The Unity of the Body

2 Samuel 11:26-12:13a, Ephesians 4:1-16

Ninth Sunday after Pentecost, August 6, 2006

Heritage Congregational Church, Madison, WI

I have a friend named Mark. Every time I see him, he asks about church, about how things are going here at Heritage, but Mark doesn’t go to church himself. You see, when Mark was a teenager, his church had a great youth leader. This guy was close to the kids, well organized, intelligent and faithful. He built a wonderful program and served the youth of that church well. Then all of a sudden one day he was gone. He had been run out of church. The kids were never told why, everything was hush hush, a big secret. And from the kids’ perspective he had been treated very badly, unfairly even. He had been treated in an unchristian-like way.

To the youth, the way the church leaders behaved did not match what they had been preaching and teaching. What they said and what they did made for a confusing message. And so my friend is skeptical, cynical about institution of church. He doesn’t trust the church and believes the church is filled with hypocrites. Of course, I encourage him to become a part of the church so that he can help the church to change in a positive direction. But to my friend, there is no unity present in the gathered people who call themselves church.

We all know someone who has had a similar experience. We have seen fights in church over color of carpeting, what time the service should be, how many services the church should offer, what kind of music to do in worship, who to call for a pastor or any other number of things that human beings can disagree on. We see people in church behave in unchristian ways, and know those who have left the church because of it, never to return again, because they do not trust the business of church. They see no unity there.

Our predecessors in the faith, the Congregationalists of the Massachusetts Bay Colony had a way to deal with the lack of unity within the church. It was called church discipline. The behavior of each covenanted member was monitored, both inside and outside the walls of the church. If a member was thought to be behaving inappropriately—not in accordance with the church covenant, if their behavior was considered a threat to church unity, the individual would be brought before the body and challenged to repentance. They might be excused from the church rolls for a period of time. There prayer by the congregation, both for and with the member in question. And if repentant behavior was seen, the individual was welcomed back. And the gathered people, the body of Christ in that time and place, celebrated for unity had been restored.

The letter to the church at Ephesus is all about how to be church. It is also one side of a conversation. We only hear what the writer is saying, not what they are responding to. We know that Paul, or one of his followers who might have written this letter, does not just choose what he will theologize about and hope that it fits what the church is going through. They have been exchanging letters, writing back and forth. The writer knows the challenges, the trials and tribulations, faced by the young church in Ephesus, and writes to built them up, to strengthen them in faith, to give them a goal or an ideal to work toward. The section we read today focuses on the unity of the body.

The writer gives four suggestions on how to have unity in the church. First of all, he says to lead a life worthy of your calling—your calling to walk through life as a Christian, to live in a way that is in consort with Christ’s teachings. Next he suggests that the congregation focus on what binds the church together—peace, one body and Spirit, one hope, one Lord and faith and baptism, one God and Father of all. Remember that in Christ you are one. The third point made for unity is to use the gifts you have been given to the highest degree possible, for the purpose of building up the body. And lastly, he says to speak the truth in love. Be strong enough in faith so that you can speak the truth about Jesus, for through Jesus only can the body exist. When this works, when all the pieces are in place, the body is knit together and equipped for Christian ministry. Each part is working properly, working together, building the body up in love.

In our reading from 2 Samuel we learn more about one of the abovementioned points, speaking the truth in love. King David has sinned—big time. He has stolen another man’s wife and killed the man. Our text tells us that the Lord is displeased and sends Nathan, the prophet, to deal with David’s sin. We met Nathan a couple of weeks ago. He has already spoken the truth in love to David, in that first meeting. David wanted to build a temple, but God had other ideas, and sent Nathan to tell David the news. Nathan’s message from God is not as easy to take this time around. He holds up a mirror to David, telling a story that he knows will help show David the great sin he has done. When the story is told and David is outraged at the tale, he has no escape for the truth is right in front of him.

There is a ripple effect. It is not just David’s sin that is the issue. When David acts in a way that is not consistent with his role as political, military and religious leader for the people of Israel, he threatens their unity. Like my friend who thought that people in the church were saying one thing and doing another, what David has been telling them does not match his actions. The people of Israel wonder which message is the true message.

What David does next makes all the difference. We read today that David is repentant. He acknowledges his sin. The message is once again clear, consistent. The message of David’s life now is one that allows for unity to exist.

