Grace to you and
peace from God our Father and our Lord and Savior, Jesus the Christ. Amen
I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg
you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with
all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, making
every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is
one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your
calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is
above all and through all and in all.
One Body.
One Spirit.
One Hope.
One Lord.
One Faith.
One Baptism.
One God and
Father.
And our calling
as God’s people is to make every effort, bearing with one another in love, in
order that we might maintain this unity in the Spirit and the name of Jesus.
We haven’t done
so well at this. We have become as
divided as you possibly could be. We
have denominations of every stripe and color, and even within local
congregations, there are differences that threaten the unity of Christ’s body.
From a human
perspective the Body of Christ has not just been divided, but it has been
shredded.
Paul writes:
We must no longer be children, tossed to and
fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine, by people’s trickery, by their
craftiness in deceitful scheming.
Rather, Paul
writes, “we must grow up in every way
into him who is the head, into Christ.”
Ok, so to put
that all in blunt language, what Paul is telling the church is “to quit being
immature little brats and grow up and behave as adults.”
From a human
perspective, we have divided the Church in almost every way.
What I mean by
that is that when Paul says “There is one
body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling, one
Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all and
through all and in all”, we have found ways to challenge the “oneness” of
each of those items.
One Body?
No, we have formed countless
denominations and often refuse to acknowledge one another as members of the One
Body.
One Spirit?
No, we are divided in our
understanding of the Spirit, that’s why we have Pentecostal churches, and well,
non-Pentecostal churches. We believe
different things about the Spirit.
One Hope?
Is the Kingdom of God a promise
of the world to come, or a new order in this world? We don’t agree on that question.
One Lord?
Well, yes, we all agree
Christianity is about Jesus—it’s just we can’t agree who Jesus is.
One Faith?
To be faithful—is that something
we do? Or simply a trust in what God has
done? No agreement there.
One Baptism?
I can count a minimum of three
among us. Infant baptism, believer’s
baptism, and the baptism of the Holy Spirit as practiced among
Pentecostals.
One God and
Father of us all?
Our understanding of God is very
different. And more and more we
challenge the notion that “Father” is even an appropriate name for God.
The bottom line
is that the Church is divided.
It is divided
between the Catholic Church in the West, and the Orthodox Church in the East.
It is divided
between Roman Catholics and the Churches of the Reformation.
The Protestant
Churches are divided on their understanding of Holy Communion and Baptism.
And also,
Protestant Churches are divided according to national origin and governance.
One of the things
most indicative of this division within the church is what happens when we
disagree with one another.
Rather than
bearing with one another in love, we are quick to leave and go our separate
ways. If you don’t like what you hear in
one Church, just go down the street and try out the next church on the block.
But all of
this disunity, these differences and divisions, are only from a human point of
view.
The fact is that
regardless what we believe or how we act there is only one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of
your calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all.
From God’s
perspective, the Church, that is, the Body of Christ is indivisible. There is only One. Period.
You cannot leave
one Church and join another. We are all
one in Christ Jesus.
Whatever
disagreements we have are all disagreements that are within the one
Church. Those disagreements cannot
divide the Church, because our unity is in Christ, not in our agreements.
This is why in
the Creeds we confess that “We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic
Church.”
There is a
radical inclusivity of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, a Gospel that unites us all,
in spite of ourselves.
This has some
very practical implications for us.
Who leads this Church
today?
Does the
Pope? Or the Patriarch? Or our Presiding Bishop, Elizabeth
Eaton? Or what about Evangelical leaders
such as Rick Warren?
The answer is not
one or the other, but yes, these are all leaders of the Church today.
If we as
Lutherans refuse to listen to Pope Francis, we miss an opportunity to be
enriched.
Likewise, if
Roman Catholics fail to hear the voices of Evangelical Christians, they
likewise are less for it.
Paul writes:
“The gifts he gave were that some would be
apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers, to equip
the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until
all of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.”
I think that
today we might rephrase this to say:
The gifts he gave were that some would be Orthodox,
some Catholic, some Reformed, some Evangelical and some Pentecostal, to equip
the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all
of us come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of
God, to maturity, to the measure of the full stature of Christ.
Can we embrace
this diversity that is part of the Body of Christ?
That is the
question that has followed the Church in every place and time.
It’s the reason
that Jesus prayed fervently for the unity of the Church in his high priestly
prayer, because he knew that maintaining the unity of the Church would be the
disciple’s biggest challenge.
Part of the
reason for this being so challenging is that we like the path of least
resistance.
“Birds of a
feather flock together” is an old proverb.
It is easier to
get along with people who share all my own convictions and values, not to
mention my culture and all sorts of other things.
It’s just easier
to associate with people with whom I agree.
I have a
conservative friend who made the observation that while there are many
conservatives in the Lutheran church, almost all the pastors are liberals.
My response was
that if that is true, then why aren’t conservatives becoming pastors?
Well, in fact, it
is not true. There are people of varying
perspectives throughout the Church.
Human nature
thinks it would be easier to gather together and associate with people like us.
But God’s love is
such that he has gathered people of every sort into this one Body of our Lord
and Savior, Jesus Christ.
We are all brothers
and sisters.
One family.
Often one
contentious family, but one family.
It is childish
and immature to think, even for a moment, that you can have a group of people
as wide and varied as the Church, people from every place and time, people of
every race, every economic class, male and female, young and old, and have them
all agree.
As Paul says, we
need to grow up.
We need to grow
up, and grow into Christ.
Loving not as we
loved, but as Christ loved, and accepting one another just as we are.
Disagree?
You bet, we will
have our disagreements, but we remain one family, because God has made it so.
I’m reminded of
this every time I deal with my own brothers and sisters. We don’t always agree. This is particularly evident at this time
when we are involved in settling my father’s estate.
But we are one
family, not because of our agreements, but because of the love that our parents
had for us.
Likewise, with
the Church—we are not one because we agree, but rather because of the love that
Christ has for each and every one of us.
Amen
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