World Communion: One Body, One Spirit, One Hope

Ephesians 4:1-7,11-16

It began hours ago far out in the Pacific in Fiji and Auckland and the Marshall Islands. As the dawn of a new Lord’s Day arrived, it spread west to the Philippines and Australia and the Pacific Rim, across the continent of Asia through successive time zones to Africa and Europe and finally to the Americas so that now it’s our turn, our turn to celebrate with brothers and sisters in Christ all around the world: World Communion Sunday. The first Sunday of every October is set aside on the Christian calendar as a day when we remember and acknowledge and celebrate “one body, one spirit, one hope,” as the book of Ephesians says.

In spite of all our differences, in spite of all our disagreements, in spite of all our divisions, we are one body, one spirit, one hope, says Ephesians. An analogy might be that Pacific Ocean. On the surface of it, there are winds and currents and tides that create massive crashing and foaming waves. But below the surface, deep down below the surface, there is only ocean. An ocean bigger and deeper and wider than whatever may be happening on the surface at any given time and place. The surface features and the deeper reality. One ocean. One body.

We’ve done a pretty good job talking about “one body” in its variety and diversity in local congregations. But we really haven’t done as good a job talking about the terms of those surface features and deeper reality—those varieties of gifts—in the larger church. Consider that with me for a moment: “one body,” one very large and variegated and diverse body. Verses 12 and 13 say that some are called and gifted to be apostles and some to be prophets and some to be evangelists and some to be pastors and teachers. That doesn’t just apply to persons in the church; it applies to churches as well. Some churches and even entire denominations are better at pastoring and teaching than other churches are. But that effectiveness does not make them any more important or any less important than any other part of the body. Some churches and entire denominations are better at evangelizing than other churches and entire denominations are. But that doesn’t make them any more important or less important in the body. Some churches and entire denominations are better at prophetic witness than others are. But that doesn’t make them any more important or less important than any other churches that are part of the body. And some churches and entire denominations do apostolic succession better than other churches do! But that does not make them any more important or any less important than other churches and denominations in the body. Ephesians says that this variety and this diversity is all according to the gifts by the grace of God that various ones of us and various congregations and denominations of us have been given by God. The varieties and the differences and the surface features of the body that are all connected by the deeper reality. One body, one spirit.

It’s fascinating to me that the New Testament does not insist on “one church,” “one church,” “one church,” as some later theologians and denominations do. The New Testaments says “churches,” “churches,” “churches” created by one spirit, called by one spirit, nurtured by one spirit. The oneness is not in the church; the oneness is in the spirit of God that creates and gifts churches as the spirit of God creates and gifts individuals. One body, one spirit, one hope.

And here’s my hope. My hope is that we would learn to do this well: surface features of difference and variety and giftedness along with deep reality. We could do this so well in the church that the world could learn from us how it is done. For example, in the state of South Carolina, we are not merely Democrats and Republicans and Libertarians and Independents. We are not black and white and Hispanic and Asian alone. We are not ultimately from the Upstate or the Midlands or the Pee Dee or the Low Country. We are in a commonwealth together. People who, “while we breathe, we hope.” Surface features and deep reality. In the United States we are not ultimately our political parties, our regions or our ethnicities. We are “one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Surface features and deep reality. In North America, we are not ultimately Canadian citizens, U.S. citizens, Mexican citizens. We share a continent, a continent with a geography and a history and an economy that is inseparable. What happens in one directly affects the other. Surface features and deep reality. All around the world. If we can learn to do this in the church around the world, the world in turn can learn from us “one body,” one very large and variegated and diverse body. Around the world, a shared, common humanity, a shared vulnerability to epidemics and recessions and tyranny and terrorism, and shared opportunities to understand our differences as gifts and at the same time to transcend our differences to eat and drink together, to live together, to work together, and to create a better world together, “promoting the body’s growth in building itself up in love” (Ephesians 4:17). Surface features and a deep reality in a common bond: one body, one spirit, one hope. Now that’s a “world” communion.

This material is Copyrighted © 2009 by Jeffrey S. Rogers. It may be copied or disseminated for non-commercial use, provided this notice is included. The author can be contacted at jeffrogers110@bellsouth.net.