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The Great Schism of 1054: When Christianity Split East and West · Faith at Work

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  SPEAKER_00: We are continuing our series on the story of movements.
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  And as I've been saying at the beginning of each one of these
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  messages that about
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  SPEAKER_00: every 500 years or so,
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  SPEAKER_00: that the Christian story reaches a moment of strain.
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  SPEAKER_00: The old structures no longer hold.
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  SPEAKER_00: Shared language among the church fractures.
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  Faithful people began asking whether unity is possible without
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  uniformity.
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  SPEAKER_00: Today, we arrive at another one of those moments, the year 1054, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: We're getting there, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: Only a couple more.
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  SPEAKER_00: What we now call the Great Schism.
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  SPEAKER_00: Eastern and Western Christianity formally separate,
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  SPEAKER_00: though the fracture had really been happening for many,
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  SPEAKER_00: many centuries.
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  SPEAKER_00: And to understand this moment,
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  SPEAKER_00: we need to look back just a little bit,
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  SPEAKER_00: 500 years before,
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  SPEAKER_00: to the time of Gregory the Great.
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  SPEAKER_00: We talked about him last week and the collapse of the Western
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  SPEAKER_00: Roman world, the Western Roman world.
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  When Gregory became Bishop of Rome in 590,
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  Rome in the West was no longer a worldwide empire.
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  It was a city of refuge and famine and disease and just overall
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  crumbling authority.
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  And the church,
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  through Gregory the Great,
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  stepped in where the empire failed.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the West, bishops increasingly assumed civic roles.
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  They negotiated peace,
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  they managed food distribution,
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  and stabilized communities in the West.
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  And over time,
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  spiritual authority and political responsibility became
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  intertwined.
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  SPEAKER_00: They became the same thing.
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  But in the east,
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  centered in Constantinople,
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  the Roman Empire did not fall.
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  SPEAKER_00: The church developed alongside a strong imperial culture.
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  SPEAKER_00: Theology flourished, worship became deeply mystical.
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  SPEAKER_00: and authority was shared among the bishops.
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  SPEAKER_00: So two Christian imaginations and iterations formed.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the West, survival required centralized leadership.
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  SPEAKER_00: And in the East, political continuity allowed for cooperation.
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  SPEAKER_00: Neither faith expression began as a rebellion.
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  SPEAKER_00: Each was a faithful response to their circumstances.
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  SPEAKER_00: But over centuries, differences hardened.
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  SPEAKER_00: Language divided Latin West and Greek Latin.
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  SPEAKER_00: East,
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  SPEAKER_00: worship styles diverged,
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  SPEAKER_00: clergy discipline shifted,
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  SPEAKER_00: political loyalties pulled in opposite directions.
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  SPEAKER_00: The deepest conflict was not cultural, however, but theological.
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  SPEAKER_00: How do we speak about God's inner life?
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  SPEAKER_00: How do we name authority in the church?
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  SPEAKER_00: Who decides what faithfulness looks like?
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  And at the heart of the schism was a small phrase with massive
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  consequences.
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  SPEAKER_00: The filioque.
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  SPEAKER_00: Translated, and the Son.
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  These three Latin words added to the Nicene Creed in the West
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  was added without the
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  SPEAKER_00: Eastern consent.
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  The phrase taught that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father
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  and the Son.
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  SPEAKER_00: Filioque, and the Son.
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  The East,
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  however,
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  insisted the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not because they denied Christ, but to protect divine mystery.
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  SPEAKER_00: We're just going to pause here and take a poll.
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  SPEAKER_00: How many think this is important?
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  SPEAKER_00: One person, okay.
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  SPEAKER_00: Right,
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  SPEAKER_00: something that for us is not important,
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  SPEAKER_00: but for them,
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  SPEAKER_00: it was exceedingly important because it was tied to their mysticism,
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  SPEAKER_00: it was tied to their theology,
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  SPEAKER_00: it was tied to who had authority,
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  SPEAKER_00: who had say,
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  SPEAKER_00: what was going on in the church.
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  SPEAKER_00: And so for the East, the Father remained the source of divine life.
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  SPEAKER_00: And for the West, clarity and order mattered to them.
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  SPEAKER_00: Both of them appealed to Scripture to justify their belief.
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  SPEAKER_00: Both claimed faithfulness.
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  SPEAKER_00: And it's here that the Gospel of John becomes critical.
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  SPEAKER_00: John speaks often, right, of the Spirit.
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  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says that the Spirit is sent by the Father, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: But Jesus also says that he will send the Spirit.
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  SPEAKER_00: The text holds tension.
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  SPEAKER_00: It says clearly two different things.
