One

“… forbearing one another in love; endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. ”

How can we say that the Church is One, as it says in the Creed? One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic —we know these things describe the Christian world, but is it really One, and how can that be? What is it for us to be One?

The first objection that will be made, of course, is that the Church is not one but many: many denominations, many cultural expressions, many variant ideas of what Christianity really amounts to, and parts that actually reject any classical notion of Church altogether: no steeples, no crosses, no pews, no altars, no vestments, no form of worship. That kind of emerging Christianity versus a High Anglican at Holy Eucharist, and we're not sure to be in the same religion at all. The very word “religion” is objected to. Can a Church that is so splintered and at odds in its schisms and divisions, going all the way back to the 11 th century, call itself “One”?

Second objection: the infighting. The differences follow after some pretty heated objections to other Christians having the wrong faith, and such language as Martin Luther used to make the Roman Catholic Church and its Papacy “Babylon and the Anti-Christ” is sure to create enemies. The very name ‘Protestant' refers to protest: hardly a unifying concept of Christian love and brotherhood. Are we One if we are so angry at each other and suspicious of what each other stands for?

Even if I can somehow deftly make this mad party out to be the wild and varied playground of God's many children, we may rightly ask where does the boundary lie, and are such groups as the Mormons, or Religious Science inside or outside this “unity”? Where does the unity actually and rightly cease to exist? Even when a religious group tells us it's part of us, what does true heresy smell like, and can we say to it, “Go! I never knew you”?

The trouble with the Church is that it is full of people. Get rid of people, and the Church would have no trouble with theology, worship, the means of grace or the way to salvation. Any translation of scripture would do, and headlines would never read: Failing Denomination Hopelessly Split, says Archbishop of Canterbury . People are the problem, and without them we'd get on pretty happily. But of course people are the reason there is Church, the reason Jesus became one of us, and our problems are not so bad that He gave us up as hopeless.

Unity is a sign of godliness. Unity, despite great differences, makes us aware that Someone greater than us is at work. Left to our own devises, we're happy to keep splitting and accusing and making our side of any issue the right one as opposed to you-know-who. If we were the judges over the saved and the damned, I expect hell would overflow and heaven would be a very exclusive little club. But I'm rather convinced that heaven will contain a great many people we'd never have imagined to be there, what with their crazy lives or weird theological quirks or flagrant blunders. We aren't naturally united, and so when unity does happen, it is apparent that God is at work.

If the gods were like the Greeks or Romans thought, a mountain inhabited by deities with jealousies and passions, vengeances and cruelties just like powerful and flawed men and women, unity wouldn't be possible. But God is One. “Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord.” Deut. 6:4 And if God is One, then there is a single focus, a goal that is the same for all the varied people who want what is true and right. Paganism doesn't work because its gods are too many. And when there are too many gods, there is no true God. A world of demons and fairies, wood sprites and spirits hidden in rivers and winds has no creator, just frightening beings each having its own way on an eternal Halloween.

But if God is One, then we who seek Him, love Him, and are indwelt by Him are, in Him, one as well. “We, being many, are one body in Christ, and every one members one of another.” Romans 12:5 “The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ? For we being many are one bread, and one body: for we are all partakers of that one bread.” 1 Cor. 10:16-17 If there is only One God and He is the creator and the judge, our source and our goal, then unity means something. It means God.

God is Love, says St. John. “Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.” 1 John 4:7 “Beloved, if God so loved us, we ought also to love one another… If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.” v. 11-12 All the greatest commandments are to love, and if that is God's nature, it brings unity.

Now, unity is hardly uniformity. The Church is not members all doing exactly the same job. The Church is an organism, highly developed with many specialized parts and members. “He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ…” Ephes. 4:11-13 Love is required when people run things, and they all have different positions and functions, gifts and personalities. If we remained focused on our true Leader, Jesus Christ, we stay the course and can be united in Him.“We are to grow up in all aspects into Him, who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by that which every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.” v. 15-16

In the grace of God, we can find true unity with people we never expected to agree with or find any common ground with. Despite racial differences, language barriers, religious background or teaching, we find we are more alike than we are different when we have God and are allowing His love to act upon us and through us. “Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded one toward another according to Christ Jesus: That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore receive ye one another, as Christ also received us to the glory of God.” Rom 15:5-7 “The eye cannot say unto the hand, I have no need of thee: nor again the head to the feet, I have no need of you. Nay, much more those members of the body, which seem to be more feeble, are necessary: And those members of the body, which we think to be less honourable, upon these we bestow more abundant honour; and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness. For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked: That there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another.” 1 Cor. 12:21-25

St. Paul encouraged his churches with strong and loving words such as these I've quoted. He did so because he knew the forces that drive men apart. Unity is an ideal, and it has to be sought out, held high, and valued, or we necessarily fall apart as children warring on a playground, as neighboring countries warring over a disputed plot of land. St. Paul wrote the Ephesians, in our Epistle today, that they should always be “ endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.” Ephes. 4

But unity: what does it look like? I may look at one of you and wonder how I could be one with you ? We are two people. We are married to others, have different children, live in different homes and have different lifestyles. Your entertainment is odd to me, and my taste in books appalling to you. How could we really be One? Is it just philosophy, an idea, a touchstone that gives us some kind of identity, like being Republicans or—as in the case of Canon Reed's friends, pilots? Having one point of contact, say Christian Church upbringing, are we really One? I think that small a distinction hardly worth the word. One means we share a common mission, hold high a common value, feed from a common source of strength, and would each take a bullet for the other. Soldiers in warfare sometimes share this sense of unity. Each has his special function, but all are fighting for the same flag. When the war and its greater causes get too remote and abstract for the fighters to relate to, they fight to save each other. They have become brothers.

Being One does not imply being the same person. We are not Christian clones, and some types of churches that seem to produce scads of identical twins appear to me to be unifying over outer appearances, and missing the point. We are One because He is One, even though He is a Trinity. God's unified nature is the beginning of oneness, a Source of all things, an obedient and creative Son, and a lifegiver and purifier who goes out over all things. We are One because, though we are different, He has brought us together, through many different paths, to the same God, the same Christ, who has saved us all and His love is for us all, and in us all.

Nothing that is truly me or truly you is lost in this unity. Perfection will not be losing ourselves and merging into a sea of unconsciousness, as the Buddhists believe. Rather, God's wisdom and genius in creating such varied and unique beings will be glorified when such an odd assortment of humanity may praise Him together in a thousand languages at once, and the harmony and meaning of all these many expressions be fully comprehended by all.

God is One. We are One: first one with Him, and as a result, one with each other.

PFH+