That We All May Be One

Today, we begin the 2008 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Observed each year from the Confession of St. Peter (January 18) through the Conversion of St. Paul (January 25) the Week of Prayer celebrates its centennial this year. In 1908 the Franciscan Friars and Sisters of the Atonement held the first “Church Unity Octave” and have prayed “without ceasing” for Christian unity ever since!

Today, Christians around the world celebrate this week with the encouragement of the World Council of Churches’ Faith and Order Commission and the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity. Why the Week of PRAYER (rather than, say, the week of “dialogue” or “documents”)? Because, in the words of Cardinal Walter Kasper:

“Ecumenical work is a spiritual task and can be nothing other than participation in the High Priestly Prayer of Jesus. This means prayer, especially common ecumenical prayer, for the unity of Christians. Prayer will always gather people, in the same way as Mary and the apostles gathered, to pray for the coming of the Spirit which will unite the peoples in one language, and to pray for a renewed Pentecost (Acts 1:13f)” [from “That They All Be One: The Call to Unity Today”]  

“…the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region of death light has dawned.” (Matthew 4:16) Yesterday, we concluded our celebration of the Christmas season with the Feast of the Epiphany.  Actually, Matthew is the only Gospel writer who tells the story of the Magi, making their long journey, following the light of a star, to find the new-born king.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has gotten himself into a bit of trouble recently by using the word ‘legend’ to refer to this story! (Although I think he was actually referring to the non-biblical details – such as the number of wise men, their ethnic origins, and the precise details of their visit).

We celebrate the feast 12 days after that of the birth of Christ to underscore the fact that the Bible does not say that they arrived on the night of his birth, but some time later. Even the text says, “On entering the house, they saw the child with Mary his mother, and they knelt down and paid him homage.” (Matthew 2:11) House, not stable. Perhaps they finally caught up with the Holy Family when they had returned to Nazareth before the flight to Egypt. Who knows?

The point of the story is clear and today’s Gospel text proclaims it: “…the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light, and for those who sat in the region of death light has dawned.” Gentiles, represented by these Persian astrologers, seekers after truth in a very different context than the Jewish people, found that light and that truth in One who was born to be king – but a very different kind of king than those known to Gentiles or Jews!

Today, one day after the Feast of Epiphany, the Roman Catholic Church celebrates the Baptism of Christ and, of course, we will observe that festival next Sunday. And there is a real continuity with Epiphany.  Jesus was apparently made known to shepherds and wise men and a number of others from his earliest days. But the beginning, the “epiphany” of his public ministry was his baptism.

At the Jordan River, he was anointed by the Spirit of God. And there he heard a voice from heaven saying, “This is my Son, the Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” (Matthew 3:17). Immediately after that he was led by that same Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted and only after surviving that ordeal did he begin to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Matthew 4:17)

I was writing about all this on this web log last week when a priest from Sweden named Anna wrote to ask if we believed that these events were only significant in Jesus’ life and ministry or if they were a “frame of reference for each and every person baptized in the Church today.” I said I thought they were both – but she makes an extremely important point.

When you and I were baptized, we too were given the gift of God’s Holy Spirit. We pray very specifically for that in the baptismal liturgy and Jesus says that God would never deny the Holy Spirit to those who ask! In our baptism, God says to us also that we are  “Beloved, with whom I am well pleased.” We too will face temptation, if not immediately after our baptisms as Jesus did, surely in the days and years that follow.

And we too are sent into the world to preach repentance precisely because the reign of God has come near in the Christ event.

That which has happened to Christ must also happen to us. To those who are baptized in his Name.

“…the people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.” That is the message of Epiphany.  But it will only come true if we, like our Lord, live into the implications of our baptismal covenant and hold high in our lives the Light of his Coming.       

As we move through the Twelve Days of Christmas, it’s interesting to see that we are still running across the great figure of John the Baptist. The season of Advent makes much of John and the two middle Sundays are largely devoted to his role as the one who ‘prepares the way for the Lord.’

Now, as we work our way through the first chapter of the 4^th Gospel – in fact, right after the elegant “Johannine Prologue” about the Word of God becoming flesh – here is John the Baptizer again! “The next day he saw Jesus coming toward him and declared, “Here is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” (John 1:29)

And, once again, John shows his humility in the presence of the Nazarene, “This is he of whom I said, ‘after me comes a man who ranks ahead of me because he was before me.’” Well, Jesus’ reputation certainly did not precede John’s own so it’s clear that this text means more than it first seems. How could Jesus have “come before” his elder cousin?

The language John uses for Jesus gives us the clue. “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world”…the one who would be “revealed to Israel”…the Spirit descending and remaining upon him…and, finally, “I myself have seen and have testified that this is the Son of God.”

Clearly, in this text, John is identifying Jesus with the Anointed One, the Christ, the long-awaited Messiah. The phrase “Lamb of God” is reflective of Isaiah’s language about the Suffering Servant being like “a lamb led to the slaughter and like a sheep before its shearers is silent” (Isaiah 53:7)

The language about God’s Spirit descending and remaining on Jesus is reminiscent of all the “anointed ones,” all the kings of Israel and especially the great King David, whose literal and figurative successor the Messiah was expected to be.

 And, of course, long before the title “Son of God” took on the qualities of Incarnation and divinity and the Second Person of the Trinity, it simply was one more way for the people of Israel to describe their Messiah and King. (Later, in this same chapter Nathaniel says to Jesus, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God. You are the king of Israel!” John 1:49)

Faithful, prophetic, humble John. He prepared the way for Jesus, he baptized Jesus and, in a sense, “introduced him” to the world. He worked alongside Jesus, constantly pointing beyond himself to the One he believed to “outrank him.”

Finally, John was martyred by King Herod not only because of his own prophetic ministry, but because – no doubt – of his association with the One whose Kingship was never really intended to rival Herod’s, but which certainly called all the empires of this world into question, and continues to do so today!

As we move toward our conclusion of the celebration of this Messiah’s birth and launch once more into a new year, we could do worse than listen again to John the Baptist as he says, “Behold the Lamb of God; behold Him who takes away the sins of the world!”