Covenant Presbyterian Church
Unity in the World, in God’s Church & in Our Homes Today
Dear Friends:
In what is called Jesus’ “High Priestly Prayer,” found in the Gospel of John chapter 17, the Lord of the Universe prayed for you and me. Through our faith, given to us by God and expressed in the worship we offer and the lives we live, we are part of the “those who will believe in me” to whom Jesus refers.
And what did Jesus pray for? That all of them may be one. Jesus prays that his followers, that you and I, would have unity. Do we? He indicates that it is through such oneness that people in the world will be able to see that Jesus was sent into the world for love of them. So this unity is of significance not only to us—to make our lives more pleasant, to keep our relationships healthy, to make the world a better place to live, to keep our churches running smoothly—but also and more importantly to God—to make His name known and his salvation received throughout His world.
Then we look at the world we live in, and we see a widespread inability among people to get together and stay together. Nations fight. People of different cultures find it easier to hate and mistrust than to love and respect each other. People give in to their natural inclination to divide… over skin color, over political affiliation, over social status, over ethical views, over religious preferences, over wounds suffered long ago… And we in the Church might say: “Well of course. That’s ‘the world.’ They don’t know God. They don’t know any better.” And then we look at the Church.
Some churches call themselves “Independent,” and they’re not usually declaring independence from the world but from other churches! And then there are churches that identify themselves with distinctive names. Catholics. Protestants. Eastern Orthodox. Conservative. Liberal. Progressive. Evangelical. Charismatic. Spirit-filled. Free. Bible. Lutheran. Missouri Synod. Baptist. Southern. American. Independent. Methodist. Episcopal. Seventh-Day Adventist. Presbyterian (U.S.A. or just A. or Cumberland or Orthodox or Evangelical…). These names certainly reflect important truths, but do they not also speak of a deep-seated inability or unwillingness on the part of Jesus’ followers to cooperate with Him in order to fulfill His desire, expressed in His amazing John 17 prayer, that all of them may be one?
And then we look closer, at individual churches: Is unity what we see? Here at Covenant our leadership has identified this as an important issue that needs some work. We sometimes tend toward doing our own thing—good work for God!—perhaps without sufficient communication and coordination and then become discouraged when “the church” doesn’t seem to support our efforts like it should. We find reasons to divide into factions—the true believers, the true Presbyterians, the true workers, the traditionalists, the seeker-sensitive, the old and wise, the young and relevant - close at hand and easy to embrace. We find reasons to affirm our unity, even as a local church, further away and harder to find. How many friends in Christ have left our church family over theological issues, philosophical disagreements, ministry disappointments, denominational aggravations, worship styles, personality conflicts, personal values, power struggles, and a variety of other alienating realities? Too many. And Jesus’ prayer echoes through the ages: May they be brought to complete unity…
If unity among Jesus’ followers is important, it’s a wonder that anybody comes to faith in Jesus Christ anymore. But they do. Praise God. Can we affirm a unity in Christ that operates in spite of and beyond any and all of our man-made boundaries? Can we trust in a “Welcome in Christ” that blows away all of the “No Trespassing” signs hanging from our church walls? How do we do that? How do we experience that? How do we show that? Sometimes having more questions than answers is a good thing. This is a huge can of worms that I have opened here, and I am not going to try to herd them all neatly back into the can in this letter.
Instead, we are going to spend the entire Fall looking at this issue of unity—in Sunday Sermons, in Small Groups, at Lifeline Wednesdays. I will be preparing Small Group Study Guides for us to use. Lifeline Wednesdays will be dedicated to this theme as we learn and share all together and in Small Groups. We are going to explore the theme of Unity together. What do we mean when we say “unity?” What does Jesus mean when He says it? We are going to ask why we have such a difficult time getting and staying unified with others in the world, in our churches and in our homes. We are going to question our own ability and desire to allow Jesus’ prayer to become a reality in our life together. And we are earnestly going to seek God’s wisdom and renewing power to help us in our quest Toward Unity.
So what will you do? Here is what I and our elders are asking.
1. Pray for God’s wisdom Toward Oneness in your life, in
your home, in your church and in your witness to the world
for Him.
2. If you are in a Small Group already, plan to join with our
whole church family in this Toward Oneness project by
following the Study Guides.
3. If you are not in a Small Group already, plan to join one in
September by coming to Lifeline Wednesdays and/or by
responding to the invitation to be part of a 10-week Toward
Oneness group meeting at some other time.
This Fall it is my hope and my prayer and my expectation that all of us who will commit ourselves to this project will not only learn more about unity from God’s Word but also experience this oneness in a deeper way with one another and with Jesus Christ. Part of what we will discover, I am confident, is the Good News that since this is Jesus’ desire and not merely (or not even) ours, it will happen. It is happening. Because of us, in spite of us, with our cooperation, or over our resistance, He is leading us and so we are heading toward what Jesus is directing us TO… Toward Oneness.
This Fall, let’s cooperate with Jesus, increase the holy momentum and energize our faithful witness for Him by seeking and finding a greater measure of unity as His people at Covenant Presbyterian.
Yours in Christ,
Pastor Jay
