What Can I Do for the Unity of the Church?

Ephesians 4:3 (NIV)

^“Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”

The month of July was quite a month for me.  I had the privilege of attending two important events of the church body to which I belong (The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod). Between  July 10 and 16 I attended the LCMS National Youth Gathering in Minneapolis.  I was there with 28 youth and adults from our congregation and with 21000 youth and adults from across the country.  For me the youth gathering really highlighted the unity of the Church.   Part of that was simply worshiping with 21000 young people singing their hearts out to the Lord.  Another aspect of that was all the friends from across the country and world that I got to meet up with at the Youth Gathering.  It was a great reminder that although we are separated by great distances, we are still all one family – one body in Christ.  But most of all, it was watching the youth from our congregation – caring for one another, making sure everyone was included, talking through difficult social issues, working out differences in more.  That week with our students from Fishers was a great one. 

The other event was our Church’s National Convention in Tampa Bay Florida from July 20-25.  Now you might be expecting me to tell you that this meeting highlighted for me the divisions in the church.  That however would not be entirely true.  For me the convention highlighted both unity and division.  There is some obvious division going on in the LCMS.  It was very obvious that there are two different ideas about what the direction, of our church should be and how we should practice the faith we believe and confess.  There is disagreement and hurt going on.  It came out… poured out in a debate over the closing of one of our church’s Colleges.  Yet at the same time, we are a very united church.  Most of the resolutions that came before the convention passed with a 70-90% favorable vote.  One debate really brought this out for me.  In a resolution on our church’s stance on creationism, we argued over whether to say God created the world in six days or six “natural” days.  The curious thing is that almost everyone on both sides of that debate firmly believe that God created everything just the way Moses describes in Genesis 1.

As I have been reflecting on these two events, I have been asking myself a question that I want to put before you.  “What can you or I do for the unity of the Church?”  The first and most important answer to that question is that I can’t create that unity.  Neither can you.  Thank God, we don’t have to.   In Ephesians 4 Paul writes that we should “Make every effort to KEEP the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”  He does not ask us to create it.  This unity already exists… it’s a unity of the Spirit.  This is the unity, given by God’s working, which binds together all who in their heart believe in Jesus Christ.  For now, hidden by all the outward divisions in the Christian church, this unity is an article of faith, not sight.  We confess this faith every time we say the Nicene Creed – “I believe in one, holy Christian and Apostolic Church…” This unity is very real.

So, heeding Paul’s admonition, what can you or I do to “keep” the unity of the church?  Paul already gave us the answer in the previous verse – Ephesians 4:2.  “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”  Please notice that God is not calling us as individuals here to start discussions with other church bodies over the things that divide and unite us.  Those tasks are important, but others have that calling.  He doesn’t say we should ignore the differences that divide us and pretend they don’t exist.  No his words speak to our individual relationships, how we treat one another in our congregations and in the larger Christian community. First, “be completely humble.”  Rejoice in the fact that God is God and you are not.  Give up the arrogance and self-righteousness that insists that you have all the answers… that refuses to listen.  The next word is “gentle.”  When sharing your viewpoint don’t be a bull in a china shop.  Listen.  Seek to understand others.  Help them to understand what you believe… your point of view.  And with that be “patient.”  Be patient with others and with yourself.  It may take a while for others and for you to really understand the viewpoints expressed.  Also be patient with God – give Him to work on your heart and the hearts of others.  Finally, “bearing with one another in love.”  One of the hardest things to do is to disagree without being disagreeable.  That takes love… the love of God that He has given you in Christ…  In our relationship with each other – our first aim should not be to get people to see things our way.  Our first aim should be to love each other as we have been loved. 

These are the keys to keeping the unity of the Spirit.  They are also impossible for you or me on own.  Our sinful nature is proud, arrogant, self-righteous, impatient and unloving.  That means there is only one hope.  You and I both have to die.  We have to die daily to sin, to arrogance and pride and rise to newness of life.  We have to live out our baptisms every day for baptisms signifies that “the old Adam in us should, by daily contrition and repentance, be drowned and die, along with all sin and evil desires, so that daily a new man might come forth and arise to live before God in righteousness and purity forever.”  What happened to Paul needs to happen daily to you and me.  I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.   How can you and I help keep the unity of the church?  By dying… dying every day to sin, so that Christ might live in us and through us.