ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
July 28, 2022
This Sunday, I will begin a three-week series: The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in a Nutshell. Trying to determine what to say and what to leave out is tough, especially when you’re talking about a denomination with a rich and amazing history. From early on, we claimed: Unity Is Our Polar Star. This made sense as our most influential voices in the early years, Stone and the Campbells, were passionate about the idea of Christian Unity. In 1804, Barton W. Stone wrote in the Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery that the Presbytery (Stone’s denominational conference) “die, be dissolved, and sink into union with the body of Christ at large.” Thomas Campbell, in 1809, wrote in his Declaration and Address: “the Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally and constitutionally one.” Of course, claiming such things on paper is very different from living them in the day-to-day grind of church life. And let’s just say that our tradition experienced many more failures than we did successes. Of course, the questions are many with regard to What is Unity? Is it about structure, mission, worship style or ritual? Do we have a common liturgy or a common set of values? Our founders quickly started running into these questions, yet in spite of them, we were the fastest growing denomination in the United States in those early years. The call for unity is beautiful, yet so often those declaring unity are the ones who have a specific idea of what unity will look like. And others who might be interested in unity don’t quite fit the prescribed definition of unity. Some have suggested that unity will happen only in some Darwinian survival of the fittest, where the last one standing gets to declare success. I’m not willing to be that skeptical, but it does require a rethinking of what unity is, what it looks like, and how it is achieved. With that said, I echo the words of Psalm 133, “How very good and pleasant it is when kindred live together in unity!”
In a world so scarred by division, may we not become callous and uninterested in the work of unity. O God who exists perfectly within the complex nature of your divine self, be our guide and encourager in this work. Amen.
