Unity: A gift given to us in Christ

Synod Sunday epistle reading, Ephesians 4:1-6: ‘As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 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.’

In his book, What’s So Amazing About Grace, Philip Yancey quotes Mark Twain. Twain said he put a dog and a cat in a cage to see if they could get along. They did. So, he added a bird, a pig, and a goat. They, too, got along fine after a few adjustments. Then he put in three Christians from different denominations, and soon, no living thing was left. There’s a certain level of cynicism in Twain’s words, just as there is a certain level of uncomfortable truth.

No two individuals completely agree on everything. Honestly, I sometimes find myself disagreeing with myself! We all have our unique viewpoints and value these differences. We don’t want a world where everyone looks, acts, and thinks alike. However, when we concentrate too much on our differences, our perspective can become skewed, making small issues seem like major ones. We can become quarrelsome about minor disagreements, inflating them into insurmountable obstacles.

We can isolate ourselves with a superior, dismissive attitude, demanding recognition for our own differences while disregarding those of others. This can result in an attitude intolerant of any likes or dislikes, tastes, or preferences that differ from our own. I say ‘we’ because this is common to all humanity. The axis of evil that we want to draw somewhere else actually runs through our own hearts. We are saints and sinners—fallen but redeemed.

The theme of Ephesians can be stated pragmatically as, ‘Christians…get along with each other!’ Remember whose you are. Remember where your unity comes from. The author, likely St. Paul, uses a powerful rhetorical tool. He mentions seven things that are ‘one.’ One body of the church, called and sanctified by one Spirit; one hope, which flows from God’s calling; one Lord Jesus whom we all confess and into whom we grow; one faith and one baptism which bind us to Him and each other.

Ultimately, the list reaches its pinnacle with the one God and Father of all, whose work of salvation permeates the entire universe. In this exceptional early Trinitarian passage, the church’s unity is founded on the everlasting unity of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. This unity is not something we generate; rather, we are summoned to foster and maintain it with each other, embodying humility, gentleness, patience, and love, as verse two says.

The church’s unity does not rely on excluding everyone who doesn’t sound and look the same. Differences are not the same as divisions. The Spirit-given diversity within the church is not a problem but a blessing from God, to be approached with humility, gentleness, patience, and love. Our Ephesians passage clearly acknowledges and recognises the church’s unity as a divine spiritual gift: ‘Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.’ Yet, we have the ability to twist and reject these gifts.

In Romans and 1 Corinthians, St Paul emphasises that as Christians, our baptism is not just into a local fellowship, but into Christ himself. Paul believed that Christ could not be divided among different congregations any more than he could be divided among the factions within the Corinthian church despite its divisions. All believers, whether in Corinth, Rome, Ephesus, Jerusalem, Queensland, or anywhere else, have died with Christ and been resurrected with him. He is our unity. For the church, the starting point is always Jesus, his invitation to all people to meet him as the resurrected Lord and Saviour, which gives birth to the church.

Our district’s guiding principle is One Church. One Purpose. Many Ministries. As I say in my written report to Synod, the global body of Christ is one body, not many, united by a common baptism. And we have one purpose: Participating in God’s mission to the world. Article VII of the Augsburg Confession states, ‘And to the true unity of the church it is enough to agree concerning the doctrine of the Gospel and the administration of the Sacraments.’

Article VII of the Augsburg Confession closes with a reference to our text today and quotes verses five and six: ‘One Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.’ This is the origin of our unity. Hence, as the triune God is eternal, our unity is also unbreakable. As John Stott says, ‘The unity of the church is as indestructible as the unity of God himself. It is no more possible to split the church than it is possible to split the Godhead.’

How can John Stott make this claim despite the widespread disunity in the church? Because our unity doesn’t stem from an external organisation, a united constitution, a Document of Union, or even the Theses of Agreement—it begins with Christ. In his brilliant little book, Life Together, Dietrich Bonhoeffer went as far as to say that ‘The unity of the church will consist not in organisations, not in dogmas, not in liturgies, not in pious hearts, but in the Word of God, in the voice of Jesus Christ’ (emphases mine).

Unity is a gift. It has already been given to the church. We don’t need to come up with it. We don’t need strategic plans to attain it. Our unity is a gift given to us in Christ. Dietrich Bonhoeffer writes: ‘Christian community means community through Jesus Christ and in Jesus Christ. There is no Christian community that is more than this, and none that is less than this. Whether it be a brief, single encounter, or the daily community of many years, [the] Christian community is solely this. We belong to one another, only through and in Jesus Christ’ (emphases mine).

We may say that while unity is a Christ-given gift to the church, we are still broken. Yes, that’s true. We are broken. But as I said in my synod sermon last year, the good news is that it is only after we have been broken that we can truly be given to others as the bread for the world. This is true for us as individuals and for us as a church. The good news for us as the LCANZ is that we are already broken. In God’s economy, that is not a bad place to be.

As we journey towards the Convention of General Synod in October, it is time to take a step towards the pain and brokenness and remember that our differences do not lessen the significance of what unites us. Because of our shared baptism, our differences cannot stop us from acknowledging one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. As St Paul says in 1 Corinthians: ‘Because there is one bread, we who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one bread’ (10:17, emphases mine).

All differences melt away at the altar, as we come forward as sisters and brothers in Christ to receive his body and blood. This truth is encapsulated in the LCA’s Document of Union, which reminds us that where we come to receive Christ’s body and blood together, ‘there we have a witness to the world of unity in the faith and a profession of church fellowship.’ Our eyes are drawn to Christ, the only one who can truly unite us and guide our feet onto the path of peace.

This is God’s work. Luther reminds us in the Small Catechism that none of us can even come to Christ and believe in him, but ‘instead the Holy Spirit has called me through the gospel, enlightened me with his gifts, made me holy and kept me in the true faith, just as he calls, gathers, enlightens, and makes holy the whole Christian church on earth [the whole Christian church] and keeps it with Jesus Christ in the one common, true faith [we are secure in Christ].

‘Daily in this Christian church, the Holy Spirit abundantly forgives all sins—mine and those of all believers. On the Last Day [bringing to mind all the dear saints who have gone before us] the Holy Spirit will raise me and all the dead and will give to me and all believers in Christ eternal life’ (emphases and words in parentheses are mine). To confirm this beyond a shadow of a doubt and to emphasise its certainty, Luther concludes in his typical style: ‘This is most certainly true.’ Praise be to God!

Bishop Mark Vainikka, LCAQD
Pentecost 2, 2024