Unity Isn’t Uniformity
Like many of you, that past few months have kept me physically separated from my family. My grandmother, dad, and uncle all move to Texas within the past year. I have not seen them since March. This is the longest stretch I have gone without seeing my grandmother, dad, or uncle in my family. Then, on top of that, this year’s Presidential election and has divided my family along political and ideological lines. If I can level with you, it’s been a difficult few months but I have a hunch my family is not alone in its physical and ideological separation.
You know, maybe we are made for this moment: division is not anything new for United Methodists, for Christians. In fact, most of the New Testament was occasioned either by conflict the church had with itself or conflict the church had with the empire.
The letter to the church in Ephesus was written to a church that found itself in a “precarious”[1] situation. Gentile Christians, Christians who were not Jewish converts had ignored the place Israel held in God’s saving history. These Gentile Christians were dismissive of the history, traditions, and rituals of Israel. It was as though what had brought the church into existence no longer mattered to this growing group within the church.
Jesus was an Israelite. Throughout his life, he never held citizenship within the Roman Empire. He did not have the same rights a Roman citizen would have had. Roman citizens were Gentiles. To ignore the history, traditions, and rituals of Israel would have been to ignore the very community that Jesus existed in.
The problem with this mentality - casting the history, traditions, and rituals of the very community that Jesus was born in, lived in and died in - the problem with this mentality as pointed out by theologian Stanley Hauerwas is that without Israel they, the church in Ephesus, and we would not have Jesus.
To ignore or dismiss the history, traditions, and rituals of Israel created a division within the church in Ephesus.
The Apostle Paul was a Jewish Christian. He wrote to the Philippian church that he had confidence in his Jewishness. Paul wrote, “If anyone else has reason to be confident in the flesh, I have more: 5 circumcised on the eighth day, a member of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew born of Hebrews; as to the law, a Pharisee; 6 as to zeal, a persecutor of the church; as to righteousness under the law, blameless.”[2]
Because of the confidence, Paul had it would have been easy for his letter to the church in Ephesus to take a different turn as chapter four begins. Instead of begging the Ephesian church to lead a life worthy of the call to which they had been called, this letter could have been a Twitter-like attack, a theological and rhetorical wood-shed moment for the Gentile converts. Instead of speaking of “humility and gentleness, with patience,” bearing one another in love”[3] the Gentile Christians could have been rebuked, or told to go back to whoever it was they came from.
This letter of ethics and praxis has a singular focus - the One, the source, and example of the “humility and gentleness,” the “patience,” and the love[4] the church has been called to live - Jesus Christ.
Christ is the One that we the church, his body on earth, fix our eyes on. And to be the church, whether we are gathering online, in a physical church, or a local park the lordship of Jesus Christ over all of creation is what we proclaim each time we gather for worship.
“One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”[5]
We are one, held together by the One who “all things came into being through.”[6]
And yet, the church today is even more fractured and divided than it was when this letter was written
Before Martin Luther nailed his 95 theses on a door at the University of Wittenberg the church was divided. Gatherings of church councils led to divides of theology, doctrine, and practice. And today while great strides have been made to unify the Church we remain divided.
Evangelical.
Progressive.
Bible-believing.
Mainline.
Independent.
Catholic.
Middle of the road.
These labels can be applied to any Christian community within the 200+ distinct denominations in the United States. The dividing lines within Christ’s body have prevented us from leading lives “worthy of the calling to which”[7] we have been called.
Church, setting aside the political mess swirling around us, we are not united among ourselves. We have allowed disagreements over sacraments, church law, doctrines (that few people outside of academia care about), sanctuary carpet colors, and the brand of coffee to serve on Sunday morning to divide the Church.
Unity is not uniformity. We can have our differences. We can have rich, meaningful discussions and debates about theology, doctrine, and practice. We should be having these conversations. We can do the things Christ called his Church to do - feed the hungry, heal the sick, care for the least, search out the lost, proclaim God’s reign - and at the same time disagree without threatening further division and fracturing of Christ’s body.
Speaking the truth, in love, is never easy and it requires fundamental trust that we in the church call faith. But unless someone is willing to be truthful with me I will never change. Unless I am willing to be truthful with someone else, they will never change. And, after all, Jesus is truth incarnate. Will it be easy? no. Will it hurt? Probably. But at least we’d be doing something worth our time.
We must continue to fight the destructive beliefs and practices within Christ’s body. We are obligated to work so that all people, regardless of the labels the divided world outside of the Church has placed on them, have a place within the body of Christ. The work is imperative. We have been called, all Christians, regardless of occupation to see to it that not a single person misses on the Grace of God in Jesus Christ.
Unity within the Church will never be a given. After all, we often choose the community we find ourselves in base on shopping around until we find a church that checks all of the boxes we need to be checked. Yes, you should find a church where you feel safe, a place where you can grow and “lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called.”[8]
It can feel like we will never be able to set aside the division and fractions that have split congregations, communities, and denominations, freeing us to focus on the oneness of God - “One Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.”[9]
The unity we seek, the peace long for is not something achieved through church council votes or ecumenical gatherings.
The unity we see is already present.
The peace we long for is here.
The absence of division and fraction is here.
It is just like Jesus says it is, like a treasure hidden in a field, buried in your backyard. Just because you do not realize it’s there. Just because you refuse to believe it’s there. Just because you won’t risk looking like a fool and go digging up your yard it t doesn’t mean it’s not there. It does not mean it’s not real and true. It doesn’t mean you are not already sitting on a fortune and could be living out of those riches.
This realization can be a monumental, historic, scary, and angst-filled moment. The release of agency is not something we have been trained or formed to do outside of the church. And frankly, with the focus more on division as of late, the Church has allowed this monumental, historic, scary, and angst-filled shift to fall by the wayside, allowing us to become dismissive of the history, traditions, and rituals that have set the church apart from the political mess swirling around us.
Unity within the body of Christ begins and ends in the lordship of the One who has called us to not only be a place where the divine and human intersect in the amazing grace of Christ, but we have been called to also be recipients of that grace. Held together by Grace. Held together by the peace of Christ.
Unity is something we must realize and live into but rather to live by faith is to trust that it’s something God is doing, by Word and Sacrament, by the Holy Spirit. The bad news is, the lack of unity in our nation, the lack of unity in the Church is too great for us to repair it. The good news is, it’s too great for us to repair it...but the Living God is able to...
[1] Bartlett, David Lyon, and Barbara Brown. Taylor. Feasting on the Word. Preaching the Revised Common Lectionary. Westminster John Knox Press, 2009. Pg 305.
[2] Philippians 3:4b-6, NRSV
[3] Ephesians 4:2, NRSV
[4] Ephesians 4:2, NRSV
[5] Ephesians 4:5-6, NRSV
[6] John 1:3, NRSV
[7] Ephesians 4:1, NSRV
[8] Ephesians 4:1, NSRV
[9] Ephesians 4:5-6, NRSV