Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Crescent Hill Baptist Church
Louisville, Kentucky
Pentecost 19
October 7, 2007
Ecumenical Heritage Sunday
World Communion Sunday
W. Gregory Pope
HEALING THE BODY BROKEN
Ephesians 4:1-6; John 17:20-23
Yesterday I attended the funeral of a good friend in Jacksonville, Florida, Jack Snell. He was my predecessor at Hendricks Avenue Baptist Church, and spent the last seven years of his life working with CBF, serving as field personnel in Thailand with his wife Anita and as the Interim Global Mission Coordinator.
Jack was a wonderful example of what we are talking about today as we celebrate our ecumenical heritage on this World Communion Sunday. Jack was truly an ecumenical person. He believed every person, no matter what your nationality or religion, was a child of God created in God’s image. The president of Steinmart, Jay Stein, spoke yesterday and called Jack his rabbi. Jack Snell lived ecumenically in the best sense of that word.
I love the word “ecumenical.” I love the way it sounds. It has a great spiritual beauty to me. It reminds me of that beautiful line from the psalmist: “Behold how good it is when people dwell together in unity” (Psalm 133:1). It embodies the prayer of Jesus that we all live as one.
The word comes from the Greek oikoumene, which means “the whole inhabited world.” Jesus said that the gospel would be preached to the whole wide world, and the word he used was oikoumene (Matthew 24:14). It means the whole world as the household of God: human, non-human, animal, plant, mineral.
What would it be like if we lived that way? Believing the whole world to be the household of God! Not an accident of a blind cosmos, not the possession of humans, but the household of God.
Creation
The psalmist said as much: The earth is the Lord’s and all that is in it, the world, and all who live in it (Psalm 24:1). All people, all creatures great and small, belong to God. An ecumenical church takes that truth to heart and embodies it in its life.
To be ecumenical starts with affirming the goodness of God’s creation and working to take care of it. If the world is the household of God, then we as the people of God are called by God to be stewards of that household, caretakers of earth. Environmental care is not just a political issue, it is first a theological issue. God has made us responsible for this household called earth. The world has not been given to us to exploit for our own purposes. We are to care for it and make sure it serves God’s purposes of feeding the planet with healthy crops and clean water and unpolluted air. The world does not belong to us, but to God. To be ecumenical is to care for God’s creation.
Humankind
To be ecumenical is to acknowledge all people as created in God’s image and loved by God. God doesn’t have a special love just for Jews and Christians and Americans. God’s love is the same for all people. And God’s desire is for all people to know the love and grace of God and to embody that love and grace in their relationships with one another, working for peace and justice in the world. To be an ecumenical church is to live as brothers and sisters to all peoples of the earth, family members of God’s household.
Church
The most popular understanding of the word “ecumenical” is in reference to that specific part of God’s family called the church To be ecumenical is to affirm everyone who follows Jesus as part of the one Body of Christ.
The biblical basis of ecumenism is that the church is one in Christ. There are no multiple bodies of Christ. There is only one body. Whether we act like it or not, all who are united to Christ are united to one another. Ecumenism seeks to answer Jesus’ prayer that we all be one.
Ecumenism recognizes the scandal of a badly divided Christianity and seeks to unite Christians around the world so that Christianity might better represent the oneness of the Body of Christ. It is the work of the Greater Louisville Reconciliation Conference in this city.
This ecumenism begins with churches joining together in associations and denominations. Not many good words are said these days for denominations, but I would like to offer some. Baptist pastor Mike Clingenpeel, says, “Denominations are valuable, first, because they force believers to practice their skills at getting along . . . When we collect ourselves into denominations we are forced to relate to people who are different [even more so than in our own congregations]. Quickly we learn that none of us is the sole possessor of all revealed truth.”[1] Associations and denominations help organize churches to accomplish together more than they can do separately.
