Epiphany 3 & week of Prayer for Christian Unity

           

1 Corinthians 1:10-18     Matthew 4:12-23     

 

Part 1

Today is the end of the week of prayer for Christian Unity.

 

It’s not too late for us to pray for unity – but perhaps the fact that we are doing this in our own chapel, hoping that others are doing it in theirs, show we still have a lot of learn about being together.

It’s good that we’re part of God’s church and that today we have heard parts of scripture to challenge us.

 

We heard part of the Letter of Paul to Corinthians.

 

This letter gets off to such a good start ‘to God’s church at Corinth, called to be saints’…and yet now, just 10 verses in, Paul gets to the real purpose of writing.

He doesn’t want to tell the Corinthians how well they’re doing as followers of Christ, but to tell them off for all the dispute and division between them. 

 

Paul is realistic about how hard it can be to follow Jesus, and he gives us a great message to us:

“I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, 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.”. 

 

How can we be more united?

What can we do as Christians to help heal our very divided world?

 

It would be foolish not to hear from Susan, who spends so much of her time engaged in the world church.

And then I’ll see how our gospel reading helps us, too.

 

Part 2

Susan will talk about Where the term ‘ecumenical' comes from…

and encourage us to seek an Ecumenism of the heart.

 

Part 3

As we pray for unity, then we should pray for love.

But what then? How do we work together in Christ’s church on earth more fully? How do we respond in the most faithful way possible to Jesus’ call to be his followers?

 

Last week the lectionary reading offered us a different story of how Andrew and Simon first met Jesus. According to John’s gospel. Andrew was a disciple of John the Baptist, and it was John the Baptist who said “Look, the lamb of God”.

 

But today’s story from Matthew has more to say about how Jesus calls the disciples.

 

And these first ones called are fishermen.

Perhaps they know Jesus a little, they’ve heard him preach, they know he is special. But now – on this day, it is time for them to choose – do they want to follow Jesus, begin a whole new life, and be his disciples in this movement to preach and show and live the kingdom of God?

 

Those fishermen who are the first to respond to Jesus have something to teach us about call.

They had jobs which needed them to go out every day for a fresh catch to make enough to survive. 
Going out fishing in their boats was a daily activity involving physical nerve and early mornings. They might be the people who find it easiest to understand that following Jesus wasn’t just a once-in-a lifetime choice but a decision for each new day.
Fishermen understand the daily rhythm of choice.

 

We can see that the call of Jesus to the fishermen is like our call to unity. It is not for one week of the year, or a once and for all call that , if we missed it, will never come again.

 

Jesus calls, keeps calling, challenges, enables, in many and varied ways.

No wonder the church, the body of people who have responded to that call, are varied and sometimes, demanding to get along with.

 

But we can continue to respond to Jesus’ call to love other Christians.

 

We can use prayers from other denominations, as we have done this morning.

We can try to respond with loving interest when another Christian does something that seems strange to us.

We can go out of our way to experience worship which is beyond what we are used to – whether in person, or on the radio or television.

And perhaps next Week of prayer we can seek to share more in prayer with our neighbours who belong to other churches and chapels?

 

We could then be a better witness of unity to a world which longs to understand how to love one another despite our differences and how to live in peace.

 

May we learn, day by day, to follow Jesus more faithfully, in company, in friendship and in love with all who call themselves Christian, to the greater glory of God.   Amen.