Christian Unity Prayer Service

The 2010 prayer service will be held on Thursday, January 28th at 7:15 pm in the Basilica. A reception will follow in the Coleman-Morse Center. All are Welcome!

Every year, the Catholic Church and many other Christian faith communities celebrate a Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, traditionally held during January 18-25. At Notre Dame, students from Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, Protestant, Evangelical, and a variety of other Christian faith traditions gather in the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus alongside many Holy Cross priests, local Christian pastors and their church congregations for a celebration of the Word of God, shared prayer intentions, and a sermon. Worship music is provided by the Notre Dame Celebration Choir in conjunction with musicians and vocalists from Iron Sharpens Iron Interdenominational Fellowship, the Totus Tuus Band of Four:7 Catholic Fellowship, and the Voices of Faith Gospel Choir.

This year’s celebration took place on Thursday, January 29, with Rev. John Jenkins, CSC, President of the University of Notre Dame, presiding. The following Scripture lessons were read, and the sermon below was offered by Rev. Maxwell Johnson, a Lutheran minister and professor of theology at Notre Dame.

Reading I Ezekiel 37:15-19, 22-24a (NRSV)
That they may become one in your hand.
The word of the Lord came to me: Mortal, take a stick and write on it, ‘For Judah, and the Israelites associated with it’; then take another stick and write on it, ‘For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with it’; and join them together into one stick, so that they may become one in your hand. And when your people say to you, ‘Will you not show us what you mean by these?’ say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am about to take the stick of Joseph (which is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with it; and I will put the stick of Judah upon it, and make them one stick, in order that they may be one in my hand. I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms. They shall never again defile themselves with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. I will save them from all the apostasies into which they have fallen, and will cleanse them. Then they shall be my people, and I will be their God. My servant David shall be king over them; and they shall all have one shepherd.

Reading II Romans 8:18-25 (NRSV)
The glorious freedom of the children of God.
I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worth comparing with the glory about to be revealed to us. For the creation waits with eager longing for the revealing of the children of God; for the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to decay and will obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God. We know that the whole creation has been groaning in labour pains until now; and not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly while we wait for adoption, the redemption of our bodies. For in hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what is seen? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.

Gospel John 17:1a, 8-11 (NRSV)
So that they may be one.
Jesus looked up to heaven and said, "The words that you gave to me I have given to them, and they have received them and know in truth that I came from you; and they have believed that you sent me. I am asking on their behalf; I am not asking on behalf of the world, but on behalf of those whom you gave me, because they are yours. All mine are yours, and yours are mine; and I have been glorified in them. And now I am no longer in the world, but they are in the world, and I am coming to you. Holy Father, protect them in your name that you have given me, so that they may be one, as we are one.

Sermon for Prayer for Christian Unity Service
Rev. Maxwell Johnson, Professor of Theology
Basilica of the Sacred Heart
January 29, 2009

In his important encyclical inspired by the Prayer of Jesus in the Gospel Reading we just heard, Ut Unum Sint, (“That They All May Be One”), Pope John Paul II asked all of us:

How is it possible to remain divided if we have been ‘buried’ through baptism in the Lord’s death, in the very act by which God, through the death of his Son, has broken down the walls of division? Division ’openly contradicts the will of Christ, provides a stumbling block to the world and inflicts damage on the most holy cause of proclaiming the good news to every creature. [Ut Unum Sint, 6]

And, further:

This unity, which the Lord has bestowed on his church and in which he wishes to embrace all people, is not something added on, but stands at the very heart of Christ’s mission. Nor is it some secondary attribute of the community of his disciples. Rather, it belongs to the very essence of this community. [Ut Unum Sint, 9]

Our Common Baptism into Christ. Have we made enough out of this, ecumenically; out of what both Vatican II and Pope John Paul II have called this “sacramental bond of unity,” this sacramental bond of “Real” communion that all baptized Christians already share with each other? The baptismal language of the New Testament couldn’t be clearer about this unity that already exists among us. St. Paul tells us in Ephesians that “[t]here is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all” (Ephesians 4:4-6). Through water and the Spirit in Baptism all of us have been incorporated into the one Christ, the one Church, the one Body of Christ in the world. Because of this, Christian unity is, above all, not a demand, not a call, but it is already a gift to be received gratefully and further realized visibly. Like it or not, because of our common baptism we are all in this together. And it is this common baptismal reality that must increasingly come to form our consciences and direct our hearts in the pursuit of Christian Unity today. For, baptized into Christ we are divided only if Christ Himself is divided.

