Why Unity?


Many of us remember the LA riots and the immortal words attributed to Rodney King “Why can't we all just get along?” It's an interesting question, one that the church has been wrestling with for some time. In fact, from an outsider's perspective, all we do is fight. I went to an awesome pastors' conference this past week in Minnesota (yeah, I know, who goes to a conference in Minnesota in February?) and made some good friends, but almost everyone there came from the Reformed tradition – not from the same sector as the United Methodist Church. I joked with some new friends about predestination and choice, one of the major differences between our theologies, but it made me think about denominations and what our differences demonstrate to the world. When people who aren't Christians see us not willing to get along with one another, what does that say about us? The reality is, we have lots of differences, not just between us and other denominations, but between us and us.

We just don't get along. Some of you are going to take immediate offense to that statement. Of course we get along. The truth is we don't. Some of you spend more time attacking one another than you do praying. You spend more time gossiping than you do evangelizing. You spend more time tearing one another down than you do building the Kingdom. And that's selfish and un-Christian, and it's got to stop.  If we're Christians, that is.

This is absolutely serious. I hear people complain about each other and threaten that they're going to leave the church and grumble and mutter and fuss. There are some people who seem to think their spiritual gift is complaining. That is not a spiritual gift! The Bible calls us to get along with our brothers and sisters in Christ, but that's not the goal. Getting along is the start line. Our culture preaches tolerance, though sometimes I wonder if we know what tolerance means. We've taken it to mean that we're supposed to accept and allow everything. That isn't tolerance. That is ridiculous. Tolerance does mean accepting other people right where they are, but it doesn't mean we have to accept that what they're doing is right. As Christians, we have submitted ourselves to the will of Someone Else and to the authority of the Bible. Which means we will be able to see the difference between right and wrong – it's clearly demonstrated in the Bible! So Christian unity and tolerance are two different things altogether.

Jesus himself has called his people to unity. Did you know that Jesus prayed for us, and that his prayer for us was recorded in the Bible? In John 17, Jesus was praying for his disciples, and he spoke these words (starting with John 17:20): “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message,

Did you realize that Jesus was actually praying for you when he prayed this? We are the ones who believe in Jesus through the message of the apostles. So this is what he prayed for us: that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you.

Jesus prayed for our unity. He prayed that we would be one, just as the Father and Son are One. This doesn't mean that we will just “get along”. It means that we will be one. Why is this important?

Let's keep reading in John 17. Jesus continues: May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. Before I get to the unity part, did you get this: Jesus gives us his glory! This is amazing. Remember that when we started out with this series, we said that the reason we exist is to bring God glory? Well, now Jesus is saying that He gives his glory to us. So if someone tells you that the church is irrelevant or that they don't need to be a part of a church, Jesus counters that thought here. Jesus has given his glory to his people, the church. He has given us his weight and importance. The reason he did so was for our unity, because when we are unified, people will believe that God send Jesus and that He loves them so much! The goal of unity isn't for our happiness or our comfort. It's not for us at all! It's to fulfill what it means to be God's people. Our unity reveals Jesus to the world! Ever since Abraham, God called his people to be blessed to be a blessing to the nations. Jesus is showing us how that works.

When people in our community see how we interact with one another, when people who don't know Jesus look at what we're doing, will we give them ammunition against Jesus, or will they actually see Jesus in our unity? There are people who want to stir something up between MUMC and Millersport Covenant Church. A couple of weeks ago, Pastor Steve spoke here for our Sunday evening worship service. I actually heard (second or third hand, of course) someone questioning “What does Brian think of that?” What do I think of it? I asked him to come speak here! Why? Because I love him. Because we are brothers. Because it's never about one particular church or another. It's about showing people Jesus Christ!

The reason for life was to glorify God and enjoy him forever, and when we come together as Christian brothers and sisters, we glorify God. God desires our unity, not just for us to get along, but so He will be glorified.

If we're supposed to be unified, what is the cost we pay for that unity? One of those costs is the cost of self. In Matthew 16:24, we see that Jesus told his disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” This is the ultimate price to pay, and many aren't willing to pay it.   Think of someone with a spear sticking out of him, asking a doctor to give him a pain pill. The doctor would start talking about getting that spear removed. “No, just give me something for the pain.” You're not going to get better if the spear is still sticking out of you!

And if you're not willing to follow Jesus' words, then you're not going to get better either. You're not following Jesus if you're not willing to deny yourself. There's no way around it. There are plenty of people in plenty of churches who are not Christians. They look like Christians. They dress like Christians. They know all the Christian buzz words. They're often polite, nice, and even kind. But if you're not willing to give up selfish desires, you have set yourself up to rival God, and you're not a Christian.

Today both of our services are meeting together. It's a great time for everyone to come together and celebrate being one body, that we are one church with two services, not two churches with one building. We get to enjoy fellowship with one another and we get to see people we don't see every week. There are a few people who are “cross-overs” who regularly come to either service, depending on (I don't know what factors). There are a couple who stick around after 9:00 to greet people in 11:00. But there are some of you who so dislike a certain style of worship that you couldn't think of going to the “other” service. You use words like “them” and “they” to describe people who attend the service you don't attend. You insist that “they” are wrong (obviously) and (of course) you are right. Why do you go to a particular service? Because it's the one you like. You never consider that maybe God might want you to go to a different one. God doesn't call his followers to comfort! He calls us to self denial. So a huge cost to unity is self. Whenever you're going to do something, don't first ask, “Will this make me happy?” Ask, “What will bring glory to God?” Or how about this: will this action or these words cause others to move closer to or farther from the Lord?

