Unity in diversity

Isaiah 49: 1-7. In this, the second of the four “servant songs” the identity of the servant pirouettes between an individual and the whole of the nation of Israel. After all, it could be said that “Israel” was also called into being by God before it was born. The identity of the servant is applied to Jesus by Christians but in the same way the church could also have this applied to it as the embodiment of Christ in the world.

1 Corinthians 1: 1-9. The opening of Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church reveals his theology of “calling”. He was called, as the church in Corinth was called to be Saints and in turn they call on the name of Jesus. The insistence of our common calling, albeit to different tasks as he explains in his “body of Christ” image, means that the radical claims of the Bible intrude into every Christian life, a claim that requires full participation.

John 1: 29-42. The first part of John’s prologue (John 1:1-18) is a meditation on Jesus in the light of eternity, and there on it becomes a historical narrative. Verse 29 starts “the next day” (unfortunately not translated in our official lectionaries) and involves a series of Christological confessions. “Lamb of God” (v29,36), Messiah (v41), “Son of God” and “King of Israel” (a few verses on in v49). In our lectionary extract note the different account of the calling of Andrew and Peter, no longer encountered while fishing but as active disciples of John the Baptist.

I have a calling!

But then, so do you. More specifically we are all, just by being here responding to God’s call to us.

God’s call is to all creation and every person in this world. As we heard St. Peter say in last week’s gospel “I understand now that God shows no partiality”

Our New testament reading is St. Paul’s opening greetings to the church in Corinth and it is tempting to overlook these opening sentences and get on to the really exciting meat later in the letter but his opening verses reveals some of his most fundamental convictions and one of them is “calling”.

He starts by identifying himself as being called by the will of God, and his letter is to all those called to be Saints, who in turn “call on the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” which is what we are all doing here this morning.

We are all responding to God’s call to come into a closer relationship with Him, a call articulated through Jesus Christ.

As most of you will be aware, Paul goes on to talk about those who respond to God’s call  as being called into a body with many different strengths and diverse gifts and contributions and God desires all of those different contributions to make up what Paul calls the body of Christ.

That sense of unity in diversity I think is a very helpful metaphor when thinking about the church Partnership and this joint service introducing the week of prayer for Christian unity.

Our starting point is that we are all responding to God’s call but we do so in ways that suit our personalities, our personal histories and our practical needs primarily.

Differences in theological interpretation are important for some but for most people they are secondary considerations.

So the consensus we arrived at is that whenever we have a joint service in a particular church, the service reflects the tradition of the host church rather than trying to cater to everyone else’s tradition.

But no matter how unfamiliar our style of worship may be, you can be sure of one thing – that the Holy Spirit is here, working amongst all of us who are called by God to be a part of his kingdom, We are different branches of the same tree.

Jesus told a parable about that - about different people having a common root.

For different people also read different church traditions. We are all grafted in to the stem that is Jesus.

“I am the true vine” said Jesus and our different churches are the different branches and we all draw from the same life-giving Spirit.

I have always kept a completely open table for the simple reason that I have always thought that anyone coming to the altar rail with outstretched hands has just as much right to receive Jesus as I have to offer Him.

After all they are responding to God’s call and I am not the bouncer standing guard at the pearly gates of heaven.

He is after all the lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The whole world, not one tiny sub-section of it.

In our joint worship this morning, regardless of denomination, we are called together, called to confess our sins together, called to receive absolution together, called to share peace with each other and called to commune with God and each other together and get sent out into the world with God’s blessing together.

Thanks be to God, Amen.