Stronger in what unites us

Now we’re talking. At least, leaders of different churches and professions of faith are, in this week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This address by an Irish bishop has some great messages for answering that question even the secular progressive world keeps asking — can’t we all just get along?

At the heart of the materials prepared for this year’s prayer for Christian Unity you will hear an urgent call to “break the silence”. In every culture there are enormous unmet needs: the poor, the sick, the homeless, the refugee and the outcast, are our neighbours. Injustice, discrimination, violence, even slavery, take their toll on the streets of Dublin, as they do in every city of our sin-marked world. The deaf and dumb man of Saint Mark’s Gospel stands for all of us, individually and collectively. As in the case of the man who could neither hear nor speak, if the Lord loosens our tongues, our ability to understand and to speak out, in truth and honesty, would surely be a blessing for our society.

Speaking out is the only way to effect change in society. It’s half of what it takes.

But note that Jesus first heals the man’s inability to hear: Ephphata – be opened! Surely what Jesus wants is not just that the man be able to hear the sound of words, but that he be able to listen to those around him. It is not “hearing” but “listening” that creates bonds of communication and communion, and therefore makes possible that unity of purpose without which no problem can be faced and managed.

What a fine distinction, “it’s not hearing but listening that creates bonds of communication.”

Unity has been a key topic in politics these days, too. Politicians have been talking a lot about unity, but not listening a lot. There’s a lot of wisdom in that statement above that without unity of purpose, no problem can be managed.

Do this little mental exercise. Think about how, within a town, there are rival school sports teams that split local loyalties. Beyond that, the big state college teams unite whole regions that had formerly had opposing aims (each to be the winner). Out further, professional sports teams draw fans from all over their particular parts of the country, and now folks who were split in all kinds of earlier ways are united behind this football, baseball, basketball (or whatever) team. When the league playoffs begin, the field is narrowed to fewer teams, and people join the supporters of one of the remaining championship rivals. By the final game, the entire country is probably only divided between the two remaining choices. We’re pretty united in the whole event, actually.

Now…stay with me on this exercise. I thought of it once on a trip abroad….

When you travel to Europe or South America or Asia or any other region of the world and you see someone with a team jacket from the U.S. (if you’re American), now they’re ‘one of you’, part of your people, and you’re united by your nationality. Or….you may be united in a foreign place with any other English speaking person. Right? 

Commonality is the theme here. 

So, what would unite us all? Short of a miracle of grace and conversion happening quickly, take this exercise out to the (hopefully unlikely) event of…a comet hurtling to earth, threatening to devastate much of the planet and send the rest into an unliveable environment. Wouldn’t all the earth’s scientists and military and governments turn from fighting and work on any possible way to avert this cataclysm?

Okay, what’s the principle of this exercise? Probably nothing more than the truth that we are stronger in what unites us than what divides us. But a lot of people and groups are a long way off from conceding that, and there doesn’t presently appear to be anything on the space radar propelling it’s way toward earth.

Although, the History Channel the other night did have this disaster special on about the possibility of a comet destroying this planet, and it was dreadful. Which reminded me of this old thought I once had…