“…that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
John 17: 21
Theology – those things we believe about God – shapes how we relate to God, to one another, and to creation. I have been thinking about that a lot lately. When we have conflicting theologies, we can stand for different values, and behave differently with one another, while using the same words of faith. The two theologies within Christianity that I see most in conflict in today’s world are the theology of atonement and the theology of communion. It is nearly impossible to hold both theologies at the same time.
Atonement theology is a widespread belief system about God and how humanity relates to God. I believe it permeates many faith traditions, and it sometimes pops up within my own faith tradition. It is the belief that there is a need to make peace between a punitive holy God and a sinful humanity. Our reconciliation with God comes about by the sacrifice of God’s own son, Jesus, whose death on the cross brings peace between us and God. The main reason for the coming of Jesus into our world is to die for our sins. We are saved by professing our belief in Jesus and letting his blood wash away our sins.
St. Anselm is the person most responsible for giving us this theology: “According to this theory, which is based upon the feudal structure of society, finite humanity has committed a crime (sin) against infinite God. In feudal society, an offender was required to make recompense, or satisfaction, to the one offended according to that person’s status. Thus, a crime against a king would require more satisfaction than a crime against a baron or a serf. According to this way of thinking, finite humanity, which could never make satisfaction to the infinite God, could expect only eternal death. The instrument for bringing humans back into a right relationship with God, therefore, could be rendered only by someone who was both God—because God could overcome sin by sinlessness—and human—because humans were those who were guilty of sin.” Saint Anselm of Canterbury | Biography, Theology, Philosophy, Ontological Argument, & Facts | Britannica
St Anselm’s belief affected both Roman Catholic and Protestant theology for western Christianity. It led to a fear of God and a fear of those who were seen as God’s agents. It led to a simplistic idea of salvation, that salvation is about getting myself to heaven and avoiding hell. It led to a lot of judging of other people and assigning them to hell or at least years in purgatory. This theology fails to bring heaven to earth, and in fact, encourages people to forget about earth and concentrate on worrying about what happens after death.
But this is not the theology of the early Christian church. The theology of the early church is a theology of communion. With the Old Catholics and the Orthodox traditions, we in the Ecumenical Catholic Communion affirm a koinonia or communion theology. Out of this common theology comes our understanding of the basic doctrines first described by the seven church councils of the early church. Communion is the paradigm or pattern for the essence of what it means to be church.
For us the best demonstration of our theology is the celebration of Eucharist. We are called to be a people who can come together with much diversity and maintain our unity. We are taught by our tradition that God has been about the business of rescuing humanity from itself, and this rescuing is what we call salvation. For salvation to exist, there must be a community living in peace, justice, and love. Such a community is proof that salvation is real. As we experience our world today, we easily see that humanity, and all the creatures on planet earth, need rescuing.
Jesus did come to save us. Salvation is bringing us back into communion with God, with one another, and with creation. Catholicity means everyone is to be saved, and salvation is offered to all. We could even say that every church, mosque, or other sacred place is on its way to catholicity when they provide places where people come together in peace, justice, and love.
Communion is all about union. Christ Jesus, the anointed One of God, comes to us as good news to bring us all into union with God, with one another, and with all of creation. He proclaims a God of love and invites us into that love. The whole life of Jesus, everything he said and did, before and after his death, and the way the apostles continued his teaching, is salvific, not just his death. He asked to be remembered through a simple meal of bread and wine and this is where a theology of communion is focused. Why did he want to be remembered in a shared meal? What is the meaning of a shared meal? Why proclaim that he himself is bread, blessed, broken, and given? How can his blood be wine poured out as a covenant for the forgiveness of sins? Why ask to be remembered as bread and wine? Every Eucharist we ponder on this.
“Take this all of you and eat it. This is my Body, which will be given up for you.”
“Take this all of you and drink from it: This is the cup of my blood, the blood of the new and everlasting covenant. It will be shed for you and for all so that sins may be forgiven.“
“Do this in memory of me. “
We believe that through baptism we Christians become the Body of Christ, the continuing incarnation of Christ, continuing to do the work of bringing all things together through Christ into union with God. Therefore, we too become bread, blessed, broken, and given. We too become wine poured out in this new covenant of love that sins may be forgiven.
Those things that divide us need healing and are the very things that Christ comes to overcome. Jesus broke down barriers between Jews and gentiles, men and women, rich and poor, the in-crowd and outcasts, the pious and the unholy, military and civilian – all barriers that keep us apart. The work of Christians is to continue to overcome all those things that divide us. It is definitely NOT to create more barriers or to propagate hate.
John 17:21 “that they may all be one; just as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”
Only when Christians are about the business of bringing us all together will the world believe that Jesus the Christ was sent by God. The plan is to bring heaven to earth, isn’t it? Isn’t this the most common prayer of all Christians? What better image of heaven than the vision of all things brought together in justice, peace, and love.
My beloved ones in Christ, let us all do what we can to build communities of justice, peace, and love until the whole earth is brought together into union with God, with one another, and with all of creation.
Bishop Kedda
Bishop Kedda 