This weekend’s passages connect to the notion of bringing people together in faith. Unity. In First Kings, Solomon’s closing remarks at the dedication of the Temple offer a blessing to the nation and a call for unity. He blesses the people and says, “stay together, by following the precepts of our faith and the statues and ordinances of God.” The Ephesians passage proclaims that Christ brings people together, creating a new citizenship in the Kin-dom of God. Unity.
Unity in faith communities has been longed for in every tradition, including the practice of Christianity, but sometimes it is much harder to achieve than even our greatest hope. The book study class that I am privileged to facilitate has been reading a book, After Jesus and Before Christianity. The book talks about many things, including the existence of multiple traditions that emerged in the early years of church history.
Unity is discussed in the book, especially as it relates to the church led by a woman named Chloe in Corinth. First Corinthians is a church struggling for unity. The Apostle Paul, from the outside, tries to help. A professor of mine at Emory over 30 years ago, Dr. Arthur Wainwright, described that church in this way “Unity in the Midst of Disunity.” Unified in Christ with Paul’s encouragement, working and struggling on shared practices in the midst of community. As it relates to Paul’s counsel to Chloe and her community “…he calls the superior or perfect way forward: love. ‘If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal…Love is patient and kind; love is not jealous or boastful; it is not arrogant or rude… So trust, hope, love, these three, stand fast; but the greatest of these is love.’ ”
The practice of love brings unity in the midst of community. Considering Corinth and its struggles gives voice to all that happened within Judiasm- its struggle for unity and faithful practice, and the struggles of the church in Ephesus with the same. Being united doesn’t mean being exactly the same- and we should give voice to that too. But when we forget how to be united in love, we defer to Paul. In concerns about space and place for worship, we can receive Solomon’s blessing and encouragement to hold fast. When embracing community, we can be encouraged by the words of Ephesians that remind us that Jesus himself is present with us, bringing us together in grace.
Pastor Todd