Each Baptist church is autonomous, but let us never be isolationist. Rather, let us acknowledge our interdependence with other Christians in our city and throughout the world and work with them in mission and ministry, doing together what we could never do apart. One example of this is United Crescent Hill Ministries, joining together with people from other denominations to help meet the needs of our community.
Associations and denominations can help organize churches to accomplish together more than what can be done separately. But, as Bill Leonard writes, “The shadow side of denominations is that they increase competition as different denominations seek to prove that their beliefs and practices are closest to those of the true New Testament church.” “The test of all denominational practice,” writes Wallace Alston, “is whether it exhibits or obscures the unity of the church.”[2]
The ecumenism that begins with local associations and then denominations is hopefully extended further to interdenominational relationships. I would rather be interdenominational that nondenominational.
Ecumenical cooperation does not mean the sacrifice of particular convictions regarding the nature of Christian faith but involves recognition that all Christians belong to Christ and can learn from each other. It is important that we share our particular convictions, but to do so with humility and an openness to learn. To be ecumenical is not about creating one great uniform world church. It is not a union or merger we’re striving for, but rather dialogue, cooperation, and communion.[3]
Ecumenism is a confession of humility. No one congregation or denomination can fulfill all the gospel, or reach every one with the good news, or express every facet of the Christian faith. In humility we must acknowledge that we do not hold a corner on the truth. We must learn from each other and affirm each other in doing the work God has called us all to do.
Robert Benson, in his beautiful book, The Body Broken, speaks of Christians in various traditions looking through different windows trying to catch a glimpse of the Mystery that is God. He writes:
Because none of us can see the entire Mystery at any given time, what we have to offer each other matters a great deal. . . . (And) some portion of the Body (of Christ) must be about the business of making conversation that can unite us rather than divide us. Some of us must become courageous enough to look through other windows, and some must become gracious enough to respect the windows that we have not yet looked through. All of us must become more aware that the window that we love is not the only window.[4]
Then he writes:
What binds us together is not the knowledge that the view through one window or the other is the correct one. What binds us together is the fact that we are looking at all, seeking a glimpse of the Mystery, . . . the Mystery that can make us one.[5]
The goal is to focus on what unites us rather than what makes us different, learning from each other in the process. CHBC has a rich heritage of relating well to Christians of other traditions. CHBC was ecumenical before ecumenical was cool.
I want us to continue to build and nurture those relationships. It is my hope that we will expand our reach and become a true ecumenical church, joining with all Christians and congregations in our city and world who seek the unity of the church, sharing the love of God found in Jesus Christ.
There is a community of Christians in Taize, France, where young people from all over the world gather to pray and worship. The Rule Of Taize says: “Never resign yourself to the scandal of the separation of Christians, all who so readily confess love for their neighbor, and yet remain divided. Be consumed with zeal for the unity of the Body of Christ.” I would hope that could be the Rule Of CHBC. We can help make it happen. To quote Benson again:
The walls that have been built between us - the ones built out of fear or pride or ignorance - can be taken down. And we . . . must do exactly that. We are the ones who can stop the daily dividing up of the Body of Christ into pieces and, instead, make it more possible for the Christ to be seen in the world . . .
We must seek out the things we have in common and at the same time learn to honor the things that make us different. We must learn to take the things we hold dear - our sense of community, our love for the scriptures, our hunger for prayer, our capacity for worship - and work to make them wide enough and deep enough to include others rather than keep them at a distance.[6]
That is the prayer of Jesus for the world.
Other Religions
Today’s ecumenism must also move to a deeper and more expansive level. This deeper, more expansive movement has gained new urgency in the twenty-first century. It is a movement that involves conversations, friendships, and partnerships with people of other religions. We must do this, I think, for the sake of the world, God’s household. In our day religion is becoming more and more a cause of division than of unity. We must do all we can to change that. Christian theologian Hans Kung said, “Peace among the religions is a prerequisite for peace among the nations.”[7] Today, more than ever, he is right.
