Unity Through Diversity: Reflections on Ephesians 4
Last Spring, I had the privilege of returning to my alma mater to present the opening devotion for the Kairos Seminary Gathering. I feel so passionately about these gatherings! While online courses, zoom classes and recorded lectures (that I can listen to while getting dinner started for my three kids!) are all amazing and have opened the doors of the academy to so many who otherwise couldn’t access this education…there is just nothing like meeting in person! Building relationships with peers, sharing resources and encouragement, and discovering that your professors are not as intimidating in real life as you thought, are all essential to a student’s seminary experience. So I was genuinely delighted to return to Taylor Seminary as a recent grad and have the opportunity to be part of ‘rallying the troops’ the way my teachers and mentors did.
The Gathering organizers asked that I speak on Ephesians, and I was a little intimidated knowing that I was “opening” for Dr. Ralph Korner. He is an instructor who had an incredible impact on me as a pastor and budding theologian engaging with the writings of Paul. Having taken Dr. Korner’s classes and heard him speak at other seminars and I knew I had to exegete the text in a way that honoured the insight I had gained from his scholarship while still keeping this devotional to a short message that focused on what I felt the Sprit was leading me to share with fellow ministry leaders regarding the Church.
Since the gathering many have had follow up questions around this topic of “unity through diversity” and am a few have asked that I share what was presented for those not able to attend (or just wanted a re-cap.) I am thrilled to keep this conversation going as I genuinely think it is essential for the Canadian church.
Below is a verbatim from the devotional for those who want to read it. And I am always happy to keep the conversation going if you want to reach out to me via email or grab a cup of coffee.
Tonight, I have a reading for you from Ephesians four. It is one of my favourites! Admittedly, I have a very long list of favourite scriptures, as I’m sure you all do. But the letter to the Ephesians feels like a special one to read in the company of other ministry leaders. So, when Dr. Williams hinted that I might draw from this book for our devotional tonight my mind went right to chapter 4.
Paul’s message of unity for the church is profound for all Christians, at any stage of their faith, but for those specifically listed in verse 11, people whom Jesus gave to the church, as gifts to build it up, that is (prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers,) …for this group of people, Chapter 4 carries serious weight. Unlike Paul’s other letters, Ephesians doesn’t address a particular heresy rather, our attention is fully pointed to God’s purpose for the church and our understanding of what Paul meant by a unified church matters deeply for our increasingly diversifying church today.
Let’s turn now to these passages. Ephesians 4, verses 1-6 says this:
As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 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. (NIV)
Paul’s burden for the church, explained here and other letters, was that they be united in love. That they become knit together in a counter-cultural way that gave no social priority, appearing as an association with no identifiers other than those that come with a commitment to Christ.
It was radical then and not only is it radical today, but this burden to reflect the Oneness of God through the unity of the Church, is still primary and necessary for any ministry to be successful, regardless of your particular vocation.
As leaders, we must have a committed and enduring love for the church.
Just as we love God, before ourselves, we must put His people before our own plans, our pride and even our vision of what a flourishing congregation looks like …lest we confuse our own image being reflected in our congregations, for God’s image!
That last part is the challenge I wanted us to reflect on, so let me explain more about what I mean. It’s easy to love myself. (Replace the word love with “prioritize” or to be self seeking rather than understanding this in the typical self-love kind of way if its helpful.) Understandably then, loving others are similar to me feels easy. If I’m not careful then, I might confuse a unified church with one that is harmonious due only to assimilation verses a true bond of peace. In verse 3, Paul’s instruction, is to “keep this peace” by leading humbly, patiently, gently and by bearing with one another in love. Consider though, that peace doesn’t only mean an “absence of conflict,” in fact, that’s rarely the context we use it, right?
Peace is the fruit of resolution and reconciliation. And these things can not happen if there is nothing to disagree about. If we read this repeated call to be “One” as only a rebuke against conflict and fighting among our own people groups, we miss the invitation into the mystery that is the Church reflecting a new humanity. One where God brings together diverse people into one Kingdom.
Of our the churches today that appear unified… have they achieved peace? Or, have they just become homogeneous? If we have created peaceful faith communities only through assimilation we have not been faithful the Gospel.
