Divine Unity

Finding unity is hard. Finding agreement is hard, so finding unity, can feel like an impossible task today. Yet, I don’t think unity was ever easy. As I read more and more about any time in humanity’s history, I realize that unity, agreement, equity, and inclusion have never really been easy or even accomplished. Sure, we move forward in some movements or moments, but most of those times, as we move forward, we end up excluding someone or rejecting someone else. I remember hearing a sermon that spoke to this, I think it was from Tim Keller. This preacher said, “Conservatives so often get unity wrong, because they say that someone has to be what I tell them, so that they might fit”. We know that can’t be unity. We are not meant to be automatons with no personality or difference. This preacher also said, “Liberals also get it wrong on the other side, saying, “You have to be welcoming to all people no matter what”. We know this can’t be unity either, because first, though good, welcoming or tolerance aren’t actually unity, and second telling someone you need to welcome everything and everyone is just rejecting those that hold onto a specific moral value (a demand for universal welcomers ends up rejecting those that can’t). If we are thoughtful and observant enough, I think it is quite easy to see and experience how both of these values are quite destructive. This is just one worldly example of many, that tells us we are not good at creating unity - sometimes it would seem that we don’t even know what unity is.

I think the difficult reality that everyone has to face is that the unity we desire cannot come from us. Unity is divine. Unity has its starting place, its source, its perfection forever intertwined with the Trinity, our three-in-one God. From a Christian point of view, this shouldn’t surprise us. In God, we see a unity between three distinct persons who share so closely and intimately everything they are and have that they are truly one. The only true unity thats known.

If we take it from another direction, look at the ideals of liberal unity - diversity, equity and inclusion, mercy and justice. In a worldly sense, many of these are actually contradictory terms. In a worldly sense, mercy means forgoing justice, and diversity means that we don’t have the same realities as our neighbors, so we can’t really be equal. Sure, we could play around and change the plain meaning, but that would actually ignore some of the hope behind these words.

We could look at the ideals of conservative unity - tradition, sameness, morality, opportunity, and loyalty. Yet, we know that many of these ideas can become overly restrictive. We also know that we can’t really live up to these ideals. We can barely live up to our own moral values, let alone universal ones. We can barely remain loyal or faithful to those who are closest to us, let alone strangers. We can barely create an opportunity without immediately taking it, and so on. Just like liberal ideals for unity, it would seem that our ideals are beyond us.

What might surprise you when you look closely is that these conservative ideals have a lot of the same principles as the liberal ones. Let me put similar ideals beside each other to help out. Sameness and Equity, tradition and diversity, loyalty and inclusion, mercy and opportunity, justice and morality. The difference in these ideals is just what they are facing and how they are enforced. It would seem that we all want the same kind of unity, but when we seek it, even at a community level, we fall terribly short.

Unity is only possible within the divine unity of God. Unity is only possible when we find ourselves united in the Holy Spirit. This is one of the many things Jesus is saying in our passage from John. “The Spirit of truth abides with you and will be in you”. . . “You and I will be one as I and the Father am one”. . . “I will reveal myself to you”. . . “I am telling you now, but I am sending you an advocate, the Holy Spirit, who will teach you everything”. God is trying to draw us to his community of three so that he might dwell in us and so that we might be united to him forever.

This is an amazing and mind-bogglingly impossible unity, but it only seems impossible because we have never seen it, known it, or experienced it. Marriage can sometimes give us a taste of true unity. Close friendship can kind of point towards aspects of true unity. Having something in common is barely a fleck of true unity. Yet, we know through our strong innate desire for unity and all of our previously discussed ideals that unity must be something we were meant for. The fundamental reality here is that we were meant for one thing that nothing else can take the place of. We were meant to be so close with God that we are united with him.

So, here we find the first fundamental flaw in our modern worldly pursuits of the ideals linked with unity. We have them pointing at the wrong thing. All of our ideals point towards worldly examples or ideas that can’t hold up and don’t even come close to the unity we desire within our hearts. All of our desires and ideals must aim squarely on God, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. That is the only way to even see the unity we desire.

I want to take a moment to reframe for us sin in this new context. Most people I talk to would define sin as evil or wrong. This is true, but only helpful to a point in our modern thinking. Sin literally means missing the mark: like an archer missing the bullseye. Sin is anytime our heart, words or actions miss their mark: God. If our desires and ideals aren’t aimed squarely on God the truth is that we will always sin, we will always do evil and do what is wrong. The ideals of equity or loyalty, or welcoming, or sameness aren’t wrong in themselves, but they become wrong when they aren’t pointing towards the only one that is right and good.

This reminds me that we are all far greater sinners than we first perceive and that I am so thankful that God redeems my bad aim, my misfires, and even when I am facing the wrong direction.

The second thing our modern world fails in when pursuing our ideals of unity, is that we fail to recognize the characteristics or qualities that are needed to make these ideals a reality. Ultimately, all of these qualities are only possible when they come from God, which goes back to my first point, but let's take a moment to look at some of these qualities from our readings.

One of the first things God gives that the world can’t give is peace. Peace is essential if we ever expect to find unity. And I don’t mean a peace where there simply isn’t any national wars happening. I mean the peace in someone’s life and heart that gives them a lasting and settled calmness through whatever comes in their life. A life without worry or fear - as Jesus says, “Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not let them be afraid”. Without this kind of peace, unity isn’t possible. How can we be generous to the point of great sacrifice needed for unity if we don’t rest in a confidence that is bigger than the stuff or situation? How can we truly welcome and embrace someone so different if we are afraid and troubled? How can we settle into unity with another when fear keeps telling us to run away. We need God’s peace to overcome all of it. We need God’s peace to bring us to unity, and we need God’s peace to help us rest in it.

Paul says, “Make every effort for the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” The Holy Spirit gives us the bond of peace, and we should make every effort to maintain it. How do we maintain it? Well, we need to live in that peace so that we can respond from that peace. Then Paul tells us about some natural responses that pour out of godly peace. Paul calls us to be humble, gentle, and patient, bearing one another with love. I know how hard it is to be humble, lifting up others when it feels like no one is taking care of you. I know how hard it is be gentle when I am surrounded by crying babies and lack sleep. I know how hard it is to be patient when there is a huge list of things that need doing. I know how hard it is to bear someone in love, when you can’t see them loving you in return. Yet, all of these qualities and actions are essential to finding unity in a family or community. Godly Humility lifts up the other in our difference and diversity, so that we find ourselves living in equality and opportunity. Gentleness walks beside the other and allows justice and mercy to walk hand in hand so what is needed and good might come through. Patience that holds on through everything is loyalty, tradition, and consistency or sameness. Bearing one another in love is inclusion and a godly morality.

I hope you can see that what the world has been craving through all of this striving is God. Conservatives want to hold onto a certain way. They can perceive that there is a truth and a goodness that must be held onto, yet without God, they are groping in the dark. Liberals want to welcome and embrace as they can perceive the goodness in every person, but without God, they too are groping in the dark. Too many Christians on both sides have failed to put God at the centre of these conversations, so we miss the mark. This is what we see in this world, probably in our own lives.

Let us all seek this unity with God, so that we might also find that divine unity in our marriages, in our families, with our friends, communities, and ultimately in the world. We all want an inspired unity, so lets seek our one God that is Unity in Himself. AMEN