I want to riff off the sermon given by Andrea a few weeks ago on unity. Reminding us of the divisions in the church in Corinth, the message was clear: “Unity is not sameness. It is not based on certainty or agreement.” In any group of people there will be difference and, at times, disagreement.
We don’t choose our neighbours. Until we move into a new home we know very little about the people who live next door. It is the same with church. We didn’t choose one another, but we find ourselves in the same company.
We are all different – in age, family background, life experience, and, increasingly in modern Britain, different cultures. Our unity is not sameness. Despite our difference we are all made in the image of God and, at our best, we strive to accept, respect and embrace one another. Yet none of us is perfect. And the problem is that each of us is imperfect in different ways. And that can sometimes irritate us and make us uncomfortable.
True community isn’t sustained just by being nice. We brush up against one another. Because we are different we sometimes collide with one another. I have come to the conclusion that our personal path to perfection is helped by these occasions. As we read in Proverbs: As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another (27:17).
So I am learning to see our encounters with one another as a spiritual practice. Being prepared to walk away from a conversation with my opinion changed a little. Thinking differently about myself and our shared situation. Its a tough discipline. Sometimes I slip backwards – becoming a little more isolated in my prejudice, feeling that the world is against me. Seeking relationships with people who are like me, and like me. Avoiding everyone else.
The 2nd century Bishop of Lyon, Irenaeus, taught his people that we are all made in the image of God but it takes a lifetime to be formed into the likeness of Christ. As Andrea said in her sermon. “Unity begins … not with certainty but with humility. Jesus gathers people who will misunderstand him .. who will fail one another badly. And yet he calls them together.” And Paul writes to a divided community, “encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace”(1 Cor 13:11). One conversation, one encounter at a time.
