Sermon by the Reverend Richard Fermer for Christian Unity Week

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2021
“Abide in my love and you shall bear much fruit”

I Samuel 3:3-10,19;

Psalm 39(40): 2.4.7-10;

I Corinthians 6:13-15, 17-20;

John 1:35-42

Fr Richard Fermer
The Grosvenor Chapel
Preached at the Church of the Immaculate Conception,
Farm Street, Sunday 17th January 2021.

We are at the start of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, for you also “Peace Sunday”, pax Christi be with you! The ecumenical theme for this week has been chosen by the monastic community of Grandchamp in Switzerland. The sisters are themselves a living witness to reconciliation and ecumenism, having been founded in the 1930s as a group of women of the Reformed tradition that sought to rediscover the importance of silence and listening to the Word of God. Today the sisters are drawn from different Church traditions, countries, and continents and have an ecumenical charism. Each morning they begin with the words: “Pray and work that God may reign.” And they have chosen as the theme for the World Church, from words of John’s Gospel chapter 15, “Abide in my love and you shall bear much fruit.” They have drawn up three Vigils of Prayer, that we -  the people of the Grosvenor Chapel and the Church of the Immaculate Conception, Farm Street - will follow, as an act of ecumenical witness this week, via Zoom gatherings, starting this Sunday evening at eight o’clock, and continuing on Wednesday and next Sunday also at the same time. The three Vigils are entitled: “Abiding in Christ: the unity of the whole person”; then, “The visible unity of Christians”; and lastly, “The unity of all peoples with all creation.” Please note that the unifying, integrating nature of God’s love, gives wholeness to the person and the whole of creation, the microcosm and the macrocosm.

Now the theme may appear a little ethereal, after all, are we not in the midst of a pandemic. Surely there are more pressing matters: to reach out to the lonely and depressed, the dying and the bereaved; to feed and provide shelter for the homeless on our streets; to support our exhausted nurses and doctors. Indeed, these are all things that churches can and are undertaking together. However, as we surely know from our own spiritual lives, action must be first grounded in prayer and attentive to the Word of God, otherwise it will be “full of sound and fury signifying nothing”.

The sisters of Grandchamp have pointed us to the mystical heart of all things, which generates hope and joy. It is not first for us to be at work, like little activists. It is first for us to recognise that God is at work: moving all creation to unity and wholeness in Christ. The pandemic is just one of those signs of imbalance that still shakes our world. God’s wholeness is yet to come in all its fullness. The sisters of Grandchamp are right: this movement to wholeness, which is also the true meaning of “peace”, by the way, comes from learning to abide in Christ’s love.

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, in his new book, “Candles in the Dark: Faith, Hope and Love in a Time of Pandemic”, observes how God’s love of us, His abiding with us, has to do with “the simple fact that he stays there, for us and with us.”[1] We have seen during this pandemic the temptation to not “stay with”, but rather to construe some sort of escape, which often obtains quick relief and personal satisfaction to the detriment of others.

In His ministry, Jesus chooses ordinary men and women to be His followers, like Philip and Nathaniel, and nurtures them into the Apostles and Apostle to the Apostles as Pope Francis said,[2] they are to become, through the simple act of living and loving them for who they are. By staying with them Jesus leads them to maturation in love. In his final weeks, Jesus knows full well the reality of the threat that faces Him, but He never seeks to run away. Conversely, not staying with Jesus is the greatest symbol of his disciples’ betrayal.  Yet, Jesus tells His disciples that He will not leave them as abandoned orphans. Instead, He will bestow upon them and us the Holy Spirit who will stay with us, abide with us, make Christ present to us, opening the door to the mutual abiding of the love shared between the Father and the Son (John 14.18, 26).

How often do we resist “staying put” and “staying with”, as we seek to negotiate with God and with others: “Can we have a nicer and more manageable world, please, with people that it’s easier to love?” Staying with means staying in the present and attentively hearing God’s call and responding with the heart: “Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.” That attentiveness shows an openness to what is to come.

The Holy Eucharist is the greatest sign of God’s staying with us, “the life of Jesus is there, in us and in the bread and wine that stand for the gifts of all creation, reconciled and renewed through Christ, given to us so that we feed and grow.” It is also the foretaste of what is to come, that wholeness of earth and Heaven. Well if God stays with us, we should be there for others: “pray that the Spirit gives strength for us to be Eucharistic signs of the love that stays – so that the whole world may know itself to be accompanied, held and treasured” amidst the storms of this life.

When we consider the imbalance in ourselves and our world, hear again God’s call to you to abide with Him, to stay with Him, and you will be accompanied, held, treasured, and do likewise. You will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending. And you will be captivated by God’s ineluctable movement drawing all things into unity, wholeness and integration in His abiding love. Then you and the world around you will know His peace and joy!  Abide in His love and you shall bear much fruit. +

[1] All quotations are from Chapter 3, of R. Williams, Candles in the Dark (SPCK, 2010).

[2] “Mary Magdalene, apostle to the apostles” 10.06.2016: https://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/en/bollettino/pubblico/2016/06/10/160610c.html