The Faction Factors and the Friendship Matters

A Call on NCCI Sunday towards Unity amidst Diversity

Grace, peace and unity to you all in the name of our God who is one in unity and diverse in manifestations. Let me bring to you all greetings from the National Council of Churches in India (NCCI) on this NCCI Sunday,25th January 2009 which is observed as Unity Sunday in some churches, Ecumenism Sunday in some Churches, a day of fasting for Zimbabwe and as a concluding day in observing the Global Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.

The NCCI has been a nonageniric in its life and witness and is marching towards a centenary in 2014. With 30 member churches, 17 Regional Councils, 17 All India Christian Organisations, 7 Related Agencies and 3 Autonomous bodies, the NCCI has been moving from strength to strength in discerning the signs of our times, in interpreting the gospel of Jesus Christ contextually and transforming the communities in coherence with the values of the reign of God. We at the NCCI have 7 Commissions to carry on as vehicles the mandate of NCCI. Today is a day to thank God for God’s faithfulness to the ecumenical movement in India lead by the NCCI, today also is a day to thank God for all those ecumenical stalwarts who have worked hard for the sustenance of the ecumenism and is a day to get challenged to become active companions with God in carrying forward the rich legacy of ecumenism.

The Sitz im Leben

Factions – Denominations, different sects, different confessions, different faiths, different affirmations etc.

Frictions – Conflicts in the name of caste, in the name of region, in the name of class, in the name of gender, in the name of religions, in the name of property, in the name of politics & elections etc.

Fractions – Doctrinal divisions, ritualistic divisions, Eucharistic divisions, ecumenical vs evangelical divisions, gospel vs culture, faith vs science, etc.

Fictions – Hermeneutics of convenience, arm-chaired Christianity, exclusivism (no salvation in other places, no truth in other faiths)

The Message
(John 10:16) – Jesus said, “And I have other sheep, that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will heed my voice. So there shall be one flock, one shepherd.”

1. The Frontiers of the Mission - “I have other sheep that are not of this fold”. The boundaries of the church are beyond our own four walls of denomination, confession and faith. ‘Enlarging of the tents’. This reveals the Good Shepherd’s reach, for he reaches the unreachable, he reaches the ones with no reach. He has similar sheep who are in other folds. It is not similarity that binds them, but the diversity among sheep, which still he says he has other sheep in other folds.

2. The Friends in Mission – “Other sheep in other folds”. In colour the sheep would differ, in size they would differ, in their nurture they would differ, in their diet they would differ, yet the Good Shepherd says that they are all his own. Thereby creates that unity among its entire sheep affirming their pluralities. For after all the sheep are either friends or would have been kith and kin but are divided due to circumstances. They are all equal partners and enjoy the fellowship of this shepherd who has different folds.

3. The Fetching in Mission – ‘ I must bring them also’. The Good Shepherd, not only affirms his own sheep in other folds, he also tries to bring them together. He creates a space for mutual respect for each other, mutual learning, mutual caring and sharing. He provides and facilitates a space for network among his own sheep in different folds. Bringing them together would give them a chance of enhancing their friendship, strengthening their fellowship and creating unity affirming plurality and not trying for uniformity by attempting to clone similar species.

4. The Faith in Mission – ‘the different sheep from different folds will heed his voice’. Faith comes from hearing, and when they are brought together their common pilgrimage of faith is drawn with much clarity. By listening to his voice their spiritualities are deepened. Probably the other sheep in other folds did not resist to his voice telling that it was foreign, it was not indigenous, it was not spiritual or it was not lively, but rather all these different sheep from different folds listened to the voice in search of truth.

5. The Finale in Mission – ‘so there shall be one flock and one shepherd’ the goal of mission of God is to bring all the different sheep from different folds to make to one flock, where diversity is affirmed and plurality is respected. There will be one chief shepherd, for God is always one, though we have different shepherds in our nurture and trainings. That is the finale in mission and that’s where we are all as faiths, churches, religions, ideologies, regions are journeying towards. One flock and One Shepherd, is the great finale to where all of us are marching.

In the recent campaign for Presidency in the US, I have seen a poster, which has Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King’s photograph on one box, under which it was written the “Dreamer” for his dream was to see when his children would be judged not by the colour of their skin but by their content of character. There was a second box, which had President Barack Obama’s photograph under which it was written “Dream”. Both the photographs were adjacent to each other calling on the attention of the people to see the reality of the dream, dreamt by Rev. King made true in the life of President Obama. As I saw this poster, and particularly on this Unity Sunday, if at all we have a poster where on one box is Jesus Christ, who prophesied that there would be one flock and one shepherd, and under his name it is written “Dreamer”. The box adjacent is an empty one, for under this box it is written, “Dream”. Therefore the calling to all of us, to our churches and to different faiths is to fill that box with our photograph if we are trying to make that dream of Christ a real one by becoming united as one flock under the shepherd-ship of one Shepherd.