http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=isaiah+9%3A1-4
1 Corinthians 1:10-18
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=1+cor+1%3A10-18
Matthew 4:12-23
http://bible.oremus.org/browser.cgi?passage=matt+4%3A12-23
Well, today marks the Sunday mid-point of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. And so today, around the world, Christians of different denominations get together to put aside their differences and worship and pray in the name of the one Christ. We take to heart Paul’s words to us, that we heard this morning, "Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose." And it is vital that we do this. Lutherans, Catholics, Anglicans, Baptists, Presbyterians, United, Eastern Orthodox - the list of Christian denominations goes on, but we should all be heeding Paul’s words and Christ’s wish that we would be one church. We all should be striving to put aside our arguments and strife in order to be of the same mind and the same purpose - in order to follow Christ - to teach about his love and sacrifice, to proclaim the good news of the kingdom, to bind up the brokenhearted, and to proclaim liberty to the captive. It is a huge job that we are being called to do - bringing the kingdom of heaven near - and arguments over church practice, or which hymns to sing, or how we call our bishops, although insignificant to the work that needs doing, nevertheless manage to stand in the way of us doing it. And so often we find ourselves unable to carry out Christ’s work, hampered by our own quarrels - like those in the church of Corinth, about whether we belong to Paul or Apollos or Cephas; about whether we belong to the Lutheran church or the Catholics or the Assemblies of God; whether we belong to the fundamentalist camp or the liberal camp, about whether we believe in creation or evolution, women pastors or celibate priests, gay rights or "traditional" marriage, pro-life or pro-choice. When there are as many denominations as there are issues to quarrel over, we know that we have failed. We find ourselves unable to live up to the clear Biblical witness that is before us - that we are to be one church, "united in the same mind and the same purpose."
Except that we have another Biblical witness - one that seems to say the opposite. We have stories in the Bible that lead us to believe that, actually, diversity and a multiplicity of choices and opinions are a rich part of our Christian heritage. The most important story we have, one that shows us clearly that God blesses diversity, comes from the Book of Acts. It’s a story we usually hear at Pentecost, but I think it’s appropriate today. Let me read it to you.
"When the day of Pentecost had come, the disciples were all together in one place. And suddenly a sound came from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared to them tongues as of fire, distributed and resting on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance.
Now there were dwelling in Jerusalem devout Jews of every nation under heaven. And at this sound the multitude came together, and they were bewildered, because each one heard them speaking in their own language. And they were amazed and wondered, saying, "Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in our own native language? Par'thians and Medes and E'lamites and residents of Mesopota'mia, Judea and Cappado'cia, Pontus and Asia, Phryg'ia and Pamphyl'ia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyre'ne, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians, we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God." [Acts 2:1-11]
Here we have, in one of the most important moments in the history of the Christian church, a story of the Holy Spirit blessing the disciples with the gift of tongues so that they can speak in the languages of their hearers. It would have been easy enough for the Holy Spirit to make it so that the crowds listening could all understand Aramaic, the language of Jesus and the disciples, but instead God chose to value the uniqueness and diversity of all gathered there by doing it the other way around. Now the sound of all these different languages probably wasn’t pretty - it probably sounded like the buses and subways during rush hour - with hundreds of conversations taking place, all in different languages. No unity or one tongue here.
So, what do we do with these two opposing Biblical strands - one for unity and one for diversity? Well, I want to propose that the unity to which we are called, the unity of the Body of Christ, the Christian church, is not a unity where everything is homogeneous and everybody is identical. I believe that there is room for our differences in the vast family of God. After all, within the Christian tradition, even within this congregation, I’ll bet, there are a wide array of beliefs that we as Christians have. With opinions on everything from giving Communion to infants, to the literalness of Scripture, to same-sex marriage, to baptismal practices, to the Virgin birth, to the gender of God, to what it means that Jesus is Emmanuel, not one of us has the exact same belief as any other Christian. And yet we are all Christian - we are all part of the one Body. There is room for our diversity, and I would even go so far as to say that there is need for our diversity.
