By John Karolus
In my reading of the epistles as instructions to the early church on how to exist, one theme seems to stretch over each edge of the canvas entirely: Unity. Unity not only as a value to be pursued or a command to be obeyed, but even more so as a way to be characterized as Christians (Col. 3:12-15). As Jesus said in John 13:35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Granted, there is more to this verse than this specific application, but the point can’t be glossed over: unity is expressed by love for the fellow believer. Paul encourages the Corinthians to unity even as major problems have wormed their way into their church. Unity is the way of life for the Church – and unity is achieved through relationships in Christ.
This is not a new or unique idea. I certainly hope this essay functions as a confirmation of what is already apparent in the Scriptures. Yet, my experience as an active Lutheran for nearly three decades and a member of the clergy for several years has brought a significant issue to my attention, one that permeates relationships between seminary faculties and students, relationships between pastors and districts, and even relationships between family members. We struggle with unity.
The Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod is not alone in this struggle. The Protestant Reformation, the Great Schism, and other historical moments of stark division draw out what is true for each Christian. More recent (and perhaps lesser) examples include varied responses to the pandemic, to the 2022 midterms, the 2020, 2016, 2012 (etc.) presidential elections, and the killing of George Floyd (and Micahel Brown, and Breonna Taylor, and others). In the wake of these events, we struggle to unite ourselves to each other even under the united banner of the confession that “Jesus is Lord.”
To put it sharply: even with a common confession like “Jesus is Lord,” which nearly every Christian I have met would embrace, Christians are still willing to endanger their relationships with each other. This undercuts the apparent external unity displayed by the common confession. Though some may explain the three-word statement differently or emphasize different themes of this one truth, the overall faith is maintained within the diversity of expressions: “I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son our Lord, who was conceived….” That being said, when we look at the Scriptures and the Lutheran Confessions, which expand on the confession that Jesus is Lord, we find ample instruction to preserve our relationships.
Psalm 133 exclaims, “Behold how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!” Jesus teaches in Mark 10, “But it shall not be so among you. Whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be the slave of all.” In Titus 3, Paul exhorts the young leader to “reject those who persist in division.” Ephesians 4 states, ”walk… with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.” Throughout the confessions, a document written in the very moment of division, there exist protections from division and encouragements toward patience with others – such as this excerpt from the Apology to Articles VII and VIII of the Augsburg Confession:
Moreover, it says “church catholic” so that we not understand the church to be an external government of certain nations. It consists rather of people scattered throughout the entire world who agree on the gospel and have the same Christ, the same Holy Spirit, and the same sacraments, whether or not they have the same human traditions.
In a short number of years, my experience of internal synodical dialogue between (or concerning) pastors and churches in the LCMS paints a strange picture. There exist blogs and groups who communicate with each other about other pastors and organizations helping them identify potential threats to the Lutheran Confessional practice and avoid them. Perhaps this is not a bad idea, but the tone of these articles and messages is often critical and targeted – and sometimes personal. Twitter threads contain much of the same, along with other social media sites.
To make matters worse, these tendencies persist in “live” settings, such as circuit meetings, district conferences and conventions, and at the national level. Criticisms are leveled in college and seminary classrooms. Students, recent graduates, tenured faculty, and experienced clergy have all displayed these kinds of divisive actions. At some level, filtering through differing opinions and practices of contemporaries is healthy and even a unifying experience – but my point is when they go on to damage relationships and cross the line of faithful service, the unity is threatened, if not critically weakened.
Am I guilty of this? Certainly. Are you? Quite possibly. There is a simple but effective method of beginning to reverse the trend. Not only that, it is familiar and quite ancient. The method is relational defense. Perhaps you notice that your family relationships without conscious defense are quick to be neglected when less proximate relationships start to lose strength. This neglect leads to breakdown. The breakdown in the family will eventually lead to breakdowns in other areas with increasingly serious consequences. Yet, when those relationships are healthy and intentionally defended, space for work and other relationships to flourish emerges.
We see this in the church when our human tendency to internalize conflict shapes the way we interact. On the congregational level, the special events or meetings we attend or abstain from communicate which side we take on a conflict. On a synodical level, these sides are taken in many different ways, as I mentioned above. For us to remain the church, however, defending the relationships we have with each other inside our own confession (even those we expect to disagree with) is important for communicating the value they are to us as fellow believers. Unity must be practiced, not simply claimed.
A couple examples from personal experience, to give concrete illustration to unity in practice. Due to my personal life containing far-reaching and dramatic change, alongside national and international upheaval in the year 2020, my political and spiritual views went through a lot of instability. In a sense, I was testing the structural integrity of my own presuppositions. As a result, my dinner table conversations with mom and dad often turned defensive and short-tempered. Thankfully, my parents patiently and persistently invested into their relationships with me, knowing the relationship held more value than whoever was more right in the respective conversation. My parents never let the political spats endanger the relationship, because the unity they share with me transcends the divisions between us. We share the same name, after all. How much more does the Church share the name of Christ?
My brother-in-law carries similar interests and humor to me. Somehow, though, we find ourselves on varying edges of the political and social-philosophical plane and occasionally this produces stress and frustration. Thankfully, he senses this and demands a conversation. In that conversation, the relationship is defended and restored, the views explained, the orthodoxy preserved, and the differences maintained! We learn from each other in these conversations and our connections grow deeper as friends and family members – and that deeper level of connection proves to be enjoyable time and time again.
We can do this, friends. Read each other’s works, and then look up each other’s emails and send in your questions. Better yet, book a phone call appointment before publishing the reactive article or tweeting the accusation. As we grow into the parts of the Body of Christ God has called us into, we may not understand the mysterious ways in which we are all connected.
The ear and the eye may both confess, “Jesus is Lord!” and not understand what the other is doing beyond that – and should they succeed in stopping the other’s faithful action, the Body becomes divided and dysfunctional. Let us strive instead to embrace the glorious mystery of unity found in confessing our Lord, fulfilling our callings, all in light of the shocking grace that people like us would receive God’s grace to do so.
“Even with a common confession like ‘Jesus is Lord,’ […] Christians are still willing to endanger their relationships with each other.”