Unity Then and Now

1 Corinthians 12:12-31a

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor, and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect; whereas our more respectable members do not need this. But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But strive for the greater gifts.

We’re in the midst of and nearing the end of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, a yearly observance in which we turn our thoughts and prayers toward the unity of the Christian church.  There’s not usually much fanfare about it; you don’t see clips on the local news about it; there’s no big front-page story on our ever-decreasing newspapers; nobody came to your door to collect donations for it.  It’s a quiet celebration, but one worth noting, nonetheless. 

It’s especially worth noting by those of us in the Disciples of Christ, a denomination founded on the idea that the church is one and we are in unity, or should be striving toward it at the least.  It was just a little over 200 years ago that one of the founders of our denomination, Thomas Campbell, issued his Declaration and Address in which he made the bold declaration that we repeated in our Call to Worship: “The church of Christ upon the earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one.”

Now if you think that Thomas was coming out of some pie-in-the-sky, idealistic setting in which all the denominations of his day on the frontier of the United States were working happily together, you must remember that Thomas, as a Presbyterian minister, was brought up on charges because he served communion to the wrong Presbyterians.  Plus, he came from Ireland where Presbyterians alone were divided and carved up in a variety of sects and separate denominations.  Thomas did not make his statement casually or without ruffling some feathers.

So here we are 200 years later and things don’t really look that much different.  Someone seeking a church home has a wide variety of options from which to choose.  There are still various denominations, some of which one is hard-pressed to distinguish from another.  And there are plenty of non-denominational churches.  There are large churches and small ones.  We’re no closer to being that ephemeral “one” than Thomas Campbell and his lot were, are we?

Yet, we continue to hold weeks of prayer for Christian unity.  And talks among and between various denominations continue, not so much seeking organic union so much anymore but laying the important groundwork of trying to understand one another, trying to get a grasp on our differences as well as our similarities.

In the midst of all this confusion and yearning for unity, it sure would be nice if we could find something in scripture to speak to our situation, wouldn’t it?  It’s sure too bad that the early church was so unified and together in its mission and operations, isn’t it?  I mean, if only there was some dissension amongst those in the congregations that were spreading throughout the Middle East and Asian Minor all the way over to Rome.  But no, they were all happy and got along famously, right?

Well, no.  They argued and fought and picked sides as badly as we do, if not worse.  Sure there weren’t divisions that made you choose among three different types of Christian churches on any given street corner.  Cities had their Christian fellowship that was part of the greater whole but there weren’t options within cities.  But once you got inside those early churches, watch out!

We know this because Paul, the author of our letter to the church in Corinth, was working hard to set those Corinthians right.  Corinth was a wildly diverse city.  It was an important trading center, spanning an isthmus in what is modern-day Greece.  Ships were pulling up to either side of Corinth all the time bringing not only goods from around the world, but also foreign ideas and people.  It was diverse and that diversity ended up showing up in the Christian gathering there.

Nowadays, we’ve come to value diversity.  We come to appreciate that we are all different and not the same and that’s a good thing.  But with diversity comes challenges; with diversity comes the potential for misunderstandings and quarrels; with diversity comes work.  And clearly the church at Corinth was working through their diversity and on the misunderstandings that went along with it.  Much like we’re doing these days, except on denominational levels usually.  That’s not to say that individual congregations don’t have their disagreements and misunderstandings, goodness knows.

Paul compared the church to a body and pointed out that no one part of the body was more important than any other.  No part of the body has the right to say it’s the most important part.  Nor does a part have the right to say it’s not important.  And that’s an important distinction to pay attention to. 

No one has the right to claim superiority in the body.  But no one has the right, either, to say they’re not a worthy part of the body.  Too often we discount our own worth and think too little of ourselves.  But Paul doesn’t let us get away with that.  Paul says we’re all important.

Our diversity, be it in our own congregations or throughout the wider church, is an organic growing thing.  It’s not a melting pot, for sure, in which we lose our identity to the greater product, but neither is it a box of pebbles in which the relation between the individual components is loose or nonexistent.  No, we are not pebbles, but connected to one another.

As I prepared for this sermon, I read about a commentator’s mother who, decades after a car accident needed back surgery. It seems that the accident affected her leg and year after year she compensated for the injury to her leg so much so that her back needed repair.  What happens to one part of our body affects other parts, without a doubt.

Likewise when part of Christ’s body suffers, the whole body suffers.  When one part of this immense church, spread across our earth, is in pain, the pain is felt throughout the whole of it.  We cannot escape it.

I have been spending a good bit of time lately reading the blog, or online journal, of a pair of our Global Ministries missionaries who are in Haiti.  Somehow they are able to connect to the internet and have been writing of their experiences and thoughts of that earthquake ravaged country.  I am strangely drawn to them and their plight, as they seek alternate housing after the collapse of their home, as well as the care of orphans and hoping to hear from the students at the medical school where they teach.  The pain of Haiti has affected many of us.  Even though we are thousands of miles away, we feel that pain in our own way, knowing part of the body is suffering.

Yes, this is the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, but it is a unity through and celebrating the diversity of the church.  From small pockets of Indonesian Christians to the mega-churches of this country, we are all part of the body that Christ claims as Christ’s own.  And we are called to be united with the other members of that body, united through our Christian call to service and love.

The end of this chapter from 1st Corinthians actually points us to the next chapter: “But strive for the greater gifts,” Paul writes and then goes on to say, “And I will show you a still more excellent way.”  Paul’s “still more excellent way” is his stirring chapter about love.  Certainly love is the sinews and tendons that connect us to the other parts of the body.