Ephesians 4:1-6
Meeting of the Presbytery of Florida
Shalimar, Florida
September 9, 2008
Brant S. Copeland, Moderator

The One Who Makes Us One

A few weeks ago I was sitting at the far end of the dining hall at Dogwood Acres, my Bible and notes spread out before me, working on the morning devotion and the chapel service for that day at camp.

The door of the dining hall flew open and in came Thomas, one of the counselors, and all the boys from his cabin – Hal, Aiden, William, and Daniel. With without a word of complaint, and with what some might call a miraculous spirit of cooperation, that group of fourth and fifth-grade boys went to work, setting the tables and getting the camp ready for breakfast.

All of a sudden it dawned on me. Every one of those young men, from 21-year-old Thomas to 10-year old Hal, was from the congregation I serve, and I baptized all but one. I baptized Thomas when he was a little baby, and now he’s a grown man, doing ministry. Then I started counting. Of the 15 people from First, Tallahassee at camp that week, I had baptized 13 of them.

It was one of those rare moments in a pastor’s life when one feels that it’s all worth it – the session meetings, the middle-of-the-night phone calls, the niggling complaints, the fights over the color of the carpet in the church parlor. It’s all worth it when you see the unity of the church being lived before your eyes.

I thought to myself, "If only everybody in Florida Presbytery could see what I’m seeing now, could see the vows of baptism being fulfilled in manly service, could watch the molding of young characters, the forming of disciples, the growth in the Lord right before their very eyes – then we wouldn’t have to worry about funding ministries like Dogwood Acres, and we’d feel intuitively what it is that makes us one in Christ."

Paul’s appeal for unity in the church in Ephesus is not based on his pastoral persona. (I have often thought that the Apostle Paul would last about two weeks as an ordinary pastor.) It’s not based on his eloquence as a preacher. By his own admission, Paul was a plain sort of preacher. It’s not based on uniformity of opinion. All of the epistles, not only the Pauline ones, reflect a lively diversity of opinion from the very earliest days of the church.

No, the unity Paul speaks about is rooted in this and this alone: the life, death, resurrection, and continuing presence of the Lord Jesus Christ. The unity of the church is not an achievement. It is a gift. It is not an aspiration. It is a given. It does not depend on us. It depends on the grace of the triune God, the "one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all."

There are few things more foundational (dare I say "essential") to Reformed theology than this, but history shows that we Presbyterians are terrible at living out this truth.

We have divided and subdivided, reunited and re-divided so many times, our family tree looks like a victim of Hurricane Fay. Old School. New School. New Side. Old Side. Cumberland. Orthodox. Evangelical. United Reformed. Not-So-United Reformed. PCUS. UPC. UPCUSA. PCUSA. Since the Reformation, we have fought and split over double predestination, clerical education, the relevance of modern Biblical scholarship, the Biblical justification for slavery, the ordination of women, and are in danger of dividing over you-know-what (fill in the blank with your own current controversy).

Brothers and sisters, I have to admit, this is embarrassing. It makes us look like Baptists. Even more embarrassing, it makes us look like Ephesians. Is there any remedy for our unreformed, not to say unchristian, proclivity for schism?

I think there might be, and it rests in Paul’s charge to the Ephesians.

First of all, we need to get over ourselves. However passionate we might be about this or that cause, we must recognize that, in all likelihood, the kingdom will not rise or fall on whether we get our way. Paul’s words for this are "humility and gentleness."

"Humility and gentleness" means acknowledging that people on the other side of the issue – whatever it is -- love Jesus, too. That was the great discovery of the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity, and Purity.

"What do you know! Those liberals take the Bible seriously!"

"Son of a gun! Those conservatives care for people on the fringes."

Who’d a thunk it?

Second, we need to remember what Paul means by "one faith." He des not mean assent to the Book of Confessions or to a set of propositions which looked really cool in the seventeenth century, but seem a tad inadequate in the twenty-first. By "faith" Paul does not mean "doctrine." He means "confidence," "trust," "reliance."

"Faith" in this context is what we exercise when we say to a trusted friend, "I have faith in you to be the executor of my will." Or to a child, "Here are the car keys. I have faith in you to make good decisions."

Christians share "one faith" in the sense that we trust the one Lord Jesus -- crucified, risen, ascended, present -- right here, right now.

Third, we must remember the source of our unity is not uniformity of outlook, opinion, or temperament.

Face it, friends, being church is a messy business. It’s a bit like making sausage, only less tidy. We’re never going to get along in the sense of seeing eye-to-eye on every issue, or even liking everybody on the pew with us. That has something to do with all of us being "sinners in the sight of God justly deserving God’s disfavor and without hope save in God’s sovereign mercy."

Dietrich Bonhoeffer wrote, "Jesus Christ is our unity. Through Him, alone, do we have access to one another, joy in one another, and fellowship with one another."

Years ago I was conducting a wedding at First Church in Tallahassee when a homeless lady came into the church. She sat on a back pew and waited until the wedding party had left. She caught up with me on the front porch of the sanctuary.

"I’m new in town," she said. ‘I’m looking for a church. Let me ask you some questions. Is this here a Bible-believing church?"

"Why, Yes," I said. "We believe the Bible reveals the truth about God and about human beings."

"Um hum. But is it an evangelical church?"

"Oh, Yes. We believe the gospel is good news to the whole world. You can be sure that First Presbyterian is an evangelical church."

"Well, is it a Spirit-filled church?"

"Ma’am, the gifts in this church are just amazing. The Spirit has showered this congregation with marvelous gifts. You can be assured that First Pres is a Bible-believing, evangelical, Spirit-filled church."

She looked me up and down, dressed as I was on that day in black Geneva gown, clerical collar, and long white preaching bands."

"Well," she said. "It sure don’t look like one to me."

Brothers and sisters, what does the Presbyterian Church look like to the folks outside our doors? Does the world see our ministry to the least of these, or only our bickering and debate? Are we living out the unity that is ours already, by the grace of God, or does our walk contradict our talk?

We are one in Christ. That’s a given. But does the world see any evidence of that?

In the dining hall at Dogwood Acres that morning, I caught a glimpse of our unity in Christ. Here is it again, laid out for us in bread and wine. There is one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God, and one host at this Table.

Taste and see, beloved in Christ. Taste and see the goodness of the Lord.

 

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