How is this possible? Well, if you were listening to the children’s message, you might be able to tell where I’m going. In the children’s message I talked about light. For those of who you who missed it, I showed the kids, with a prism, how white light is actually made up of a rainbow of colours. What we think of as pure light is actually light made up of red, yellow, orange, green, blue, and violet light. What I wasn’t able to show them, because I’m not a science teacher, was that if one of those colours is missing, the light changes. It’s no longer white. Depending on the missing colour, it can be magenta, or yellow, or cyan, or just plain muddy-looking. But it’s not white, it’s not pure.
The church of Christ is like that light - indeed, we are still in the season of Epiphany, when we speak so frequently of Christ as the light that has come into the world. And like light, this Body of Christ needs the range of colourful opinions and beliefs that exist in order to shine forth purely. If we were all Catholics, the church would be missing the colour that women and married clergy bring. If we were all Anglicans, the church would be missing the colour that informal worship services bring. If we were all Baptists, the church would be missing the colour that infant baptism brings. If we were all Lutherans, the church would be perfect. No, I’m kidding. If we were all Lutherans, the church would be missing the colour that a deep sense of responsibility for one’s owns actions brings. I could go on, but you get the idea. All the colours of the rainbow are necessary to have white light. And it may be that all the colours of faith are necessary to have the white light of Christ shine forth.
You see, I don’t think that any one Christian has a monopoly on God’s truth. God is so vast and so complex that it’s simply not possible for one single individual to know the mind of God. But together, with the complexity of our combined beliefs, we come closer to the complexity of God. I read a column by a Lutheran writer, wherein he claimed that when it came to a particular issue, either God was on his side, or God was on his opponent’s side, but it couldn’t be both. But I think, in that case, he was wrong. The church has done some of its best work when we have worked together with people we don’t agree with, or with people who share a different understanding of faith than we do. The United Church continues to remind us that pure grace and forgiveness is not enough when it comes to issues of justice - people must actually change. The Eastern Orthodox churches remind us that tradition and centuries-old worship services bring us deeper in touch with our roots. The non-denominational churches remind us that God comes to whom God wills, and that God doesn’t give two figs about whether they’re a main-line denomination or not. Diversity within the family of God brings us closer to the one God, to the truth of Christ.
Jesus called his disciples from various walks of life, all with different opinions about God. But in their following him, as Simon and James in our reading did, they became united. They didn’t always agree on everything, but they walked together on the path Christ lay before them. And the same is true for us. Us contemporary Christians don’t always agree on everything, either, even within this congregation. But we do walk together on the path Christ has laid before us, and the Holy Spirit uses all of us to bring the kingdom of heaven closer. While it’s true that sometimes our disagreements get in the way of that, it’s also true that sometimes they help us to see Christ more clearly, they help his light to shine more brightly. Like the rainbow of colours combine to make a white light, our rainbow of denominations combine to make the church of Christ, the united Body, shine forth into the darkness of the world, increasing its joy.
Now it doesn’t make sense for me to have the last word in this sermon, since I’m only one voice - I’m only one colour of the rainbow. So let’s all sing together, with all of our different colours, the words of our Gospel hymn, number 755 in the blue hymnal.
We all are one in mission; we all are one in call,
our varied gifts united by Christ, the Lord of all.
A single great commission compels us from above
to plan and work together that all may know Christ’s love.We all are called to service, to witness in God’s name.
Our ministries are diff’rent; our purpose is the same:
to touch the lives of others with God’s surprising grace,
so ev’ry folk and nation may feel God’s warm embrace.Now let us be united, and let our song be heard.
Now let us be a vessel for God’s redeeming Word.
We all are one in mission; we all are one in call,
our varied gifts united by Christ, the Lord of all.With One Voice, 755
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