A
Crown of Thorns for Christian
Unity.
.
by Michael Harper
The following address by Fr.
Michael Harper was given at the Pentecost
Prayer Vigil gathering sponsored by the
Singapore Consultation, in Jerusalem, 1989.
The Singapore Consultation was shortly
afterwards named ICCOWE, the International
Charismatic Consultations on World
Evangelisation.
Behold now,
what is so good or so pleasant as for brothers
to dwell together in unity? It is like
fragrant oil running down upon the beard, the
beard of Aaron, running down upon the border
of his garment; it is like the dew of Hermon,
running down upon the mountains of Zion; for
there the Lord commanded the blessing and life
forever. Psalm 132/133.
This psalm is a song written for travellers. It
is for people ‘on the move’. The heading tells
us it is a ‘song of ascents’ and therefore
composed especially for pilgrims going up to
Jerusalem to meet with God and respond to His
word.
Because of this, it is particularly appropriate
for Pentecostals and ‘Charismatics’ meeting for
a Prayer Vigil in Jerusalem. We belong to a
‘movement’. Pentecostals are more
comfortable with this word than Charismatics,
who prefer the word ‘Renewal’. But we are ‘on
the move’ as surely as the early pilgrims
climbing the hills to the city of David.
Two clear messages are coming at this time to
the people of God everywhere. We are all called
to evangelise, and we are all called to be one
in Christ.
We need to affirm the important link between
these two divine imperatives. In John 11:51-52
Caiaphas prophesied that Jesus would die for the
Jewish nation and for God’s scattered children.
This would bring them all together and make them
one. Jesus died to save and unite His people.
This comes out even more clearly in Christ’s
high-priestly prayer in John 17. In the early
part of it He is interceding for the apostolic
team. ‘I pray for these men,’ He says (v. 20).
But then He widens the scope of His prayer: ‘but
I am also praying for all people who will
believe in Me because of the teaching of these
men. Father I pray that all people who believe
in Me can be one…then the world will know that
You sent Me.’ Here one of the purposes of unity
is evangelism. A disunited Church has a weak
testimony to a divided world.
Because Jesus prayed this prayer we can be sure
of three things: 1. What He prays for is the
will of God; 2. the prayer will be answered, in
time; 3. we have a part to play because Jesus
did not pray for unity on its own. We are part
of the answer to His prayer. Jesus prayed for
all who believe, that is, all Christians;
therefore we all have a part to play in seeing
that His prayer is answered.
Jesus’ prayer for unity was in the upper room
before the disciples crossed the Kidron into
Gethsemane, where Jesus prayed again. ‘My
heart is full of sorrow and breaking in
sadness’, He prayed (Matthew 26:38).
Perhaps Jesus’ sorrow included the disunity of
the Church, the dismemberment of His Body on
earth, as well as the Cross He was about to
endure.
Someone has said that Jesus has suffered three
humiliations. His incarnation, when He came from
the glory of heaven to the manger at Bethlehem;
His death, when He was cruelly killed by His
enemies. And the divisions of the Church, His
own Body, which have caused Him so much pain and
suffering, and weakened the effectiveness of our
witness.
We know that discernment is an important key to
good leadership, and that one way of seeing it
is to ‘have the mind of Christ’. Then unity
comes from ‘the heart of Christ’. To long for
Christian unity, and pay the price for it, is to
be close to His heart. We can see three
important aspects of unity when we look at the
pilgrim song of our Psalm.
1. Unity is something that
comes from above
In this Psalm the fragrant oil is poured on the
priest and the dew falls on Mount Hermon. Both
come from above and both are words used to
describe the coming of the Holy Spirit in Acts.
The prophecy of Joel was that Pentecost would be
an outpouring of the Spirit, and in Acts 8 it is
said that the Spirit had not yet ‘fallen’ on the
Samaritans. The Holy Spirit in both cases came
‘from above’.
Unity, like being baptised in the Spirit, is a
divine gift. There is a need for human
co-operation, but the blessing itself comes from
God and no-one else.
When Acts describes the different events in
which the blessing was given there is a builtin
message that can be missed if we only see it as
the gift of power. Acts 8 was a deep unity
experience for Jews and Samaritans who had been
locked for centuries in theological disputes
which separated them. Acts 10, the Gentile
Pentecost, was an experience of unity for Jews
and Gentiles, who had been racially divided from
the start. This event in Acts 10 was an
argument-stopper. Peter said to the church
leaders, ‘God gave the same gift that He gave to
us who believed in the Lord Jesus Christ. So
could I stop the work of God? No!’ (11:27). We
are also told that ‘when the Jewish believers
heard this, they stopped arguing. Instead they
praised God and said, ‘So God is allowing these
non-Jewish people also to turn to Him and live’
(verse 18).
