Becoming the United Church

Acts 4:23-37

Introduction

I remember being at a ministerial and I pointed out that John had been a Baptist. The Nazarene pastor reminded me that John may have been a Baptist but Jesus was a Nazarene. That’s when another pastor stated in heaven, we would all be the United Church.

I’m not suggesting that any of you change denominations. But it is true that we are supposed to be united.

In the passage we are looking at, we get a snapshot of what the early church looked like. There is so much that we could reflect on, but we are going to look at one aspect, something the church continues to struggle with, and that is unity.

Unity in the Early Church

In this description, we are told that the Christians were of one heart and mind. They were united. But what does that unity look like? Does that mean that there was no diversity? Was everyone exactly the same? We know that is not the case.

We saw in our look at Pentecost that God’s plan for the church was diversity. We do not need to look like each other. But we are to be one.

There are some interesting observations about their unity. It was more practical than theoretical. It was not something they just gave mental assent to. They demonstrated it by selling their possessions and sharing it with each other. Not jus their closest friends, but all followers of Jesus benefited from their generosity. True unity means all celebrate together or all suffer together. The point is that unity is reflected in how we live our lives, especially our relationships.

That is not to say that there is no belief that is essential to Christian unity. The one thing that is highlighted is the resurrection of Jesus. That is the core belief that unites us. Jesus conquering the grave bound them together in such a way that their other differences couldn’t divide them.

Unity in the Modern Church

So what does unity in the church look like today. Believe it or not, it is not denominations that are the problem. I think the variety of Christian expression is our strength rather than our weakness. But if the Bible is true, why do we have different interpretations? Because, although the Bible is true, our interpretations are still human. It is going to happen.

It is our lack of humility and overconfidence that leads to a lack of unity. It is good to have personal convictions, but trouble comes when we impose nonessentials on others. This is one of the reasons why I am a Baptist. We do not have official positions on many different issues. We have chosen to major on the majors and to allow individuals to interpret the Scriptures. Of course that doesn’t mean everything goes. There are a number of things that we hold to tightly to certain things. Like the earliest of Christians, we rally around the resurrection of Jesus. We can agree to disagree on many things, but the resurrection of Jesus is the sun that we orbit. It is the source of our unity.

What does it look like? Again, it does not mean uniformity. There is plenty of room for friendly disagreement and personal convictions. It comes down to how we treat each other. It may not look like selling our possessions, but it is something that costs us. What happens when there is a Christian who holds a very different position on something and we have the opportunity to help or hurt? What do we do? Is our unity in Jesus enough if we hold in common what is really important? 

The best way for us to have a positive witness to our world is not for us all to think the same way but to show that we can love one another and bless one another, even when we disagree. That is the kind of signs and wonders that this world needs.

Conclusion

Somethings have changed from two thousand years but any other things have remained the same. What hasn’t changed is our need for unity. Not uniformity but true unity, a unity bound together by the resurrection of Jesus and manifested in the way we treat one another. The great news is that each and every day we have an opportunity to witness to the truth of the faith through our unity.