Several years ago, I read a true missionary account of some unusual bickering that took place in a church in an isolated village in Thailand. There were sixteen Christian families in the village who became seriously divided over the use of their church property.
One of the younger Christian men, those father had owned the land on which the church building was built, decided to make the use of the land more productive. He fenced in the church property, dug up the ground, and planted corn. As the corn began to sprout, he began to dig the ground beneath the church building, which was constructed on stilts, and planted beans under the church building.
These actions caused the other Christians to suspend worship services. They were convinced the young man was laying a trap for them— that he would blame them if the bean crop failed. For many months the church did not meet, except for occasional meetings in individual’s homes. The church had lost its unity and purpose.
About a year later, a visit by two of the missionaries prompted a meeting of the church in the church building. The building was packed, and, then, as one of the missionaries preached, the entire length of floor on one side of the building collapsed and all the people on that side of the building tumbled to the ground. This shared experience helped reunite the Christians and inspired them to build a new building. This time the building was built on the ground with a dirt floor.
When the building was completed, the missionaries returned to the village for a building dedication. But two days before they left for the village, another young Christian man erected a small bamboo and grass house within fifteen feet of the new church, and by the time they arrived, the Christians were split again. Some accused the young man of deliberate disrespect for God and his fellow-Christians. Others were wisely urging patience and understanding. The young man himself pleaded ignorance of the fact that the church grounds were for church use only. In spite of the missionaries’ efforts to exhort both factions, they remained divided and unforgiving of one another. Of course, there was no dedication service.
On the one hand, we may find such division foolish or even laughable, but congregations in America have split over such small issues and Christians are often divided over issues of small consequence. So how do we maintain unity among Christians? Let me mention two things, one that we emphasized at this year’s Great Communion service and one that is the subject matter of my sermon series that starts this coming Sunday.
- Become one with the Father and with his Son. Jesus prayed in John 17:20-23 for unity among believers: “...that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us.” We gain unity with the Father and the Son by experiencing the glory of Christ. Christ experienced his glory in his death, and we experience that glory when we die to self.
- Become one with “one another.” When we learn how to treat one another, how to build up one another, how to be members of one another, how to honor one another, how to love another, then we develop a unity that keeps us from dividing. We will examine this theme through the “one another” passages in the New Testament in a sermon series that begins this coming Sunday and extends through November.
There will no doubt always be division between Christians, much of it over silly things, but we can and should work for the kind of unity between one another that the Father and the Son demonstrate.
God bless,
Ken
