit that animates, blesses, comforts, strengthens, and
inspires us. The Baptists don’t have one spirit, and Pentecostals another, and
Episcopalians still another. Of course not! There is one Spirit that gives us
all life, which is gifted to us in Baptism, and which blesses our table fellowship
in the name of Jesus.
Baptism is often referred
to as our new birth or being born again, as we receive new life by the gifting
of the Holy Spirit. It’s what the dove at Jesus’ Baptism is meant to remind us
of – the dove that left Noah’s Ark as a sign of a renewed Creation. The Holy
Spirit guides us into being in this world full of wonder, gratitude, and love.
Fourth – the historic
Episcopate, locally adapted. The word “Episcopate,” you might notice is related
to the name of our denomination: Episcopal. Both come from a Greek word which
means “overseer” or “bishop.” We call ourselves “Episcopalians” because it is
the Bishop who symbolizes our unity and connection to the faith of the
Apostles. All of the historic churches – Roman Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican
have had bishops since the very beginning and provide a structural connection
to the faith of the Apostles. Bishops, when they live into their calling, are supposed
to unite us and guard us in faith. Bishops are supposed to protect the integrity
of the faith by ensuring what the Church teaches and stands for is in
accordance with the previous three points – that we remain grounded in
Scripture, that the Creed remains central, and that Baptism and Eucharist are
at our center. Bishops keep us united to one another and grounded in a commonly
held faith instead of each congregation deciding what they will believe.
Again, many denominations
have done away with Bishops, or have Bishops who function only as
administrators and not as spiritual guides. Too many churches have become “congregationalist”
in nature where each church is an island unto itself. Yes, there are certainly abuses
that come from having Bishops, that is simply what it means to be sinners, but
a viable path to unity is not “everyone for themselves.” As we heard in
Genesis, we are all made from the same stuff and by the same Creator. And what
is clear in the story of Creation is that there is an order to things. This
sense of order and connection to those who have come before is what the Episcopate
intends to give us and is why true unity depends on something bigger than ourselves,
just as Baptism is about incorporating
us into something bigger than ourselves, the Body of Christ.
These things are more foundational
than any denominational preferences or structures. And these points of unity are
the only thing that any Church truly needs. Not only did I want to offer this
counter-balance to last Sunday’s sermon on Anglican distinctiveness, but I also
want to, on the Sunday in which we celebrate the Baptism of Jesus, offer this sermon
about the meaning of Baptism as something that ungirds all Christian identity
and unity.
Baptism is about the
forgiveness of sins, union with Christ, new life in the Spirit, and birth into
the Body of Christ. And these four aspects of Baptism are the foundation for
what the Quadrialateral sets forth as the foundation for Christian unity: Scripture,
Creed, Sacrament, and Bishops. This is something that all Christians share in
common. If we could just focus on that unity instead of all of the other
distractions, divisions, and desires that pull us apart from one another.
Thinking of our fellow
Christians, there is certainly a lot to divide us. We worship differently, we
have different interpretations of Scripture, we include and exclude different people,
our clergy wear different kinds of clothes, we sing different kinds of music,
we vote differently, we have different missional priorities. And we could
choose to let those differences divide us and be a sign of Christian
brokenness. We say that Scripture, the Creed, the Sacraments, and Bishops are
foundational, and yet our desire for control and our own preferences makes it
seem, to the world and ourselves, that those things are not as strong as we
claim because they don’t seem to be holding us togehter. I am not suggesting
that we tolerate injustice, exclusion, abuse, or heresy in the name of unity.
That is not any better witness than our divisions are. But might we focus more
on the foundation of Baptism, on the things we share in common, on fostering a beloved
community to invite others to come and see?
Elsewhere in the Quadrilateral,
it reads: “Deeply grieved by the sad divisions which affect the Christian
Church in our own land, we hereby declare our desire and readiness to enter
into conference with all or any Christian Bodies seeking unity.” Jesus, on the
night before he died for us, prayed that we might all be one. By the guidance,
grace, and wisdom of the Spirit, we join our prayer with that our of our Lord,
as we resolve to pursue beloved community among all Christians that we might be
one.
