Unity in the Church in Lewes

What does unity look like in our own congregation, in Trinity and in the wider brotherhood of the Church in Lewes?  (sisterhood is implied in brotherhood and fraternity)

Luke 2:14“Glory to God in highest heaven, and peace on earth to those with whom God is pleased.”

                 

The bible teaches us that we are all brothers and sisters descended from the one couple Adam and Eve, however as Cain and Abel discovered it is not easy to make this an actual working reality in a fallen world. However as Christians we are called into the body of Christ; the spiritual temple, created by the deep love bond between the Father and the Son; which  is revealed and transmitted to us by the Holy Spirit.

 As Christians in Lewes we are called to proclaim and bring in the Kingdom to our whole town. We are all united under one King, and live in a united kingdom.

The essential message of Jesus can be summed up this way: the kingdom of God is available to everyone, starting now. When Jesus refers to the kingdom of God, He doesn’t mean something that happens after death, far off in heaven; He equates the kingdom of God with God’s will being done on earth as it is in heaven. So the kingdom of God is life as God intends it to be—life to the full, life in peace and justice, life in abundance and love. Individuals enter the Kingdom when they enter into a relationship with Jesus, when they trust Him enough to follow His ways. But make no mistake, the Kingdom is about more than individual lives; it is about the transformation and renewal of all God has created. It may start with individual responses, but it doesn’t stop there. (The voice commentary on Luke 4)

 Unity is not something we can create; in fact we are already united, if we are in Christ we are united with every other Christian who ever existed or will exist. In practice it is something which happens when communities are recreated as one by the loving actions of the Living triune God in our corporate lives.

 Oneness and Peace in Christ

The Church of Christ is expressed as a living spiritual temple of worshippers, created by Christ.

Ephesians 2 ¹¹ Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts. ¹² In those days you were living apart from Christ. You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them. You lived in this world without God and without hope. ¹³ But now you have been united with Christ Jesus. Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.¹⁴ For Christ himself has brought peace to us. He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.¹⁵ He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations. He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups. ¹⁶ Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.

¹⁷ He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near.¹⁸ Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us.

¹⁹ So now you Gentiles are no longer strangers and foreigners. You are citizens along with all of God’s holy people. You are members of God’s family. ²⁰ Together, we are his house, built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself. ²¹ We are carefully joined together in him, becoming a holy temple for the Lord.²² Through him you Gentiles are also being made part of this dwelling where God lives by his Spirit.

As a community we need to learn a deep lesson about the Fatherhood of God expressed as the deep loving relationship between the Father and the Son, Pope Francis expresses this well in his peace day message I copy an extract below:

“And you will all be brothers” (Mt 23:8)

3. The question naturally arises: Can the men and women of this world ever fully respond to the longing for fraternity placed within them by God the Father? Will they ever manage by their power alone to overcome indifference, egoism and hatred, and to accept the legitimate differences typical of brothers and sisters?

By paraphrasing his words, we can summarize the answer given by the Lord Jesus: “For you have only one Father, who is God, and you are all brothers and sisters” (cf. Mt 23:8-9). The basis of fraternity is found in God’s fatherhood. We are not speaking of a generic fatherhood, indistinct and historically ineffectual, but rather of the specific and extraordinarily concrete personal love of God for each man and woman (cf. Mt 6:25-30). It is a fatherhood, then, which effectively generates fraternity, because the love of God, once welcomed, becomes the most formidable means of transforming our lives and relationships with others, opening us to solidarity and to genuine sharing.

In a particular way, human fraternity is regenerated in and by Jesus Christ through his death and resurrection. The Cross is the definitive foundational locus of that fraternity which human beings are not capable of generating themselves. Jesus Christ, who assumed human nature in order to redeem it, loving the Father unto death on the Cross (cf. Phil 2:8), has through his resurrection made of us a new humanity, in full communion with the will of God, with his plan, which includes the full realization of our vocation to fraternity.

From the beginning, Jesus takes up the plan of the Father, acknowledging its primacy over all else. But Christ, with his abandonment to death for love of the Father, becomes the definitive and new principle of us all; we are called to regard ourselves in him as brothers as sisters, inasmuch as we are children of the same Father. He himself is the Covenant; in his person we are reconciled with God and with one another as brothers and sisters. Jesus’ death on the Cross also brings an end to the separation between peoples, between the people of the Covenant and the people of the Gentiles, who were bereft of hope until that moment, since they were not party to the pacts of the Promise. As we read in the Letter to the Ephesians, Jesus Christ is the one who reconciles all people in himself. He is peace, for he made one people out of the two, breaking down the wall of separation which divided them, that is, the hostility between them. He created in himself one people, one new man, one new humanity (cf. 2:14-16). All who accept the life of Christ and live in him acknowledge God as Father and give themselves completely to him, loving him above all things. The reconciled person sees in God the Father of all, and, as a consequence, is spurred on to live a life of fraternity open to all. In Christ, the other is welcomed and loved as a son or daughter of God, as a brother or sister, not as a stranger, much less as a rival or even an enemy. In God’s family, where all are sons and daughters of the same Father, and, because they are grafted to Christ, sons and daughters in the Son, there are no “disposable lives”. All men and women enjoy an equal and inviolable dignity. All are loved by God. All have been redeemed by the blood of Christ, who died on the Cross and rose for all. This is the reason why no one can remain indifferent before the lot of our brothers and sisters. (Pope Francis Peace day message 1 1 14 http://www.news.va/en/news/pope-francis-issues-peace-day-message )

