‘UNITY’ > What does it mean to be ‘perfectly united’ as we hear in today’s reading?
Is unity like a soccer team that calls itself ‘Manchester United?’ That’s one way of thinking about it. Does unity mean we all follow the same team, or we all vote for the same political party or we all drive the same brand of car??
If we zoom out to look at the bigger picture – in the last few years especially – does our position on different issues determine the basis for our unity as a church? That’s a big question to start off with!
I know for some of us this is a really big question to wrestle with, for others maybe not so much – important to consider, be aware of, the wide range of perspectives and viewpoints across our community.
So these things, and many others, big and small, quickly become cause for division among us – even division in the church itself.
We love to categorize things, don’t we. We love putting things in boxes, and making sure they stay there! We love being in control. But always wanting to be in control, always looking to categorize things, this can actually be a way of causing division.
So what is Paul saying today, what does he mean when he says to ‘agree with one another in what you say and let there be no divisions among you, but be perfectly united in mind and thought’ ??
I don’t think any of us will hear this and genuinely say – ‘yeah sure that’s easy! We can do that!’
We might struggle to take this verse seriously, saying ‘yeah right, as if. I see all this division around me and there’s no way we can ever be ‘perfectly united.’
And we might have good reason to feel this way.
We might have experienced division in our lives that’s been painful, hurtful, damaging, isolating. We might feel this way when we watch the news, when we look out at the world around us.
When we turn inward to look at ourselves, our connections with other people.
Even when we look at the church. How can there be division in the church, the church founded with Christ as its head? (Col 1:18)
We know there are divisions, so do we just pretend it’s all ok and act as though we’re ‘perfectly united?’
That might be easier, but Paul seems to be talking about something more here.
He clarifies that unity doesn’t depend on us, on our ability – or lack of ability – to join ourselves together; it depends on Jesus. We cause division, but Jesus unites. God doesn’t leave us to unite ourselves, he unites us through his Son Jesus.
This perspective gives me comfort, encourages me in my journey of faith, I think it’s a really important word of encouragement for our whole church >
I can say in my time I’ve seen plenty of examples of division in the church.
I’ve seen division in the church before I studied to become a pastor, while I was studying and coming out into the ‘real world’ in the place our church finds itself today – how about you?
I’d be very surprised if anyone among us hasn’t seen any examples of division in the church – this is one of those things where the more you look, the more you see!
Where do we find division? Here’s a few ways: Different preferences and opinions on all things church, like the music we have, what we have in the service, how things are presented. Beyond that there’s the difficulty of knowing what’s best as our church faces significant challenges and makes significant changes. There are clashes of ideas, personality and opinion in our church. Many ways we can be divided! The more you look the more you see.
But > just as we can be divided over these things, we can also be united as we face them together.
How?? How can we be a united church if we have different ideas about how we should go about it? Let’s have a closer look at what Paul says.
The ‘perfect unity’ he talks about might be better explained by some other translations of the original wording – when we think of being ‘perfect’ we can go down the track of thinking about always getting it right, always knowing what to do, never having any problems or doing anything wrong. But if we are serious about our faith, we know we can never do this. We know we can’t be perfect.
The original wording here is ‘having been knit together,’ fitted, joined together. Complete. Restored even > That’s sounds a bit different.
That sounds like a number of different parts coming together to form a whole. This is what the church is, the fellowship of believers, many parts forming one body with Christ as its head (1 Cor 12:12, Col).
So it’s not all of us being exactly the same, we don’t have to support the same team, vote the same way, drive the same brand of car. This unity is about all of us being brought together under the cross, to be together in mind and thought.
Paul appeals to the church in Corinth to be together, without division and without disagreeing. This is challenging for us, because we might see division and we might disagree.
What does Paul say the basis for this unity is, this same mind and thought?
He says it’s not the earthly leader we follow. It’s not the person who baptized us. It’s not the most eloquent speaker or the wisest elder. It’s none of those things, so what is it??
It’s our baptism into the cross of Christ.
The cross that Paul says is foolishness to those who don’t believe – we’ll come to back to this in a moment.
Our baptism into the death of Jesus and our resurrection with him, to life forever with our heavenly Father.
Jesus’ death on the cross is him taking all our sin, all our division, all our disagreement, all our doubts, all our pain on himself.
He’s done it. He has united us through his death and resurrection, and he continues to unite us in the hope of his coming again.
So as a church with a mission to the world, a world where we see division and disagreement. In our church, where we see the same > our divisions are not what define us, our unity as children of God is.
In the original text Paul calls us to speak the same thing, in the same mind and the same judgment.
Can you think of anywhere where we do actually speak the same thing in church? Where are the same things spoken to all of us?
Here’s a few: when we pray together. When we confess our sins. When we are forgiven. When we confess our faith. When we gather around the altar and receive Jesus’ body and blood in the bread and wine, which strengthens us in body and soul to eternal life with him. In other words, all the time!!
This is a collective thing we’re doing here, not an individual thing. We gather together as children of God, to receive and to share in what he has to give us.
And where should we be of the same mind and same judgment?
God calls us as his church to live in harmony with each other. Be on the same page, a united front, our sum is greater than our parts – what we are together in Christ is greater than who we could ever be on our own.
In 1st Peter (3:8) we’re called to be sympathetic, to love each other.
To be compassionate and humble, as Jesus was on the cross.
Humility is key for what Paul says is Ephesians 4 (3-5) – ‘Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope… one Lord, one faith, one baptism.’
Unity is about one God, who gives us one faith, one baptism, for us all to share in together.
Back to what Paul says about the message of the cross – how is it foolishness?
Well without faith it sounds crazy!
Without faith we might look foolish to someone looking in.
All of this is strange, all the things we are on about in church – worshipping a God we can’t see, a man dying on a cross, the resurrection of the dead, the forgiveness of sins, eternal life in heaven – these things are weird, we’re a strange group of people doing strange things > if we don’t have faith.
But with faith, the message of the cross is the power of God! It’s real, God is here with us, he makes his presence known among us. We might look foolish, we might be a bit strange, a bit weird, but we are all united by the cross. We are sinners, we have different opinions, we argue, we get it wrong.
But we are all united by the cross. This is our identity as the church of God.
So when we’re confronted with divisions, when we feel separated, when we feel broken. When we are searching for hope in challenging times, a classic hymn and song comes to mind: ‘What can make me whole again? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.’
What can make us whole, what can bring us together, what can unite us? Nothing but the blood of Jesus.
Let’s pray.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for uniting us through your Son Jesus. We thank you for the cross, for all you have done for us. We thank you for our baptism into the one true faith. Be with us as we face division and disagreement in our church and in the world. Bring us together under the cross as your people, made whole, united by the blood of Jesus. In his name we pray, Amen.
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Tom Kitson 