An ecumenical-interfaith emphasis does not mean that we will embrace all the beliefs and practices of other Christian and non-Christian traditions. It doesn’t mean we view all religions as the same, where we just choose the one that we like the most.
An ecumenical-interfaith emphasis does mean that we will show respect toward people of other faith traditions, enter into conversation with them, and seek to learn what truth they offer. An ecumenical-interfaith emphasis calls for an honoring of all the ways God is working throughout the world, even outside the Christian tradition.
To be ecumenical is to reject spiritual exclusivity and spiritual superiority. To be ecumenical is to affirm the particularity of one’s own faith and honor the “otherness”of different faiths. We can also celebrate and rejoice in our commonalities. I like the way Mother Teresa put it. She said: “I love all religions; I am in love with my own.”
Building Bridges
Religious groups, including Christians, need both walls and bridges - walls which help us clarify our unique identity, and bridges which help us reach out in graciousness to other people. Today walls seem more popular than bridges. But bridges are the passion of ecumenical churches.
Bridges seem to make a weekly appearance in The Courier-Journal. Building, repairing and maintaining bridges is difficult and costly. Sometimes politics and agendas get in the way. The same is true with relational bridges.
As important as the interstate bridges in our city, there are more important bridges that need to be built in our world. There is the God Bridge, connecting human beings with God; the Community Bridge, connecting us with people in our own Crescent Hill community and the city of Louisville; the Global Bridge, connecting us with people all over the world; the Racial Bridge, connecting people of different races; the Socio-political-economic Bridge, joining together rich and poor, Democrat and Republican, east end and west end; and the Religious Bridge, joining together with people who differ from us theologically across denominational and interfaith lines.
To help build those bridges in our city I want to issue a practical challenge to us all. I challenge you to have a meal or at least coffee with someone from another faith tradition. Make the appointment this week for sometime this month. And when you meet talk about your faith. Ask them what is unique about their faith tradition and why it is meaningful to them. And you do the same. When you call them, let them know this is the purpose of the gathering. If they are Jewish or Muslim or Buddhist, tell them you are not trying to convert them but rather you are trying to learn what is meaningful to them about their faith and how it can enrich your own.
In conjunction with this challenge I encourage you to read a book on understanding cultural and religious differences. Two I recommend:
The first is Foreign to Familiar by Sarah Lanier. Sarah will be leading the seminar this Saturday on cross-cultural relationships, which I encourage you to attend. Her book has been used by religious organizations and large corporations to great benefit. I highly recommend it to you.
The second book is The Faith Club. It is the story of an ongoing relationship of three women, one a Muslim, one a Christian, one a Jew. Their relationship began in the aftermath of September 11th. And they are seeking to understand one another, wrestling with issues of anti-Semitism, prejudice against Muslims, and preconceptions about Christians. You may want to begin your own Faith Club with people of different faiths. This book teaches you how.
To be ecumenical is to build bridges with all people of every race and nationality, denomination and religion, while maintaining our Christian identity. I pray we will seek to be bridge-builders, carrying out the ministry of reconciliation to which Christ and scripture call us.
Paul says that the mystery of God’s will revealed in Christ is the uniting of all things (Ephesians 1:9-10). That’s what God wants for us - if we will have it.
There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one Body of Christ. It is not how we live. So Jesus continues to pray that we will live as one so that all will know that we are His. Beginning with our own congregation.
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1. Newsletter article from River Road Church, Baptist, Richmond, Virginia
2. Bill Leonard, The Nature of the Church, Broadman, 1986, 108
3. Ibid., 109
4. Robert Benson, The Body Broken, Doubleday, 2003, 17
5. Ibid., 19-20
6. Ibid., 153-154
7. Hans Kung, Christianity and the World Religions, 443.
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CRESCENT HILL BAPTIST CHURCH
2800 Frankfort Avenue
Louisville, Kentucky 40206
(502) 896-4425
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