Unity

Yesterday while I was praying I felt the need to pray for the unity of the church. Not the unity of my specific -- or home -- church, but rather the unity of the entire church as a body of believers here in the nation's capital.

As I was kneeling in prayer I just heard the words: Pray for the unity of the church.

Now, this kind of baffled me -- I don't know that I have any special insight into what congregations across our city are doing, nor do I have any prior ministry or work done interfacing with other churches. So the thought that came to me struck me as odd. Then as I continued to pray about my own needs I just felt that I needed to pray for the unity of the church in Ottawa. So, I did. Nothing earth-shattering there, nothing happened persay -- no bells started tolling, there were no news reports after about mass closings of various denominations of Christian churches and a subsequent announcement that the church was going to unite in Ottawa. No, it was just a prayer I felt moved to pray.

As Christians we need to do a better job of coming together in HIS name. We are too quick to label each other as Catholic, Anglican, Non-Denominational, Presbyterian, Pentecostal... the list goes on... and so do the judgments we attach with it. How can we expect the non-believers in our midst to want to follow Christ if those who do follow Christ are all too often caught up in trying to rigidly define who we are in Christ by what our DENOMINATIONS believe? Why can we not define ourselves by what CHRIST calls us to be? Forget the labels. Forget the dismissive way we box some in because of the church building they call home. Let's start to examine how Christ calls us to HIM and go from there!

The Bible tells us that we are not defined by denomination but rather by the unity of the body of Christ -- that is, those who have accepted Christ as their Saviour and are in relationship with Him (2 Corinthians 12:12-31):

"A person's body is one thing, but it has many parts. Though there are many parts to a body, all those parts make only one body. Christ is like that also. Some of us are Jews, and some are Greeks. Some of us are slaves, and some are free. But we were all baptized into one body through one Spirit. And we were all made to share in the one Spirit. The human body has many parts. The foot might say, "Because I am not a hand, I am not part of the body." But saying this would not stop the foot from being a part of the body. The ear might say, "Because I am not an eye, I am not part of the body." But saying this would not stop the ear from being a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, it would not be able to hear. If the whole body were an ear, it would not be able to smell. If each part of the body were the same part, there would be no body. But truly God put all the parts, each one of them, in the body as he wanted them. So then there are many parts, but only one body".

I love that line: "... there are many parts, but only one body". To me that's a great message: whether you take communion in a Catholic church, or raise your hands in a Pentecostal one, or read from the Anglican Liturgical book, we are all one body. And no, it is not - I think - just enough to say "I go to church" or "I believe in God" and leave it at that. The body of Christ is about relationship, not about denomination as we know it. But we get caught up in labels and forget the unity that comes from the Body of Christ.

I need my born-again Catholic brothers and sisters, as much as I need my non-denominational born-again believers, as much as I need my Anglican ones. Unity of the body. It's what God wants but what we as simple men and women forget.

Two weeks ago, I was driving to Toronto with a friend of my wife's who said that she was concerned about the fact that there is just so much "segregation" in Christianity -- or "religion" as she put it. She said she felt that there was just division, disunity and fighting within the body because we are too apt to define what Church A believes versus what Church B doesn't. I agreed with her: how we measure ourselves is not how God measures us.

We are not going to a Catholic heaven, or a Protestant heaven or a Pentecostal heaven. We are going to HIS Kingdom -- and there are no labels there. Sadly, people like my wife's friend I think are all too common: they view Christianity through the lenses of the followers here on earth. And why not? Afterall, we are ambassadors for Christ. But don't we then have a bigger purpose here -- to hold true to what unites us (John 3:16), and work towards feeding His lambs?

We need to stop the divisions because they are not of Christ. God may call us to certain congregations and denominations, but His greater calling his to reap and sow souls for His Kingdom. That is what we have to hold on to.

Let's go forward today holding fast to the unity that Christ called us to in John 17:20-23:

"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me"

That prayer was relevant then and remains true today -- let's live out the prayer that reached God's ears. We can't expect to reap what we sow if what we are sowing and reaping is finger pointing and division. Nobody wants to join that Kingdom -- but the TRUE Kingdom of God which is made up of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control... underpinned by the selfless sacrifice of Christ? Now that's a more welcoming reality!

Unity in the body. It's not just the right thing to do -- it's God's command for us all.