11.05.08
Unity: More Crucial Than Ever
We’ve all thought a lot about our church’s unity over the past several months. We all know it’s crucial to our church’s health. We know it’s a central theme of Scripture, to be found all through the book of Phillipians, in Jesus’ John 17 prayer, and in many other places.
We can easily imagine how important unity must be in persecuted places like India, Sudan, Belarus, and China. It’s not actually more important there, but it most be more obviously important, as Christians must stand together in the face of severe opposition.
Does that have anything to do with us here, though? Yes, it does. Did you know that a pastor in Canada was put on trial for teaching from the Bible? Did you know a major American newspaper could publish an editorial that speaks of “the angry evangelicals, the quivering clan of militant Christoholics,” “led by the most virulent, spittle-flecked gaggle of mental throwbacks to ever stain the American newswires”?
I recently was made aware of a web forum, an online discussion site, that further illustrates how this touches us. You may be aware of Proposition 8, an initiative in California to amend to state constitution such that only marriage between a man and a woman would be legally recognized. A writer on this forum tells of his hatred, his anger, his urge to kill proponents of the measure.
I’ll link to a very sanitized set of quotes from that page in a moment. Before I go there, though, I must answer the question, “Why even bring this up? Why give attention to something as shocking as this?” Because it shows how us something about our world. It shows us that it’s changing, and the church’s situation is no longer what it was 25 years ago, or even 5 years ago. Jesus said in John 15:18-25 (ESV),
“If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. But all these things they will do to you on account of my name, because they do not know him who sent me. If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me hates my Father also. If I had not done among them the works that no one else did, they would not be guilty of sin, but now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. But the word that is written in their Law must be fulfilled: ‘They hated me without a cause.’
I also bring this up because of the way I was made aware of this web page. You see, another commenter on this forum linked to something I had written on my own blog. I take some of this anger very personally because, from a distance, it was directed toward me.
The page I’m referring to is not appropriate for quoting here. If you want to see some excerpts I lifted out and sanitized–heavily–for language, you may do so here. The part that refers to my blog, though, is something I can quote here, since it was somewhat less violent than other portions of the page. It said,
Why [express ourselves calmly]? We are talking about people who want to deny other rights because they feel like it. Why should we calmly deal with people like this? Should we have dealt “calmly” with slavery?
As for positive contribution… why? We are talking about people who think like this: http://www.thinkingchristian.net/2008/1 … osition-8/
Now if I had actually insulted someone I would have deserved this. I am far from perfect, but I do aim to be as gentle as I can be while standing for what’s true; and with some success, as others have attested.
These kinds of incidents are on the increase. It’s time to wake up. This is not about a blog. It’s about us, the church. It’s about needing each other. I need you; which is a statement we all can make to each other.
It’s not about being fearful or defensive, though. It’s about God’s people showing God’s love to the world, which we do first by loving one another (John 13:34-35). The world sees that, and by it they know we are his disciples. Nothing draws people more powerfully into God’s kingdom than seeing and experiencing God’s love, expressed through God’s people.
Jesus himself made it clear that (unthinkable as it seems to us in America) some people would hate us for this, which brings us back around to where we started here. In a world where feelings against Christianity are increasing, we must stand together, support one another, and press forward in our mission together, to bring Christ to the world as a unified body of brothers and sisters who love one another.
