And now for the full-time, football results:
Leeds United one, Tranmere Rovers eleven.
Sheffield United one, Ipswich eleven.
Dundee United one, St Mirron eleven.
Cambridge United one, Burton Albion eleven.
And now my favourite result...... with John in mind !.
Manchester United One, Birmingham City eleven.
Now, these may seem like strange results, and of course they are (I made them up),
but I wonder if you can see a pattern ?
All the teams that have United in their name are "one", other teams are "eleven".
I thought it interesting that some football teams have called themselves "united", that the idea of the team being a united one is so important to them that they've included the word in their name. For these teams it's not enough to be eleven individuals, they decided back in their history that being "united" was a critical part of their identity, and so adopted the word as part of their name.
Of course all football teams, if they're to be successful, must be united- the more united they are, the more success they have. Each player has to thoroughly understand his / her role in the team, and the role of the other players, they have to so know each other that they can almost intuitively know what their colleagues will do before they do it, anticipating the others movements with such assurance and conviction that they can work almost as if the eleven players were a single body with a single mind. When you see a team playing in this fashion, united in mind and body, they're a joy to watch (be it football or any other sport), and of course are always hugely successful. It's not a surprise that Manchester United are this year, set to win the English League and the European cup - they're living their name, and are pretty unbeatable because of it.
Enough of sport -1 hope I haven't dis-united half the congregation with my sporting analogy.
The point I'm trying to make is this, that being united is something that humans have a deep desire for. We know, almost instinctively, that being united with others brings benefits and joys that are unattainable while living / working / playing apart. The point of marriage is that two become one, the point of families is that they find happiness and security in communion with each other, the point of people coming together to form a business is that united, they can provide products and services that they cannot provide on their own, and so on.
But all of these ways of being united, and I'm sure you can think of many others, all of these are only shadows of humanities deepest desire. Our deepest desire, whether we articulate it or not, is to be united with love.
Human Beings do not function very well, are not very happy, are lost, lonely, afraid, sick, confused and depressed, if they find themselves dis-united from love.
So how might humanity be united with that which it so deeply desires ?
It's my view that this problem lies at the very heart of the calling of the Church into
being.
What is the purpose of the Church ? Ever wondered ?
Is it to formulate doctrine and teach it to folk,?
Is it to pass moral judgments on humankind?
Is it to bring together a body of like minded people in order that they can support each other in their shared faith?
What do you think?
I'd like to share my view of what the Church is for.
Which is this;
The purpose of the church is to unite humankind with that for which it yearns.
To bring humankind into communion with love - not human concepts and constructs
of love which always fall so very short of the mark, but to bring humanity into the
living presence of authentic, beautiful, outrageously lavish, searing, incisive,
passionate, compassionate, healing, life-giving love.
That is, divine love.
That is, God.
What a task. What a joy. What challenge. How can we do that ?
Well, we cannot. Not on our own, and not if we are as dis-united as those we seek to
serve.
First of all then, we have to be united ourselves.
St Paul in his letter to the Ephesians says "make every effort to keep the unity of the
Spirit".
"Make every effort". Unity takes effort. All successful teams and businesses know
that. You have to work at unity, it doesn't come free or easily, but requires an
expenditure, sacrifice and work. Just as the players in a football team practise and
work with each other, and companies and business provide resources for people to
share, so members of the church have to make an effort to be united. And not just a bit
of an effort, St Paul says "make every effort", work hard, expend your energy, your
skills, your gifts, your faith, in order to create unity within the church.
But even as we work hard, making every effort to be united, even then we will fail if
we don't take to heart that the Church is the gift of the Spirit, and in order to keep the
unity of the Church we have to be united in the Spirit.
And to be united in the Spirit, we need to practise with each other ... humility,
gentleness, patience - "bearing one another in love" says Paul.
"Bearing one another - in love". When we bear one another we carry each other
don't we. We take on each other's burdens, we share the load, we take each other's
part. If we can't do that for each other, how can we do that for those we've been
called to serve outside the church ?
And when we bear with each other we accept one another's short-comings.
We accept that we will occasionally irritate each other, that we'll say things that can be hurtful, do things that cause upset, hold different views, see things differently, hope for different things.
When we bear with one another we take on each other's burdens and we forgive each other's sins - and the only way we can do that, is by bearing with one another in love. Only in love, can the fruit of the spirit, that is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, humility and self-control, bound together with the gentle bonds of peace, provide us with that ultimate gift, unity in the Spirit.
And so perhaps you can see, that keeping the unity of the Spirit isn't an optional extra, something that we might aspire to sometime in the future - it's critical to our calling now, to our very existence as the body of Christ. "There is one body, and one Spirit" says St Paul, "one faith, one baptism, one Lord", "and there is one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all".
Unity is critical to the health of the church, and to it's God-given mission - and that unity cannot be founded on anything other than belief in a God who is love, who is Father of all, and who unites all things in himself.
While I was praying about this sermon my eyes fell upon a crucifix that stands on my
table. And this is what is said (take cross off wall behind pulpit).
The timbers point North, South, East and West - to all the people of the earth, people
divided by many things, people longing to be united to that which they hold most dear
- divine love.
In the middle of the cross is God in our Lord Jesus Christ.
And his hands stretch out across the horizontal beam, and they gather in the peoples
of the east and the west, and direct them to his heart.
And his head and his feet lie across the vertical beam, and they gather in the peoples
of the North and the South, and direct them to his heart.
And so in Jesus Christ, God with us on the cross - through his death defying love
gathers in the peoples of the earth and unites them with that for which they yearn.
Keeping the unity of the Spirit then, is not simply about getting on with each other so we have a happy time in church, but it's the very foundation on which God's mission to the world is built.
And this unity is not to be found in anything other than the divine love that created all things and holds all things together in itself, Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
Human kind's greatest need is to be united to love, made one with that divine love
from which it was birthed, and to which it will ultimately return.
We don't really need anything else, do we ?
We don't need people to point accusing fingers at us, or enticing fingers, or clenched
fingers. What we need are the loving hands of Christ, gathering us in and uniting us
through the Cross to the centre of all that is - to the very heart of God.
What the Church is called to unity for, and needs to aspire to, is this;
let me give you the full time result:
God one, all of creation - one.
Thanks be to God. Amen.
Ian Spencer
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