When what a church does is not consistent with what they preach and teach, there is a ripple effect that is negative. The world looks at the church as a group of people who preach love and piety but is riddled with discord and petty jealousies, as well as scandal and abuse. But when the church is unified, the ripple effect can be positive, building up the body and equipping the saints for ministry.

So what is this unity we have been talking about? What does it look like? What are its characteristics? Is Christian unity an elusive thing or can we see it, feel it, touch, taste and smell it? I believe that unity is something real, something tangible. From reading these passages this week, I have discovered a few ways to define unity.

First of all, unity is being focused in the same direction, the direction Jesus was pointing, toward God. In our text we are reminded of the oneness brought by Christ. There is one body and Spirit, one hope in the calling, one Lord and faith and baptism, one God and Father of all. When we pay more attention to God than to the distractions of the world or our own likes and dislikes, when we ask what God wants before asking what we want in the life of the church, we are living in a state of unity. Is the color of the carpeting in the church the most important thing? What does it have to do with being focused in God’s direction? These two questions can be asked about every single decision we make in the life of the church.

Next, unity means recognizing and encouraging the gifts found in each member of the body. It means accepting how God has worked in each of our lives and trusting that God has done so that the body might be strengthened. It is about more than growing our own gifts, but also helping the gifts of everyone in the body to grow, and trusting that God knows what God is doing with the many gifts that have been given.

Unity also means speaking the truth in love, in good times and in bad. When the church is attuned to the movement of the Holy Spirit, when God is the main focus, when the covenant is remembered and taken seriously, we are speaking the truth in love. We spoke the truth in love last week when we celebrated our membership. We did it this morning when we sang Blessed assurance, Jesus is mine, O what a foretaste of glory divine! The same is true of times that are not as positive. When we challenge ourselves to be more faithful or lovingly put a stop to destructive thoughts, words and behaviors, we are speaking the truth in love.

I have shared what I believe the texts have told me about what unity is, but there is something left to be said about what unity is not, and I want to thank Bob Millholland for reminding me of this frequently. Unity is not uniformity. In the life of the church, we do not all have to agree on every decision, every point of view, every issue within the church or outside these walls. Unity is found in the fact that we have promised to worship and work together, showing with our lives that God is more important than any earthly thing that might seek to separate us. When we sit in the pews week after week, focused on God and God alone, we are saying that our differences and disagreements are nothing when seen in light of who God is and what God has done in our lives.

I have learned a great deal about Christian unity in the last few years. It is a small committee, only six people, who come from all parts of the country. Some are pastors, some are not. Some are musicians, some are not. We have varied worship styles and divergent theologies, so it took us a while to work together. The first year or so we struggled with unity. Our language consisted of “I like or don’t like this” much of the time. Gradually, though, our language evolved into a more God-focused litany. We spoke of how the church would be served with each piece and how the various theologies and musical styles were truly representative of how our many churches expressed their love of God.

Over time we learned how to celebrate the many and diverse gifts of our committee members. Our work became more efficient and productive. And, we grew to the place where we were able to share our divergent viewpoints with honesty and freedom, even when we disagreed strongly, because we had learned to speak in Christian love. The result of this evolved language was unity for the building up of this little body that is the New Hymnal Committee. Together we are bearing fruit that we pray will be used for the building up of the larger body that is the churches of the National Association.

I have some homework for you again today! If you look at the yellow insert in your bulletin, you will see some questions to ponder, to think and pray about as you consider the nature of Christian unity:

1) Have you ever experienced disunity in the church? How did it affect the church? How did it affect

your faith?

2) What questions do you ask when the church is making a decision?

3) Is our church focused on God? Are we unified in direction?

4) Do we speak the truth in love? In good times? In difficult times?

5) Do we know that we are saints in the process of being equipped for ministry?

Speaking the truth in love, I want to leave you with one more thought. Unity already exists. In the phrase we have repeated several times in this message (probably a litany or creed of the early church), there is one body and Spirit, one hope in the calling, one Lord and faith and baptism, one God and Father of all. God has made us one through our faith. The language reads, There is… not there will be if you do these things. We share far more that makes us united than any earthly thing can challenge. The challenge before us now is to live in the truth God has spoken to us through these texts and is speaking to us still. Amen.