Second Reading
A READING FROM THE FIRST LETTER OF PAUL TO THE CORINTHIANS
Now concerning spiritual gifts, brothers and sisters, I do not want you to be uninformed. You know that when you were pagans, you were enticed and led astray to idols that could not speak. Therefore I want you to understand that no one speaking by the Spirit of God ever says "Let Jesus be cursed!" and no one can say "Jesus is Lord" except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone. To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses.
1 CORINTHIANS 12:1-11
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A sermon for the week of Prayer for Christian Unity January 19, 2025
“Visible Christian Unity”
Look around this morning wherever you are worshipping God in the midst of a group of other followers of Jesus, people who all have stories of how they have come to be worshipping in this particular church today. Life-long in one denomination, or shifts in denomination over time, or new to faith…. Ask someone at coffee time.
The first annual worldwide “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” began 117 years ago in 1908.
This year. 2025, we celebrate another anniversary of work towards Christian Unity, the 1700th anniversary of Council of Nicaea, the first “ecumenical council”, which gathered in the year 325 in a city in what is now Turkey. Happy Anniversary!
The Council of Nicaea hammered out one of the ancient ecumenical creeds, the Nicene Creed. “Ecumenical” means “relating to unity of the Worldwide Christian Church”. Although words from a different metaphysical worldview, answering different questions and conflicts than our own time, we still use these creeds as a connection with Christians over time and across the world. I’ve always found it helpful to remember the word “Credo” is related to the “heart”, so not so much intellectual assent but trusting in, “I set my heart on this”. The Nicene Creed was a way of gathering foundational understandings of the faith where there was core agreement, a place of common ground for discussion.
But it is clear from the first letter of Paul to the Corinthians that Unity has always been a concern of the Church, from the beginning, before the gospels were written down. There were factions in the church in Corinth, rivalry and division, which Paul seeks to address.
Paul speaks of our Unity as the Work of the Holy Spirit. In our reading this morning, he says that it is in the Spirit we make the claim “Jesus is Lord”. This confession “Jesus is Lord” is commonly understood by biblical scholars to be the earliest “creed”, the first confession of faith. To say “Jesus is Lord” is a radical commitment of complete loyalty to Christ. To say “Jesus
is Lord” when the Roman Emperor demanded sole allegiance and worship was a dangerous and subversive act. And this creed “Jesus is Lord” was the only Christian creed until the Council of Nicaea! (some 270 years later)
In the midst of all of the claims to our allegiance in our partisan world, “Jesus is Lord” is still radical. And it is still a good basis for the Ecumenical movement. As Christians we share baptism. We share discipleship – we all follow Jesus as the One we serve, the One who directs our lives. Paul says our ability to make this claim in our lives comes from the Holy Spirit and is the source of our unity.
Within this unity, Paul describes our diversity, a multiplicity of different gifts given by the Spirit. Clearly with Paul’s lists of gifts, Unity doesn’t mean conformity or uniformity. Holy Spirit gives differing gifts, and they are all for the common good. Not for personal aggrandizement, or status, or power: “for the common good”. For the well-being of community, for the Earth, for justice, for love and fairness and wholeness – for God’s dream, God’s kingdom. The Common Good.
The Church in Corinth had rivalry about whose Spiritual Gifts were most important.
Paul’s appeal at the beginning of the letter to the Corinthian Church was, “by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose.” No
divisions, united in the same purpose. We know that is hard work in our own local church community.
And this week we are called to look at the call to unity within the wider diversity of different denominations. Yes, there are still councils, like that of Nicea, still working to express our common faith in carefully crafted wording. But I think it is the local
expressions of this unity which is more transformative for us in our daily lives. The friendships between individual neighbours, where we have the grace and patience to ask open-ended questions and to listen: “What is it about your church that nurtures you? “ “What do you love about your worship?”
And shared there are the events with local churches. Good Friday in Kelowna last year three denominational neighbours simply walked the city blocks between their church buildings in silence, in solidarity, beginning and ending with prayers for a cease-fire in Gaza. The Gift Garden at St. Andrew’s in Mission in Kelowna gathers a wide variety of denominations amongst their volunteers to feed the hungry. In many towns in the Diocese of Kootenay, several churches sponsor a refugee family together. And pancake suppers, pride parades, potlucks, community meals, spring teas, work parties, cleaning up the invasive species in the creek together with other denominations. Fun…again, friendships, the basis for good ecumenical relationships. Honouring and respecting differences, remaining open and curious about things that seem strange to us. But we share concern for the common good, and focus on that rather than our peculiar differences. Yes, speaking the truth in love where we
disagree, not ignoring disputes, but hanging in there with commitment to long term relationship.
Partnerships in mission are important signs of Unity. Many of our parishes cannot serve our communities the same way we might have when we had younger and more numerous church members – but together with ecumenical partners, however, we can still offer much “for the common good”
Ecumenical unity is more expressed in actions of love and service than in creeds. Not right belief but right action.
Over time, we have realized that the ecumenical unity we are called to is not uniformity, not organic unity, all becoming one denomination exactly the same, but across our diversity finding ways to express unity in Christ. Service to Christ.
Our unity is an incredible witness to the world in this time of deep divisions, with counter-productive and even destructive partisanship, in a “cancel culture”, where leaders completely dismiss those who don’t agree with them. Can the Church show the power of God’s Spirit to overcome divisions by Christians working together? By respectful dialogue. By shared concern for common humanity.
The revealing of the Spirit is also in communities that celebrate difference and find unity amidst their diversity.
In our society, individual “freedom” is worshipped as a god, and trumps the common good. By contrast, Martin Luther, in his book “Freedom of a Christian,” makes two statements that seem like contradictions.
“The Christian individual is a completely free lord of all, subject to none.
The Christian individual is a completely dutiful servant of all, subject to all.”
Christian Freedom is the freedom to serve! Our gifts are for service to the common good. That purpose is life-giving, for the individual person and for the world.
One of my favourite hymns for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity is from the 1983 World Council of Churches in Vancouver, when I was in seminary there.
“Many are the lightbeams of the One Light,…
Many are the branches, of the One Tree….
Many ways to serve God, the Spirit is one! …
Many are the Gifts given, love is all one. …
Love is the gift of Jesus. “
I pray that as we celebrate this week of Prayer for Christian Unity, we will find new inspiration and energy for local ecumenical work. May Holy Spirit deepen our unity to serve the common good.
Amen.
