So often, not only in our American context, but throughout the world, we identify the church by an individual congregation. As I was praying this morning, I really felt the Lord speaking to me. I have been praying for unity amongst the church, that as our brothers and sisters suffer in Kenya, that we would suffer with them – that we would stand in the gap on their behalf, pray with them, fast with them, etc. My prayers have been that we would be unified as one body, that we would not be defined by the borders of the nation we live in, but rather be defined by our identity in Christ.
This has continued to be my prayer, but today as I prayed, I sensed I needed to go deeper. As I continued to pray for the church globally, I began feeling God put new thoughts in my head and words on my tongue. As I prayed, I began thinking about the persecuted church in Laos, I thought about persecuted Christians in Muslim nations, I thought about the church in Argentina, in Europe and here in the United States.
God placed Jesus on my mind – specifically Jesus on the cross. He began to remind me of what that image represents – it represents my brokenness made whole. It represents the fact that I myself can do nothing to change the way I am. I cannot restore the broken parts of me, I cannot make adequate the inadequacies in me. I cannot forgive myself and wash away my sins. As an individual, without God, I compartmentalize everything. My fallen nature means that not everything is united and connected. I am broken by the circumstances in which I live, by the person I choose to be. There becomes a disconnect between aspects of my life. There are cracks in my being that I cannot fill.
It is because of Christ that I can be made whole. It is because of Christ that I, as an individual, don’t have to compartmentalize my whole life. It is because of Christ that there can be unity in who I am and what I represent.
I say all of this because God put this on my heart as I thought and prayed for the global church. As the church, God has called us to be one body, yet we have separated ourselves. We have decided to use our human terms to define the church. We have made decisions that have brought division. I say this not only thinking – Protestant and Catholic, but how many denominations are there?
That is simply one example. As I thought of the global church, I found it interesting that we have not only defined ourselves by denomination, but also by geography. How many of us know about what is going on in the church around the world?
If we are truly one body, as followers of Christ, then why have we defined ourselves as many different bodies, from many different places, that really don’t need to relate a whole lot, other than on a casual or philanthropic (geographically) level? I see the church as disregarding the Gospel. We have ignored the fact that the Gospel brought unity: that as Christians, we are not defined by where we live, or what denomination we belong to, rather we are defined by the fact that we are loved, and love Jesus Christ.
Just as the Cross was meant for us individually, to restore us and bring unity to our beings and fill in the cracks, the same is true for the church. We are acting like a broken vessel, we are not unified as one body. We rarely stand united as one body with one another. How often do we, in the United States, consult our brothers and sisters in Africa or Asia on the scriptures and spirituality. Instead we go help the poor people. Don’t get me wrong a focus of the Gospel is helping the poor, but so is unity amongst the body – which makes us more effective in helping the poor. The diversity of the cultures which we come from around the world, as the body of Christ, brings the necessary perspectives which help us to understand the call for our lives that much better.
Christianity and the Church have become irrelevant in a lot of ways, because there is no unity. We are thousands of different groups from different places and are wavering because there are so many cracks between us. We as the body of Christ have not accepted what Jesus did on the cross. We have not accepted, as the church, the unifying nature of what the cross represents. We must, to be an effective agent of spiritual and social change around the world, and to simply live as God intended us to live, come together as the Global Body of Christ, and be unified with one voice (not ours, but his).
Do you sense the irony when you hear phrases like “United Methodist” or “United Church of Christ”? My prayer is that we will begin to come to a place where we are not defined by the borders that make up the nation where we happen to live, or by the divisive man made denomination, but rather as a unified body (the Global Church) defined by the Cross.
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Amen, Adam. I have been praying most recently about this within my own ministry. Your point is true, we are all inadequate and broken because of our sin. It is only by the grace of Jesus Christ that any of us even have the hope of unity. It has been my prayer that He would bring each of us to a better understanding of our growing responsibility as His Body. I admit that I have had my own distorted view, thinking that everybody but me needed to see the suffering world. I found that I had adopted an elitist attitude about the Good Samaritan, believing wholeheartedly that I would have been the first to help that beaten man. Sadly though, I missed the whole point of the story. I was becoming what I couldn't tolerate. In short, I am standing with you in the prayer that our world, our church, and its persecuted people. Praise God that He makes all things new!
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