The greatest reason for seeking unity is Jesus’ prayer in John 17 where he seeks the same unity in believers which binds the Father and Son together in an eternal self giving love and unity

²¹ Father, may they all be one as You are in Me and I am in You; may they be in Us, for by this unity the world will believe that You sent Me.

²² All the glory You have given to Me, I pass on to them. May that glory unify them and make them one as We are one,²³ I in them and You in Me, that they may be refined so that all will know that You sent Me, and You love them in the same way You love Me.

We can only be a true witness to the love of Jesus if we are united as one family, one brother and sisterhood in Lewes; one spiritual temple demonstrating the glory of the love of the Godhead played out in our lives as a shining beacon for all to see.  For us as a church in Lewes we are called to bring in the Kingdom in our homes in our streets and in our town. As a body we need to be Christ in our neighbourhood.

So how do we achieve this unity in practice in our town? Here are some of my own ideas:

Prayer It is obvious from the above that unity is not manmade but a gift of grace. Every time we say the Lord’s Prayer we ask for the Kingdom to come on earth as it is in heaven (and that is definitely a united kingdom) so prayer is a key to unity. I think this has already been demonstrated by the joint prayer meetings we have had with the three churches which have been powerful times of unity in the Spirit. As are the joint town prayer meetings organised by Gill Ball.

A united leadership. It is important that all the leaders in the town join together for joint prayer and table fellowship. As congregations and individuals we should spend serious time in prayer, blessing and uplifting all the leaders in the town so they would be encouraged and filled with the power of the Spirit, to minister to their separate congregations, and to the wider church in Lewes.

A spirit of humility and gentleness.  Eph 4 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. ² Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.³ Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. ⁴ There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; ⁵ one Lord, one faith, one baptism; ⁶ one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. All the gifts and fruits of the Spirit are needed in the body to maintain an outward demonstration of our unity in Christ

Sharing resources Acts 2⁴² They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer. ⁴³ Everyone was filled with awe at the many wonders and signs performed by the apostles. ⁴⁴ All the believers were together and had everything in common. ⁴⁵ They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need. ⁴⁶ Every day they continued to meet together in the temple courts. They broke bread in their homes and ate together with glad and sincere hearts, ⁴⁷ praising God and enjoying the favour of all the people. And the Lord added to their number daily those who were being saved. This will be one of the cornerstones of Trinity as we share equally all of our ministers and teachers and other resources.

Joint confession and standing in the gap. It is important where there are wounds and perceived hurts between groups and individuals that these are brought to the surface and admitted and that confession is made and forgiveness sought and received, even when these events are historical, it is important that we are prepared to stand and confess the sins of our group and stand in the gap as we have seen and learnt in Rwanda.

Town wide celebrations and joint worship.  Historically we have done this at Whitsun and it still happens on Good Friday.  It would be wonderful to do more of this for example a march up to a high place above the town to witness the sun rise on Easter day.

Joint mission. This is already happening in our joint town wide witness organised for the Passion play. Again there must be many more possibilities to come together in joint mission and social action.

Table fellowship. Eating together in large and also in more intimate groups is one of the best ways of drawing together as family. This already happens as the town wide breakfast. Perhaps more things could be organised such as joint picnics in the Grange or other suitable place. It is a great sadness that we are unable to share the Lord’s Supper with every fellowship in the town but we pray that this day will come, in the meantime simply sharing bread together can be a great unifying act.

Town wide youth work. For example providing some youth work on our estates such as Landport and Ousedale.  

Sing a new song. Psalm 96 Sing to the Lord a new song;  sing to the Lord, all the earth.² Sing to the Lord, praise his name; proclaim his salvation day after day.
³ Declare his glory among the nations, his marvellous deeds among all peoples.

Singing together is a small foretaste of the mighty choir in heaven which sings a united song in praise of the Lamb

I give you some of my thoughts and ideas as some food for thought and prayer as we enter the exciting New Year and work together to see Trinity come into a solid existence next year. I pray it will just be the start of a growing expression of a united Christian family with diverse congregations but united as one family in Christ allowing an explosion of growth and maturity as many, many people come to see Christ as their Lord and Saviour in a great revival in our town and surrounding area.

Ian hempshall

Lewes

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