Next Sunday I am due to preach at the united service to end the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. According to the rota, it was Baptist host and Anglican preach, but despite a vicar and two lay readers, no one from the Anglicans is available, so it falls to muggins here. I am more than a tad cross about this - the rota has been in place for about three years and the churches were reminded last October or thereabout that this was the arrangement for this year. Still, get on with it I must, so I will.
I read through the Ezekiel passage again this morning, complete with its party trick image of holding two sticks end to end so that appear to be one long stick. It got me wondering how much our views of Christian Unity are illusory? The likelihood is that on Sunday there will be a couple of dozen Baptists (i.e. most of us), a sprinkling of Methodists and (hopefully) a couple of token Anglicans. And within that there will be denominational huddles. A united service? Hmm.
So I have been wondering, do I dare use this image as a springboard to explore the illusion of Christian Unity? Are there other images I can offer that are more helpful or healthy? We are not one stick, or even three sticks stuck end to end, yet we all claim to be part of the Church. How can we be 'better together' and yet celebrate and affirm our diversity? How can we maintain the intimacy of small congregations yet be something big enough to thrive? Is it OK to avoid feel good mush and ask the hard questions? Ezekiel was a prophet - someone who read the signs of the times and employed his God-given imagination in his forth-telling of what he heard from God. What, I ask myself, might he say to the congregation I will address on Sunday? From sticks to ropes (Ecclesiastes three-fold cord type of thing), from illusion to reality - a challenge methinks.