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  And instead of letting that tension remain holy,
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  both sides pressed John into service.
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  Scripture became a weapon,
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  a sword to wield rather than a witness to wonder upon.
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  SPEAKER_00: Mystery hardened into certainty.
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  SPEAKER_00: Now, John's gospel is deeply relational.
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  SPEAKER_00: The word became flesh.
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  SPEAKER_00: It talks about mutual indwelling, abiding in love, the body as one.
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  But during this schism,
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  relationship gave way to explanation and doctrine.
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  SPEAKER_00: Authority followed the same path.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the West, the Bishop of Rome claimed universal jurisdiction.
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  SPEAKER_00: He was in charge of everything.
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  SPEAKER_00: In the East, authority remained shared among the patriarchs.
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  SPEAKER_00: Neither side set out to divide the church.
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  SPEAKER_00: Both believed they were practicing and protecting the faith.
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  SPEAKER_00: But fear replaced trust.
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  SPEAKER_00: Control replaced conversation.
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  SPEAKER_00: Doctrines replaced dedication to each other.
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  SPEAKER_00: And in 1054, mutual excommunications were issued.
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  SPEAKER_00: The body of Christ was formerly fractures.
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  SPEAKER_00: What had been estrangement became judgmental separation.
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  SPEAKER_00: And what is striking...
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  SPEAKER_00: about this story is how familiar it feels, right?
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  SPEAKER_00: We also live in a time of fragmentation.
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  SPEAKER_00: Christians divide over doctrine, politics, ethics, and identity.
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  We quote the same scriptures while arriving at dramatically
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  opposing certainties.
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  SPEAKER_00: We appeal to John,
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  SPEAKER_00: to truth,
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  SPEAKER_00: to love,
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  SPEAKER_00: to obedience,
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  yet we too pull verses written out of the author's intended
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  goals of unity and
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  SPEAKER_00: press them into service of our fears,
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  SPEAKER_00: mandating uniformity in the church.
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  SPEAKER_00: John says,
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  SPEAKER_00: never intended this gospel to settle arguments.
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  He wrote so that we might believe and abide,
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  so that love would remain central.
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  When belief becomes boundary setting instead of an invitation
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  to belonging,
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  schisms follow.
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  SPEAKER_00: When certainty replaces humility and ongoing learning, community breaks.
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  SPEAKER_00: As John Turrent said, the root of all unkindness is certainty.
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  SPEAKER_00: The lesson of 1054 is not that doctrine does not matter.
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  SPEAKER_00: It does.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is that doctrine without love deforms the church.
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  SPEAKER_00: The 11th century reformation was unfortunately a deformation.
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  SPEAKER_00: The lesson is not that authority is wrong.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is that authority without mutual submission fractures the body.
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  SPEAKER_00: History warns us what happens when fear governs faith,
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  SPEAKER_00: when certainty is more important than community,
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  SPEAKER_00: when survival replaces trust,
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  SPEAKER_00: when Scripture is used to win rather than to heal.
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  SPEAKER_00: John gives us another way, I believe.
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  And somehow the 11th century church,
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  even though they were using John,
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  missed the memo.
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  SPEAKER_00: Jesus prays in John 17 that his followers may be one.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not identical, not controlled, one as God is one, united in love.
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  SPEAKER_00: Unity in John is relationship before it is structural.
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  SPEAKER_00: It is rooted in abiding and listening and remaining open to the spirit.
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  SPEAKER_00: wherever she comes from.
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  SPEAKER_00: So what might the learning from the great schism look like for us today?
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  It looks like resisting the urge to force clarity when mystery
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  belongs in its place.
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  SPEAKER_00: It looks like refusing to absolutize our personal perspectives.
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  SPEAKER_00: It looks like returning to the scripture to its proper role,
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  SPEAKER_00: not as ammunition,
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  SPEAKER_00: but as formation.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not to prove others wrong, but to shape us into love.
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  Not to remove the splinter in others' eyes,
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  but to remove the plank in our own eyes.
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  It looks like choosing conversation over condemnation,
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  communion over control,
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  trust over fear.
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  Every 500 years,
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  God seems to invite the church to loosen its grips and remember
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  who it is.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not an institution first, but a body.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not an argument, but a witness.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not a fortress, but a people who abide in love with one another.
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  SPEAKER_00: Not a nation, but a kindom.
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  SPEAKER_00: May we learn from those who came before us.
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  SPEAKER_00: May we refuse to repeat their mistakes.
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  SPEAKER_00: And may we hear Jesus' simple, demanding call again.
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  SPEAKER_00: Remain in me.
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  SPEAKER_00: Remain in love.
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  SPEAKER_00: Remain one.
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  SPEAKER_00: Amen.