Change is often scary because it involves both endings and unknown beginnings.  But I trust change, because I believe that we are One in the Spirit.  I believe that God is in the midst of change and, often in mysterious and unforeseen ways, is able to use change to make the church stronger and healthier. 

Today we sing the familiar words, “We are one in the Spirit we are one in the Lord, and we pray that all unity will one day be restored, and they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”  What exactly does that mean, to be one in the Spirit?  Christ said “Where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.” [Matt 18:22]  But we’re a diverse people and whenever two or three gather for anything there are always disagreements.  Unity, obviously, can be broken, at least temporarily.  That’s why we trust and pray and sing for it to be restored!  And our prayers are answered.  That’s why a new beginning follows every ending.

        Our Gospel reading this morning occurs in one of those transition times.  Jesus is about to depart this earthly plane and he is praying for the Holy Spirit to inspire continuity among his followers.  His prayer inspired the words to the song, “We Are One In The Spirit.” He prays for himself, for his disciples, and then he prays for us, for the Church Universal down through the ages.  He prays that we might experience the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, a presence that inspires us to love one another.  “Make them one,” he prayed, “Make them one.”  But, if you ask the typical person on the street, in fact if you ask a lot of Christians and church members, they’ll tell you that the Body of Christ is broken.  Let me give you a few examples of brokenness.  But, I don’t want to stop there.  Let me also include the restoration, the healing and the growth of new beginnings that have come from every ending.

        The Episcopal Church certainly looks like it’s broken right now.  They opened a can of theological worms when they elected an openly homosexual priest to the office of bishop. The hope and the prayer of those who voted to elect a gay bishop is that someday their church will be perceived as having offered a prophetic witness of inclusion in a time of division.  If that does, in fact, turn out to be the case, it won’t be the first time.

        When I was in seminary there was a huge controversy when one of my classmates, a woman by the name of Carter Hayward, became the first woman to be ordained a priest in the Episcopal Church. History has vindicated her and church policy.  She paved the way for some of the most gifted clergy the Episcopal Church has today, including our own Anne Bartlett here in Ashland. But in those early years there were some people who refused to take communion from a woman.  One man actually bit Carter’s hand as she held out the sacrament to him. People left the church.  But, you know, people also joined the church.  It grew more inclusive and it became more diverse. I guess it just goes to show that a little controversy, a good healthy crisis once in awhile is not necessarily a bad thing.

The Roman Catholic Church looks broken to me.  Not only are they mired down in expensive sexual misconduct lawsuits, they’re also politicizing their sacraments.  I’m sure you’ve read that some priests are currently debating whether or not they should withhold the sacrament of Holy Communion from presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani if he remains an “agnostic,” and refuses to condemn Roe verses Wade in the abortion debate. They did the same thing with John Kerry four years ago.  The sacraments, as a so-called “means of grace,” are sometimes considered conditional, based on politics as much as morals.

The United Methodist and Presbyterian Churches appear to be broken.  They’re still divided over everything from capital punishment and gun control to abortion and issues of war and peace, as well as the ultimate deal-breaker, the ordination of gay clergy.

We often get the impression that the more evangelical churches are united but if you scratch the surface you’ll find many of the same issues, although their particular “take” on them is different. The Southern Baptist Church split a few years ago over the inerrancy of scripture, but a big part of that debate was over the role of women. For them, the role of women is the wedge issue and all the other controversies are just waiting in the wings. Everywhere you look there are divisions, it’s just that some churches keep their divisions under tighter wraps.

By way of contrast, United Methodists have a way of making the news.  Our General Conference is coming up again in 2008, and that’s always a time when the media loves to focus on our divisions.  Some United Methodists think we ought to divide into two churches and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if we did split at some point in the future.  That wouldn’t be the end of the world, and it certainly wouldn’t be the end of the Church Universal.  The church, with a small “c,” is an institution, and institutions divide and sometimes die. But the Church with a capital “C” is the Church Universal. It is the living, growing, ever-changing Body of Christ and history has shown that when that Body is divided, it only grows stronger and more diverse! There’s never an ending that isn’t followed by at least two new beginnings!

            In Acts we read the story of one of the very first divisions. Peter has a vision.  He saw all kinds of animals being lowered down from heaven on a sheet, and he heard the voice of God saying:  “Call nothing that I create unclean.”  God wasn’t talking about dietary restrictions.  God was talking about people!  Before this revelation, Peter’s idea of unity meant denying God’s grace to those his tradition had judged as unclean. In his day that meant gentiles.  But, after the revelation, he baptized the gentile Cornelius into the faith. The church divided, became more inclusive, more diverse, and it grew.  Gentiles, Samaritans and, oh yeah, eunuchs, were the original “wedge” people, calling the Church Universal to become more inclusive and diverse. 

Fifteen hundred years later the church had lapsed into widespread corruption. An Augustinian monk in Germany, Martin Luther, challenged it to open its mind, its heart and its doors.  And, of course, the church divided. The Protestant tradition opened its doors to you and to me.  The Church Universal became more diverse, more inclusive, began anew, and grew.

Eighteenth Century England was going through the trauma of urbanization and the first industrial revolution.  Poverty degraded the lives of millions.  The church was remote, cold and privileged, far removed from the lives of ordinary people.  A Protestant priest in the Church of England named John Wesley felt his heart “strangely warmed.”  Not satisfied with simply opening the doors of the church, he began reaching out to those beyond the walls and the doors.  A dramatic revival swept through England and then America. The church divided. The Methodist church was born and the Church Universal became more inclusive, more diverse, and it grew.

During the Civil War the Methodist Church split over the issue of slavery.  It was a tragic consequence of the ignorance and prejudice of the times, but out of that division the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church arose.  After the Civil War the church grew rapidly. Foreign-mission programs were established in South America, Africa, and the West Indies. Their motto “Black liberation and evangelism” became the building block not only for the emancipation of African-Americans but other black people all over the world.  The church divided, became more inclusive, more diverse, and it grew. 

On the very night in which he was betrayed, the Lord prayed for the unity of the Church. Then he took the bread, blessed it and said: “This is My Body.  It has been broken.  It has been broken for you, that we might be One.” The Body of Christ is not simply an institution.  The Body of Christ is a Living Presence empowered and guided by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.  The prayer of Jesus Christ for the unity of the Church Universal has been answered down through history, and it is being answered even now, in the midst of our endings, and our new beginnings.  We are now, and always will be, One in the Spirit - One in the Lord.  Thanks be to God.  Amen.