Phi 2:1-11 - What Unites Us?
Packers fans, in green and gold, some with wedges of cheese on their heads. Purple faced Vikings fans with strange horns on their heads, united to cheer on their team. Republicans in red. Democrats in blue. United yet divided, too. Some Christians worship with bands and drums and some worship with hymns and organ. Some focus on doctrine. Some focus on social issues, others evangelism. Unity and yet division. So what unites us?
Paul would have us think today about what does actually unite us Christians. It's not the way we worship or the way we sing, the way we express the teachings of the Bible or how we exert ourselves to help others. These things are important, but they don't answer the question. When Paul wrote to the Philippians the congregation must have been aware that some men had become pastors and leaders in the church who were not focused on Christ. They were self-serving. In Chapter 1, Paul wrote, "Some preach Christ out of envy and rivalry, but others out of goodwill."
There was a division of motives, invisible and destructive. Yet Paul then wrote, "But what does it matter? The important thing is that in every way, whether from false motives or true, Christ is preached. And because of this I rejoice."
Paul says that the preaching of the gospel of Christ is what unites us Christians, regardless of the humans involved in the delivery. And that tells us something very important. We are not united as Christians by how we present the gospel, or what we do to promote the gospel or how we conduct ourselves. The unity of the Christian Church is established by what God has given us, the gospel of Jesus Christ.
This point is important, because we all tend to get hung up on the window dressing that accompanies the gospel in our midst, so much so that we forget the Word itself. Just ask anyone what characterizes a church. "It's strict." or "They use a guitar." or "They have testimonies." The same is true of the people and the pastor. "He's friendly." "They are such an encouraging bunch." "They're a depressing lot." There are a million things that people point to, but these are not the thing that unites.
What is it that unites us? Is it the window dressing? Do we form our opinions about ourselves based on the incidentals? If so, then I suspect we will come to some pretty alarming and depressing conclusions, because we are all divided up and beaten down. There are rubs between members. Hidden distaste for the practices and teachings. Apathy. Unfocused efforts. Unproductive behaviors. Dead efforts. Meetings with little godly optimism.
So even though God has made us to be a congregation with a big spectrum of talents and abilities, we are constantly second guessing each other, some vying to be more, others shrinking into background, others uncertain of what to do, others angry that they are not getting their own way. Purposes are at odds rather than complementing. This is not all that different from what was happening in Philippi. It did not appear that they were very united by their purpose, because they had many purposes; each wanted to go his or her own direction.
But what is the purpose of our congregation? God has assembled us to commit into our hands the precious gift of the gospel. God has made this place and brought us together like He did for those members of the Philippian congregation long ago. And He did it according to His set purpose not our conflicting purposes. So regardless of all the layers of stuff that are wrapped around the gospel, there at the center of it all is that good news from God. His glad tidings of forgiveness, life and salvation in Christ.
There in the swirling center of everything is the calm, unchanging truth that Jesus who is "God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage; rather, He made himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, and being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled himself by becoming obedient to death - even death on a cross!"
Nothing anyone does or fails to do changes that. Keep your thoughts fixed on that, otherwise you will lose sight of what unites you with your fellow member. You'll find the plank in each other's eyes. You'll find this group to be filled with hypocrites. Your thoughts will be turned away from what Christ did to behavior and morals and ethics. As you focus on the shortcomings of others, you'll forget the amazing thing that Jesus did for you in forgiving you your sins. Instead of love for your fellow redeemed Christian, you'll find rivalry and competition or apathy and disgust.
So is it love that unites us, then? Many think that the Christian church is about us loving each other, but listen to how Paul describes our love for each other:
"Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit,if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus."
When we evaluate our love for each other and our love for ourselves as a congregation, we should be encouraged not by our love but by the fact that we have been united with Christ. His love, His Spirit have come to us. The same love that brought Him to this earth to live in our place the perfect life of love and obedience, the same love that brought Him up to Jerusalem and that cross, the same love that He demonstrated for us in rising from the dead and remaining with us for forty days to make sure that we had eyewitness testimony, that love is our encouragement and comfort.
If we try to substitute our love as the thing that unites us, we fail time and again. Selfish ambition and vain conceit, pride, all rear their ugly head eventually. We see it in ourselves. Just think for moment about those "who do all the work around here." Doesn't that kind of accuse us, rankle us to hear that. Or how about those "who don't do anything." Doesn't that puff us up a bit. Whatever real love we have, it is the result of Christ's work, His forgiveness, His Spirit.
Only let your manner of life be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving side by side for the faith of the gospel, and not frightened in anything by your opponents.
Fellow redeemed, we have powerful opponents. The devil would love to see us thinking we were united when we are really divided. The world loves to see a church that preaches Christ consumed with internal strife or silenced in apathy and discouraged, just as much as it loves to promote and stoke the churches that "do stuff." And our sinful nature cannot bear that cross of Christ, that we must humble ourselves before Him.
So are we united in Christ? God says "Yes." Paul wrote to the Ephesians, "Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all."
God has united us in Christ, but that unity is not inert. It is active and living, because the Spirit of God creates it among us. And God encourages us and strengthens us in faith to keep it, the bond of peace, by bringing us the very thing that makes that unity, the gospel. He brings it to us week after week. He brings it to us in the absolution that brings us all back to the one baptism that washed us clean of our sins. He brings it to us in and with and under the bread and wine, the very body and blood that Jesus sacrificed for us.
So let us not try to find our unity in the cheeseheads and horned helmets of this or that style of worship. Let us not allow our ideas about earthly things, whether red or blue or whatever color our understanding of the unity that we have in Christ. Let all that be gone from our thinking. May we find our unity in the gospel, our hope in God's grace and our courage in Jesus resurrection. Amen.