If we look at our Pentecostal/Charismatic
history we see it as both an argument-stopper
and a grace of unity. When God began to baptise
Episcopalians in the Spirit, the Pentecostals
could not argue. They had to accept them. When
Roman Catholics began to speak in tongues and
worship the Lord in the Spirit, Anglicans and
Protestants were bound to receive them. We could
not criticise God, far less try to stop this
work of His. We were being united because we
could see Christ in each other by the Spirit;
2. Unity is like perfumed oil
The spices in the oil had to be crushed to
produce their perfume. The way of unity is not
easy. Once when David du Plessis spoke in
London, there was a prophecy which was later set
to music - ‘I’m not putting on your
head a crown of glory, but I’m putting on
your head a crown of thorns’.
Unity, like perfume, smells good. As God anoints
us with the Spirit of unity, so, like a
deodorant, it covers unsavoury odours of the
past and the present. Church history has some
sad chapters as well as glorious ones, when
greed, a competitive spirit, aggressiveness or a
callous disregard for the sanctity of the Body
of Christ, has stank. Pouring out this oil on
the priest was also a messy business. It not
only smelt, it stuck! Unity is like that. Some
receive it as a blessing, others as something
they don’t want. But it helps people to stick
together, even if it is not usually neat and
tidy.
3. Unity is like the dew of
Heaven
Dew is odourless, but it looks good. There is
something magical, refreshing, but transient,
about it. It sparkles in the early morning, but
disappears in the heat of the rising sun. We can
learn from this that our unity is delicate or
fragile. As we discover more of this anointing
of unity, we need to be careful to do what Paul
advises: ‘make every effort to keep the unity of
the Spirit through the bond of peace’, (Eph
4:3.NIV) . One false statement, a careless word,
an uncharitable act, can put it all at risk.
Finally, this God-sent unity, as we receive it
and keep it fresh as the morning dew, is where
‘the Lord commanded the blessing’ (Psalm 133:3.
A.V.). It is a vital gift for world
evangelisation. The dew of Hermon, according to
this Psalm, will ‘come to the hills of
Jerusalem’. We all need a fresh anointing, as we
travel together as pilgrims to the new
Jerusalem.
We often talk about ‘anointings’. Here is one of
the most important, and Jesus prayed that we
would all receive it. There are many we could
mention who exemplified this grace. I would like
to mention one: David du Plessis. For him, unity
was a painful journey; he was criticised,
ostracised and misunderstood. But he was
faithful and paid the price. A few days after
his death, the first Singapore Consultation
(later ICCOWE, International Charismatic
Consultation On World Evangelism) took place. It
has led on to this Jerusalem Prayer Vigil, where
many of David’s dreams are being fulfilled.
David wore Christian unity as a crown of thorns.
But praise God it is now for him a crown of
glory!
This
article is made available from the Father
Michael Harper Foundation. The
foundation website provides a number of Michael
Harper's books and articles online
at: http://www.harperfoundation.com/books.html.
 Archpriest
Father
Michael Harper (1931-2010) was a
world-renown leader in the charismatic
renewal movement. He was a minister in
the Anglican Church for 40 years. He
joined the Eastern Orthodox Church in
1995, and was appointed Archpriest of
the Antiochian Orthodox Deanery of the
UK and Ireland.
He and his wife Jeanne
formed the Fountain Trust in 1964,
which organized charismatic
conferences all over the world at
which he addressed thousands of
people. Jeanne co-edited the songbook,
Sound of Living Waters, which
is still used by many charismatic
churches today. Harper also founded
Soma (Sharing of Ministries Abroad),
which was committed to sharing
ministries between the developed and
developing world.
He was involved for many
years with the World Council of
Churches. He spoke at several Catholic
meetings. He met Popes Paul VI, John
Paul and John Paul II.
He also edited Renewal,
the longest-established charismatic
magazine in the world. He wrote 18
books, including the bestseller Equal
and Different, which set out his
views on women’s ordination and the
gender debate. Colleagues remember him
as a man with the ability to build
friendships across the Christian
traditions. A gentle and humble man,
Harper was nevertheless a dynamic
speaker and networker, able to draw
people in, whatever their background
or differences from himself. He is
survived by his wife, Jeanne.
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