An Ecumenical Homily

The Hartwick Summer Theological Institute – 27 July 2022

Numbers 22:41-23:12; Psalm 132; Romans7:13–25; Matthew 21:33–46

My first encounter with a Lutheran was with Rev. David Rose of Messiah Lutheran in Rotterdam when I was newly ordained. We taught together members of both our congregations. We became close enough that David asked me to compose the intercessions for a Eucharist marking a major anniversary of the parish. Luckily someone caught the Catholic using the phrase ‘faith and works’ in one of the prayers. It was rectified for Lutheran sensibilities. How was I to know?

My second Lutheran encounter was on a trip to Israel with a mixed group of Christian clergy among them a Lutheran priest, and yes, he used the word priest. I don’t remember anything about him except the lesson in ecumenism that he taught me. [There are people who pass through our lives and we are not meant to remember anything about them except the lesson taught; all else is distraction.] In our conversations, he explained he would never present himself for the reception of Holy Communion at a Catholic Eucharist, not that our belief was different, but so as not to put me in a compromising position. It was an act of sheer hospitality.

My third and most recent experience has been with Paul Messner of Atonement Lutheran. Between and behind the Reformation and Catholic triumphalist humour is a deep respect for each other’s Christian faith. Paul sits next to me at the Great Vigil of Easter at Saint Mary’s Catholic Church. I have prayed the Sacrament of Confession with him, a minister of the Lutheran Church.

Yet throughout these experiences, and many more that have come to occur between members of both our churches worldwide, there is still that chasm that exists between us.

31 October 1517 is in the past and yet very present. Martin raised important questions that were not adequately addressed until 445 years later at the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council [1962–1965] and that only began the conversation.

In the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen gentium – The light of the nations is Christ, the Catholic Church redefined herself in biblical terms.And once you redefine yourself nothing can be the same going forward. Moving from a self-image as a ‘perfect society’ to a ‘pilgrim people’ walking together with others; relationships must change. And so they did and continue to.

On 21 November 1964 the Council proclaimed its Decree on Ecumenism, Unitatis Redintegratio. Its opening sentence is remarkable even today, 58 years hence: “The restoration of unity among all Christians is one of the principal concerns of the Second Vatican Council.” Pope John Paul II doubled down in his encyclical, Ut Unum Sint –That we may be one. He taught ecumenism is an essential obligation for Catholic Christians.

This all bore fruit in the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification in 1999. The Declaration states that the Lutheran and Catholic Churches now share “a common understanding of our justification by God’s grace through faith in Christ”. It took centuries for us to listen to each other and discover the truth which was always in our midst. This joint declaration essentially resolved the 500-year-old conflict over the nature of justification which was at the root of the Protestant Reformation. The Declaration was adopted by the World Methodist Council July 2006. The World Communion of Reformed Churches, representing members of Congregational, Presbyterian, Reformed, United, Uniting, and Waldensian churches, adopted the Declaration in 2017.

Now a review of our ecumenical journey is helpful to see where we have come from but…

We’ve gone beyond centuries of mutual curses of the likes of Aram Balak. And yes, we have blessed each other for how can each of us lay a curse on the other whom God has not cursed or denounced. David’s hunger is palpable in Psalm 132: “I will not enter the house where I live, not lie on the couch where I sleep; till I find a place for the Lord, a dwelling for the Mighty One of Jacob!” The dwelling place is called ‘unity’

It is said that God will bring about unity in God’s time but are we not the tenants of the vineyard? And as the Gospel queries: “What will the owner of the vineyard do to those tenants when he comes?” As tenants, if we have not tended but ignored, put off for another day, watered, or forgotten to care for the vine of listening and dialogue so as to take the bold and courageous steps toward organic unity, yes what will the owner do? Are we using God as an excuse not to act? We don’t believe in a deus ex machina but a living God who walks with us.

We are not called to be Catholics and Lutherans, Anglican, Orthodox and Reformed but simply, Christians as we were first called in Antioch. And why were we identified as distinct? It was because we lived values and a life differently than the society around us.

The world again watches. But what do they see?

Orthodox Christians making war on Orthodox Christians in Ukraine. Evangelical Christians using the Gospel in the name of nationalism in our country, scandalously wrapping the cross in the flag for political reasons. The issues of the reception of Holy Communion and abortion within my own Church. Divisions in regard to women’s ordination and gay clergy in the Anglican Communion. The world does not see a distinct lifestyle, they simply see a reflection of their violent and divisive selves, and so why be Christian when you can be secular?

The issues of women, authority, ecclesiology, the Petrine ministry, gender and sexual orientation, Marian dogmas, and church disciplines must be overcome. I believe they can be. Pope John Paul II posed in his encyclical, Ut Unum Sint, an open invitation to all Christians to mutually address the character of the Petrine / Papal ministry, considered one of the great obstacles to Christian unity. Twenty – seven years hence, not one Christian community has formally responded to him. An ecumenical opportunity tragically missed.

Is this not a time when we need to be Christians and trust in the movements of the Holy Spirit? Why are we afraid of the final organic steps toward unity? Do we need to wait another 500 years?