I went to seminary in Wilmore, Kentucky. It’s a small town about 20 minutes south of Lexington. I always relished the drive from Kingsport – four(ish) hours of mostly backroads winding through the Cumberland Gap and rolling hills of Central Kentucky. On one of those trips, I made it a point to count the number of churches I passed on the road. Why? No clue.
But it was 32…32 church buildings from warehouses to cathedrals. 32 groups of people – some massive, some miniscule. 32 stories of visions and dreams and hopes. 32 communities where normal people were baptized and blessed; eulogized and wedded. 32 families composed of different skin colors and accents and cultures and political perspectives. From Pentecostals to Presbyterians, Catholics to Calvinists, Evangelicals to Episcopalians (and everywhere in between), these churches represented a beautiful cross-section of the American Church.
It’s easy to look around and see the divisions and all that separates us. And yet (wonder of wonders), there is something at the very center, the very core of these communities that holds them together in blessed unity. There is One Faith, One Spirit, One Lord, One Baptism, One God and Father of all.
All of us reading these words who are members of that mystical Body of Christ that we know as the Church have so much more in common than we realize. We have all been called and invited by the Lord Jesus. We did not come to His Table on our own merits or accomplishments. God only knows how short each of us fall. And yet here we are – invited, accepted, forgiven, and commissioned.
It is no secret that we live in a broken world and at a time of division in our country. But my dear Brothers and Sisters, the church must not be divided. Our divided country needs the witness of a united church. Jesus commanded our unity. He prayed for our unity. And it is unity in Love that will demonstrate the reality of God’s Kingdom.
Friends, remember: the Kingdom comes not through might nor political power; not religious agendas nor marketing campaigns; not through our cleverness nor our intellect…but “by my Spirit, says the Lord of Hosts.” As the church, we have a treasure the world needs. We follow a Crucified King who upends the typical dynamics of this world. In such a cultural time of division as this, may it be said of us: “These are the ones who have turned the world upside down.” (Acts 17:6)
This work first appeared in the print edition of the Kingsport Times News on January 25, 2021.
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