United we.....

Today we join together in worship and it’s good therefore that the readings actually fall in with that principle of unity very well, but actually as Christians we can say that for the whole bible – there is no part that champions division !

But our readings today offer us some fairly stark challenges as we consider this question of unity and we join together in worship.

In the reading from Isaiah (63:7-16) we have a section on prayer and praise which begins – ‘tell of the kindness of the Lord, the deeds for which he is to be praised.’

It’s a section reminding us to praise God for all of the blessings we have – it is to praise God for his love and compassion. It is to praise God for things like the freedom to worship so openly. It is to praise God to be given the opportunity to be his disciples. It is to praise God for the chance to offer service to him, the king of all kings.

And yet often this isn’t what we find in churches. Instead we find petty arguments and we worry about petty things. And we sometimes say or at least imply we’re right and someone else is wrong !

And then in the gospel reading from Mark (8:11-21) you can almost sense a little bit of exasperation from Jesus about people looking for dramatic signs – looking for magic signs when right in front of them is the greatest miracle of all – a Saviour born to die and rise again. He had done incredible things such as providing enough bread for the crowds, and yet people still missed the point of who he was, and is…

Faith doesn’t point us to magic tricks, faith doesn’t point us to church rituals and certainly not to denominational division, but to hope and love – and to a journey from darkness to light, from death to resurrection…

These are key things – things which the church needs to talk about more and be heard talking about more. These are things that are relevant in the world… These are things that make a difference. When denominations argue – when one tries to score points over another, when one absolutely categorically says ‘we’re right and you’re wrong’ people stop listening…

When the church talks about the duties of every Christian person, regardless of denomination, background, brand of churchmanship, age or anything else people may listen… Christians throughout the world are united in their belief of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, and in their worship of Jesus, who has brought salvation for all who accept his gift, and Christians worldwide are committed to proclaiming that message through ourwords and actions at all times.

So often in church we talk about unity and we think it’s a great idea, but we don’t do much more. And so this evening I’m not going to go into too much detail about the need for unity, I think and I hope that we are all agreed on that, but I do want to lay down two challenges.

The first is to stop welcoming each other to our different churches as if we’re just invited guests – the church is actually much bigger than that – if our church buildings are not for everyone then they have no right to be there. A church belongs to all – and everyone has a right to be there. And this is a key stage in unity – it’s not about getting together once in a while to pay lip service to unity, but it is about joining together in prayer and praise – giving thanks to God for his goodness, praising him and seeking strength for our service in the world.

And the second challenge is to work at unity in our own lives and in our own Churches. Churches have a habit of being great places for people not getting on – people often dislike others, sometimes talking about them in hushed tones and so on - it could well have been in a Church setting that Mark Twain offered his famous quote, ‘Last week, I stated this woman was the ugliest woman I had ever seen. I have since seen her sister, and now wish to withdraw that statement.’

There are many people who we will find it difficult to like – it is part of being human, sadly sometimes even when we make the effort it will be thrown back at us, but that doesn’t mean we can stop trying. The Christian Church is built on love – a family of many different members bonded together by the love of God, and love for each other.

Our duty as Christians is not to be perfect – but it is to try, and it is to allow God the space to work to change us. Prayer and praise is essential whatever style we do it in – recognising God’s goodness and the signs of his glory that are all around us are part of our response to his love – and when we recognise those things we also see opportunities to share his love and his message of hope and love – his message that leads people from darkness to light, from death to resurrection…

There was a student preaching his first sermon. He meant to say that "God called me to heal the sick, raise the dead, and cast out the devil." However, rather nervously what he actually said was, "God called me to heal the dead, cast out the sick, and raise the devil."

As with this man the Christian message has often been confused – it has often been portrayed as a message of buildings maintenance, or sometimes it has been like offering out invitations to people to come and join an elite social club… Our lack of unity and love for each other sometimes acts as a very poor witness to those looking in from the outside – we often offer a confusing message, but it shouldn’t be – it should be very simple.

Instead of the Church seeming to be judgemental and critical of people, we must be loving, caring and offering hope to people. In a meeting that I was in a while ago somebody said that instead of the Church pointing a million wagging fingers at people, we should be extending millions of arms outstretched with love.

Jesus said, ‘bring good news to the poor.’ The poor are all around us, not just financially, but physically and spiritually – we have good news of a Saviour who came to offer the greatest riches a person can ever have – the gift of love. That is good news for everyone. However the message we offer must be a unified message – if we talk of love and practice something totally different then we have lost the plot !

And Jesus said, ‘he has sent me to bring release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free…’ Many people are today walking in darkness, searching for something and someone that they don’t know. Jesus has told us to go and tell them about him, and show them the light that they are looking for – the best light of all that must shine through our lives and through our Churches.

On that first Easter Day Jesus did not just roll away a huge stone in front of the tomb, but he offered to break the chains of misery and sin, and pain and grief and loneliness forever. He offered a message of hope and peace to be proclaimed by all his people.

And so today let’s challenge ourselves to go out and do something that really makes a difference to the Church, and to someone else, because in doing that we will be truly proclaiming the God of love and hope and joining together will not just be something we do a few times a year, but a lifetime lived in service of others, and in fellowship with all of God’s people, with God at the head of our family.

To finish I’d like to read the first verses of that reading from Isaiah again this time taken from the Message bible – ‘I’ll make a list of God’s gracious dealings, all the things God has done that needs praising. All the generous bounties of God, his great goodness to the people of Israel – compassion lavished, love extravagant…’ AMEN