Aiming for unity for the sake of unity is aiming for a moving target. You will never hit it, because you can't please everybody all the time. I used to love reading the student evaluations of college instructors; you'd have one person say, “This was the best class I've ever taken. I loved the prof” while someone else, in the same class, would say, “This class was the biggest waste of time. The prof was horrible.” Who are we aiming to please? If we're trying to please everybody, everybody will leave unhappy. Today we are having a combined service; it's neat to worship together in one service. It's great to see everyone. After we did our combined service in October, I heard a lot of positive comments; most people seemed to enjoy the service. But  the purpose of our worship services is not about our enjoyment. It's all about God. Does God enjoy our services? And if not, why not? One thing God doesn't like is when we're not unified. This doesn't mean going to one service; it means having the same mind, the same heart.

What does that mind look like? What does that heart look like? It looks like God's mind. It looks like Jesus' heart. When Ezekiel was prophesying, God told him of a time when He would gather His people back from exile, when they would return to the land and clean it up of its idols. I will give them an undivided heart and put a new spirit in them; I will remove from them their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh. (Ezekiel 11:19)

And what does it look like when we have God's new undivided heart and spirit? Then they will follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. They will be my people, and I will be their God. (Ezekiel 11:20) Is this what you want, or do you want something else? The only way to unity is to want what God wants.

Remember that unity just for the sake of unity isn't possible. If we're not united in Christ, we're not united at all. Paul writes to the church in Corinth, telling them not to be yoked with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? (2 Corinthians 6:14-15). We can get along, but we're not headed in the same direction. It's like when we got a call from the Mid-Ohio Food Bank wanting to help give us food to distribute; we had to tell them no, because for us to receive their food, they would require us to adopt their rules, which include that we can't offer to pray for the recipients.

We can't just go along with that, even if it's “right” by cultural standards. That's not what God calls us to. God calls us to have His heart, and if we do, if we all do, then we have the unity that matters.

 In Ephesians 4, Paul is urging the church in Ephesus to live lives worthy of God's calling. He tells them to 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 when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. (Ephesians 4:3-6) God calls us to unity because when we are unified, we accurately represent God to the world. We recognize that there is One God who exists in three Persons: Father, Son, and Spirit, always giving to one another, always loving one another, always unified in everything. The unity of the church demonstrates God's unity to the world.

People in our culture are highly individualistic while at the same time we long to belong. So from a very young age, we begin identifying ourselves by our belonging. I remember one day when I was little; I was playing on the sidewalk with a couple of neighbor boys and my sister. A man walking down the street said, “Hi, boys!” to us, and my sister, who was probably about 2 at the time, angrily huffed, “I'm a girl!” As we get older we identify ourselves in other ways. Every middle school and high school has groups. I had an ability to move about the groups, but when it came down to it, I was king of the nerds. In a town like Millersport, there is an in-group and an out-group (don't look shocked; you know it's here). In my last appointment, that was generally expressed by your heritage; if you were German and spoke the right Plattdeutsch in the home (or your parents or grandparents did), then you were probably “in.” If not, sorry about your luck.

We identify ourselves by our national heritage. We identify ourselves by our genders. By our hometowns or counties. We identify ourselves by what sports team we like – I'm sorry, but as a Chicago Bears fan, I just can't force myself to cheer for the Packers in the Super Bowl. Our definitions tend to divide instead of unite. I was talking to a fellow pastor in the hotel in Minnesota; I commented on his University of Kentucky hat. We talked for a while about UK basketball, but then he started bashing the Big Ten. I had to change the subject.

But all these divisions and definitions don't please God at all. Paul tells the church in Colossae You have taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self, which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. (Colossians 3:9-10). Then he tells us what that new self looks like. Colossians 3:11: Here there is no Gentile or Jew, circumcised or uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave or free, but Christ is all, and is in all.

To the church in Galatia, he wrote There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)

Did you get that? All the other stuff that defines us really doesn't matter at all in Christ. The only thing that matters is Christ. So Paul writes on to the Colossian church:

Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, (that's who we are) clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. (Colossians 3:12-14)

Remember the context; that there is no difference between people when we are in Christ. There is no 1st service or 2nd service. There is no praise band or choir. There is no Boomer, Buster, X, Y, or Millennial. We are one in Christ. Because of that, we can together act with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience, forgiving one another, and loving one another.

Love binds us together in perfect unity. And we get that love from God.

I want to finish up with a passage from Romans 15:5-6 May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.  

Did you get it – that unity of mind and voice glorifies God? That's exactly what it does. Some of you need some work on this. You need a heart transplant and a mind transplant. If that's you, if you're living for yourself, you need to repent. Turn 180* and go in the opposite direction. As we celebrate Communion this morning, this is a chance for you to be reconciled with God and with one another. Do not waste your chance. Don't waste your life chasing after everything else.

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