Looking at this outside of our individual congregations and at the big “C” Church, in its many facets and varying traditions, we may want to reflect on wether its enough for our unifying efforts to stop at “agreeing to disagree” or, can the bond of peace be further achieved? Maybe when we humbly ask “what gifts or further insights can be gained through your tradition, that mine alone doesn’t offer?” Or, “how, without losing our our distinctions, can we partner to better our cities?”
We know that Paul is writing to a group of Jesus followers that would not have had the same denominational context like we do today. Different ethnic groups, and social classes were being called to one new unifying identity…but each house hold and group that Paul interacted with would have had their own family culture and those families, just like our own, didn’t always get along! So I believe they would have understood the distinction between unity as a result of homogeneity versus, unity through diversity.
Now, as someone who didn’t grow up in the church, I have experienced what it was like being an outsider, unaware of the religious customs of a close-knit church, and then receiving the grace of unifying adoption into community. But, I have to be honest about the fact that my conversion experience was likely eased by of all the ways we were already alike. I’m a Canadian, woman of European descent. I spoke the same language and had the same West Coast vernacular as the people I was evangelized by. We ate the same food (pancakes on Sunday!) and in many ways, my worldview was shaped by the same things that theirs were. Sure, I didn’t have the same theological convictions, but it wasn’t because I disagreed, but because I didn’t have any at that point. I found a church where people were a lot like me and I am so grateful because it dampened the voice of the enemy whispering “you don’t belong here. You don’t fit in.” That church is where, as insecure teenager without a community, desperate for belonging I heard the gospel for the first time.
But today I find myself pastoring in a church where many are very different from me. And I am even more grateful for that! Not just because of the doors that it opens, but because of how our diversity reflects the eternal purposes of the Church. If my congregation only looks like me, acts like me, and thinks like me, then it is too shallow a reflection of the image of God! If we are all image bearers (which we are) then the Church will be as diverse as the MANY ways which God created humans to experience and worship Him. So when we see increasing ripples and reflections of ourselves in our faith communities, while this is innate to discipleship, we need to pay that much more attention. Being a humble and loving leader of a unified church, for me in part, means believing that I, as a leader am made better because I am in fellowship with someone whose perspective is different than my own.
The opposite of love, I have heard said, is not hate but indifference and this is where I want to draw us back to the true meaning of peace, not defined by the absence of conflict but by overcoming it. I call this “Consecrating the conflict,” and this, Brothers and Sisters, is my invitation to you.
Avoiding conflict through indifference is not the goal.
A loving Church doesn’t just make space for those who are un-like us, then act indifferent as to whether they take it up or not.
We need to show others that it matters for the purposes of the church that they are there. And even be willing to enter into a bit of conflict if it means overcoming barriers for people of other cultures, denominations, gender, abilities and neurotypes to feel that they belong… and belonging means that our community more fully reflects the Kingdom of God because they has been brought into relationship.
The immigrants in our church whose culture is so different than the one I was raised in, but who were quickly bonded to our congregation because of our shared love of Christ, matter to the story of what God is doing through a His Church.
My autistic friend, experiences the world differently, and finds it difficult to engage in most social situations. But he feels connected to the Body of Christ through corporate liturgy. He matters to the story of what God is doing through the Church.
My brother is dyslexic and struggles significantly with reading. As do my youngest children who are also too young to intellectualize a theological argument on youtube. Their experience points to the importance of the public reading of scripture and testimony in a world that asks if the Church still matters when we all have a Bible app in our pocket and they matter to the story of what God is doing through the Church.
It’s probably easy for us to think of more people in our congregations, who because of the ways they are different, lead us to think more deeply about what the Church is for. But as we practice theological hospitality through this gathering, I will conclude by inviting us to think about this as One Body.
Are we consecrating the conflict? Are we communicating to one another “You and I can disagree, but I still believe your story matters, and that the Body is strengthened because of the gifts you bring.” Or, rather do we convey that “I can make a space at the table for you, (in my congregation or in my classroom) but I am indifferent as to wether or not you actually participate.” Think with me about what our answers here say about our theology of Church, what it means to be a humble and gentle leader, making every effort to keep the unity of the Spirt and what it means that as pastors, teachers and evangelists, we “have been given as a gift to help demonstrate, through our unity, God’s eternal purposes.”
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Heavenly Father, we thank you for your provision and the many ways you have moved in order for us all to meet here tonight. Thank you for this opportunity to gather in your name and to glorify you through this time and the time ahead.