I have been thinking about unity in the Church lately, both the capital-C Church and the local church. I think a lot of that is because at Arise we have celebrated Pentecost, Trinity, and our Global Outreach Sundays the past three weeks. We have been talking about the birth of the first church, where people were speaking in their foreign tongues and everyone could understand each other. We have learned about this unity of the three persons of the Godhead, each of whom is God. We have talked about what it looks like to go and make disciples, to bring people into the kingdom of God. There’s a lot of prescribed unity in what God commands us to do.
With all of these examples of unity, I wonder why there is so much division in the Church today? Why do we argue about baptism, or tithing, or how Jesus will return? Why do we argue about worship styles, or preaching styles? From women in the church and budgets, to furniture and coffee, we constantly divide and hurt each other because of our differences.
Thinking about this reminds me of when Rooftop (our big sister church) did a sermon series on Romans. In Romans 14, Paul talks about this very situation. Like the Church today, the believers in Paul’s day (and specifically the Romans) had disagreements. A lot of these disagreements were based around the restrictions of the Law of Moses. But Paul reminded them that Christ had made a new covenant and that the restrictions of the Law of Moses are no longer binding on (all of) us. In the midst of this change, some people were not sure about eating meat that was not kosher or how to celebrate the Sabbath, or the keeping of Jewish festivals. Speaking to these issues, in Romans 14:1-4 Paul says,
“Accept the one whose faith is weak, without quarreling over disputable matters. 2 One person’s faith allows them to eat anything, but another, whose faith is weak, eats only vegetables. 3 The one who eats everything must not treat with contempt the one who does not, and the one who does not eat everything must not judge the one who does, for God has accepted them. 4 Who are you to judge someone else’s servant? To their own master, servants stand or fall. And they will stand, for the Lord is able to make them stand.”
Now let’s not get hung up on the term of weak faith. Because Paul is saying that even if someone might practice laws that are no longer needed because of Jesus dying for you and me (someone who he says has “weak faith”), who are we to judge them? Who are we to judge someone who doesn’t belong to us? This is Paul’s point, we are servants of Christ, and we belong to Him. Of course, this brings up a necessary question: when should we have these tough conversations? What is a core issue and what is a disputable matter? What is an essential practice that might not just be between your conscience and God?
Obviously how you answer this question varies from church to church, and people to people. But something I look to is the Apostles Creed and Mere Christianity. The Apostles' Creed is a statement of faith concerning the overarching truths of God, it tells us who He is, and what He has done. It states that God is the creator of heaven and earth, Jesus was conceived by the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary. He was crucified, died and rose again, and He ascended to heaven and is seated at the right hand of God. These truths can’t be disputed, this is God’s story.
Mere Christianity is a little less well known. For some Christians, hearing those words reminds them of C.S. Lewis, the British writer who wrote a book called Mere Christianity. He is one of the most known Christian authors of the 20th century. As stated in our church’s white paper, “Mere Christianity commits itself to focusing on the core, central aspects of the Christian faith while allowing for differences of faith and practice on non-central things. It’s gospel-centered, creedal, balanced, embraces particulars, intellectually humble, drawn from the Great Tradition, and both faithful and practical.” Is this approach perfect? No. But it can be really helpful, especially for pursuing unity in the church. Mere Christianity presents theology in a palatable ways that are easy to understand. Mere Christianity focuses on the core of faith in Christ (in our instance, the core that is contained in the Apostles’ Creed). We don’t focus on questions like if infant baptism is valid, or if women should be in leadership, or if the pastor should be more of a teacher then a preacher. These things too often divide. So instead, we focus on following Jesus. We focus on uniting with each other in our shared belief of who Jesus is and what he commands us to do. We unite in loving God and loving others.
Remember this when you are having a disagreement about something that doesn’t have to do with the concrete truths of God. Remember what Paul says in Romans 14:13, “Stop passing judgment, stop making obstacles for those you don’t agree with.” And like he says later in verse 19, let’s make efforts that lead to peace and mutual understanding. We don’t have to always agree. But we are called to understand one another and not let our disagreements effect Jesus’ commandment to love each other.
What about you: Who are you having disagreements with today? Or who have you disagreed with in the past? How have those disagreements interfered with your faith in Christ or unity with other Christians?