Now I am not so naive as to think that there are no significant differences between the Christian churches of today. But if the past forty plus years of ecumenical dialogues have taught us anything, it should be that many of those traditional differences, properly understood, are not necessarily church-dividing any longer, but, in the recent words of Benedict XVI, may be viewed rather as legitimately distinct and complementary emphases and traditions within the one Body of Christ; emphases and traditions by which each of our churches can be mutually enriched by the other in a situation of greater communion(1). Indeed, in the ecumenical stew (2), not melting pot, which boils everything down to the lowest common denominator, but in a savory stew in which each of the great Christian traditions can enrich the others, the following gifts might surely be noted. There is the Roman Catholic Church’s preservation of the catholic substance of the faith, the commitment to the historical continuity of the church, and, not least, the love for the centrality of the Eucharist and its profound sense of the communion of saints; there is from the churches of the East that strong expression of faith in the Holy Spirit, that love for the divine liturgy, and that respect for ecclesiastical tradition; there is from the Anglican Communion that respect for diversity and individual conscience which challenges the whole church, as well as those treasures of language and music which magnify God’s holy Name; there is from the Lutheran tradition that love for the Scriptures and that faith in God’s all—sufficient grace, which as the great Jesuit theologian, Karl Rahner, reminded us, call all Christians to receive God’s salvation as purest gift(3); there is from the Reformed churches, that focus on God’s absolute sovereignty and God’s condescension in entering into covenant with us and with edifying the whole Church through the proclamation of the Word; and from Baptists, Pentecostals, and other Free Church traditions that warmth, enthusiasm, and zeal for the gospel and personal relationship with Christ, which can bring new life to the work and prayer of the church. Such is the ecumenical stew that calls to be cooked among us.

Now several years ago, the world was pleasantly shocked and surprised by the unexpected fall of the Berlin Wall and the resulting political and social changes it brought about. But even if they do not attract the same kind of media attention, there are other even more significant walls of division that are crumbling today between the churches of the world. In the late 1990’s, to cite but one example, Roman Catholics and Lutherans around the world adopted a common statement prepared by the Lutheran World Federation and the Vatican, called a “Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification.” In part, this document says boldly: “Together we [Roman Catholics and Lutherans] confess: By grace alone, in faith in Christ’s saving work and not because of any merit on our part, we are accepted by God and receive the Holy Spirit, who renews our hearts while equipping and calling us to good works…Through [Christ] alone are we justified, when we receive this salvation in faith” [Joint Declaration 3.15]. And, further: “[this] is more than just one part of Christian doctrine. It is to serve as a criterion which constantly orients all the teaching and practice of our churches to Christ, whom alone we ultimately trust as the one Mediator (1 Tim 2:5-6) through whom God in the Holy Spirit gives himself and pours out his saving gifts…” [Joint Declaration, 3.18]. What a statement; a declaration not to be taken lightly. What it might mean for Roman Catholics I cannot say. But what it seems to imply for many of us in the Protestant world is that the very reason why the Protestant Reformation occurred in the first place, the very issue which gave rise to the “protest” in the word “Protestant,” the central reason why Roman Catholics and Lutherans have been separated for some almost 500 years is transcended in a new common affirmation of faith. Surprising, shocking; indeed, unexpected by any of our Catholic and Lutheran ancestors, unexpected, I suspect, by many, both lay and ordained, even within in our churches today. Never before in our history has Christian unity been so close. Yet, today, in our lifetime (!), such is the reality to which the rediscovery of our common Baptism has led us, thanks be to God! Ecumenism is not dead, as we hear it said today. Rather, ecumenism has deepened and is bearing rich fruits! Nevertheless, this dramatic, wall toppling, significant step toward unity, is but an important step in that direction. But here, tragically, at the Eucharist, the very goal and culmination of our Baptism, the very Sacrament of our Unity with Christ and with one another, here, where our Baptism invites us, we are not yet united. Rather, between us still there is still a Wall yet to be toppled, a fence-like barrier around the table, that keeps us separated from sharing fully together in the Body and Blood of Christ, whose Body we already are. And so it is, that the gift of our unity already given by God remains for us also an urgent and ever-present task and call, a vocation of ongoing conversion of life and heart toward unity both in our prayer and in our work. Pope John Paul II has been quoted as saying: “in the end ecumenical breakthrough will come with the suddenness of the collapse of the Berlin wall.” Let us then pray for this sudden collapse. Let us then work to remove all the barriers that separate the baptized from each other at the altar. Living out our common baptismal plunge into Christ’s death and resurrection, let us truly die in Christ to all that separates us so that His Spirit alone might give us new life together to the glory of God. Why? For the sake of Jesus’ prayer, for the sake of the credibility of the Church’s mission in the world!

(1) Papal homily, January 25, 2009, Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls, Rome.
(2) I owe the image of an ecumenical “stew” versus “melting pot” to my former student, the Rev. Mark Strobel, Fargo, ND.
(3) Karl Rahner, Foundations of Christian Faith (New York: Seabury, 1978), pp. 359-ff.