Sermon preached at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone
Sunday 16th May 2010 (Easter 7)
Acts 16.16-34 John 17.20-26
Today’s Gospel reading is the one most frequently read on ecumenical occasions. It was probably read when this church was opened and certainly on many occasions since then. It reminds us that the visible unity of the Christian Church is not just a good idea; it is central to the will and purpose of Jesus Christ. Let us remember that if we are honest when we say that Jesus Christ is Lord of our lives and Head of the Church, what matters is not what I want or what you want but what He wants. This passage in the Fourth Gospel is at the climax of what is often called the Final Discourses, the last teaching of Jesus to his disciples before he is taken from them to suffer and die on the Cross. So clearly this is of central importance.
The whole of chapter 17 is a prayer. You can learn things about a person from what they pray for that you cannot learn in any other way. There are many occasions when the Gospels report Jesus praying to his heavenly Father but this is the most extended. Jesus is praying for his disciples, knowing that what is about to happen to him will also be a severe test for them. Judas Iscariot has already betrayed him; Peter will soon deny that he ever knew him. They will all let him down in some way yet it is to these that Jesus has entrusted his message and the future of its communication rests with them; there is no plan B. Jesus is also praying for people who haven’t yet heard of him such as the Philippian jailer who we shall come to in a moment. When Jesus prays for those who will put their faith in him through the words of his disciples, that includes every Christian from then until now and from now until the end of time. When you read in the Gospels of the many different people to whom and about whom Jesus spoke, do you realise that includes you and me? If we have become believers, it is because some other Christian believers put their faith into words that we could understand so that we could believe too. But it doesn’t stop there! We live in a world where many people are putting their trust in Jesus Christ and being added to his Church but we are living in a part of that world where currently the going is tough. Yet the need for the transformation which Jesus alone can bring has never been greater. That’s where you come in: when you tell your story of how and why you became a Christian and what Jesus means to you, others can catch on and become transformed believers too.
The unity that Jesus is praying for is not that we should all be the same; how boring that would be! You only have to look at the trees and flowers bursting into life around us to see that our Creator God loves variety! It is wonderful that people from all over the world have come to this city and to this church and we are seeking a dynamic unity in our diversity. Jesus’ prayer shows that this is the evidence that he is sent by the Father. Christian disunity is a denial of the incarnation; it really is that important. Jesus also prays that the glory which the Father gave to him and which he gives to us might make us one. Glory has several meanings; one of them is a good reputation. We often fail to glimpse the glory around us because we judge other people by their outward appearance rather than their heart. It is when we see one another as the saints which God is making us into rather than just the sinners we were that He makes us His ‘one, holy, catholic and apostolic Church.’ There is a danger in an ecumenical partnership like Cornerstone, with its prominent position and iconic history, that we become complacent and think that we have already done all the ecumenical journeying we need to do. But the ecumenical challenge to make visible the unity which the Spirit is giving to the whole Church and to remember that the whole inhabited earth – the oikoumene – is our concern because it is God’s concern is constantly before us. If we think we have arrived, we most surely have not!
So what about our first reading, one of the amazing missionary stories of the apostle Paul? First we meet a girl who would be considered in this country to be mentally ill. Like some in the Gospels who are described as being demon-possessed, she shows clear perception of who Paul and Silas are and what they are doing. But to her masters, she is a source of wealth, a ‘nice little earner’! I don’t think Paul was exasperated with the girl but he was disturbed by what her condition was doing to her. In setting her free, he deprived her masters of their income so they had the missionaries arrested. They had no compassion on the girl or joy at her healing, only anger at their loss of revenue. So Paul and Silas are flogged and thrown into jail. Instead of complaining about the injustice or worrying about the misfortune to their venture, they fill the jail with songs of praise to God! Praising God isn’t always easy; sometimes it really is a sacrifice of praise. But when we do give thanks to God in all circumstances, not just the nice ones, there is a power in praise! This time it led to an earthquake. The jailer assumed that the broken walls meant that any prisoners who had not been killed by the earthquake would have escaped. He knew that he would be held responsible and if any of the prisoners were held on capital crimes, his life would be forfeit. So he decides to take his own life rather than face his masters. Then Paul stops him and tells him they are all safe! When the jailer asks them “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” what did he mean?
In the first sense, Paul had saved his life by preventing his suicide. Secondly he was saved from the wrath of his masters because the prisoners had not escaped. But there is a deeper danger from which he needs to be saved, a prison in which he was a prisoner not a jailer, and it is to that that Paul responds. Wise counsellors know that there is often a hidden agenda; the presenting problem may not be the real problem. Paul told him to believe, trust, put his confidence in the Lord Jesus – a person of whom the jailer had probably never heard. Apart from Lydia and the other tiny band of Christians, the only Lord in which the people of Philippi had been told to believe, trust and put their confidence was Caesar Augustus! So when Paul and Silas had been accused of ‘advocating practices which it is illegal for us Romans to adopt and follow’, the Gospel they preached was at least subversive of the Emperor cult. The name to which every knee shall bow and whose Lordship every tongue shall confess is not Augustus; it is Jesus. We have an understandable reluctance to give such subservience to anyone because all those who set themselves up as Augustus Caesar did have proved to be fallible and inadequate. This is why our democracy is so precious: not because the majority is always right but because no individual leader is ever entirely right because they are not Jesus Christ.
So Paul and Silas, the wounds of their lashing washed and dressed, told the jailer and his household the message of Jesus. They put their trust in him and were baptised. Since ‘household’ normally would mean all the family including children, this may be the first recorded instance of infant baptism. Presumably these new Christians then met Lydia and the others and so the Philippian church grew.
The risen Christ has ascended to his glory and his appearances have ceased until the end of time. But there are still people who need to know what they need to do to be saved and the Gospel which Jesus brought can still transform them and us into those who reflect his glory. In our ecumenical journey ‘we are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, through the power of the Lord who is the Spirit.’ (2 Corinthians 3.18)
May we be one as you, Father God, are one with Christ our Saviour so that the world might believe that you sent him.
May we so reflect the glory which you gave to him that others may catch a glimpse of his presence in us. Fill us with your love so that our joy may be complete.
