Service for Christian Unity | Luke 10:25-37
St. James’ Episcopal Church | Las Cruces, NM
January 24, 2024
the Rev. Jonathan Hanneman
“And who is my neighbor?” – Luke 10:29b[1]
Good evening, everyone. My name is Jonathan Hanneman, and I’m the priest at St. Andrew’s Episcopal Church located downtown on Alameda Blvd. Although Fr. Tom has been kindly inviting me to participate in these services the last few years at the Holy Cross Retreat Center, I was genuinely surprised and humbled when he asked me to speak tonight. That is, in part, because I shouldn’t even be here. At least, that’s what I was taught for nearly the first half of my life.
I grew up in a separatist Independent Fundamental Baptist church. In our little city of 20,000, of which the population was probably 45% Lutheran and 45% Roman Catholic, I always heard that our congregation contained the only real Christians in town. It never really mattered who our neighbor was—we distrusted all of them. Everyone who wasn’t “us” was heading straight to Hell. Even other congregations in our own circle of fellowship were suspect!
I was in grad school before I attended a church from a liturgical tradition. Not only the preaching but the structure of the service itself surprised me, all of it being so full of Scripture. Church leaders had always warned me about the “vain repetition” found in formal written prayers, but I instantly recognized an outline when I saw it, a guide helping me to consider not only my own interests but also those areas I tended to neglect. My views on other Christians began to change: at least some other churches might love and follow Jesus!
It took many years to arrive where I am now, and I can only credit that to loving congregations who allowed me to change and grow at my own pace. Their patience and encouragement helped me see beyond the black and white line drawings of my youth to the full rainbow of Christian expression that I witness and appreciate today.
One of the important things to discuss when talking about unity is to ensure we distinguish the idea from uniformity. Unity focuses on a common goal, something external to the self that allows those with difference to work together, to support one another in the varieties of labor necessary to succeed in a greater cause without demanding that we become one another in the process. Uniformity, however, demands a fixed expression of the self, a lock-step approach defined by identical thought, practice, and appearance. Uniformity assumes we must be the same before we can accomplish a collective mission. Too often we claim to be seeking unity—the hope of working together and, in time, learning to trust and understand one another—when our hidden expectation is uniformity—the anticipation that everyone else will become just like me.
But there is space for difference within the greater Church[2], for unity without uniformity, and there has been from the beginning. In fact, that’s the primary message of Paul’s letter to the Galatians! Those who wished to follow Christ in what’s now central Turkey weren’t required to adopt the common cultural practices of those first Christians living in Judea; nor were the Judeans expected to abandon their traditions and become semi-Hellenized Celts. Each was to seek and reveal the Christ within their specific contexts, faithfully guiding those around them into the reality of life under the Reign of the One True God.
Growing up, my religious tradition demanded uniformity, leading me to automatically condemn any neighbor who didn’t meet my standard. Later, I began to see that God and Jesus were bigger than our particular group, which allowed me to at least begin looking at who my Christian neighbor—even from other “families”—might possibly be. When I approach any of my neighbors today I ask one question: How do they love? How do they physically live-out their commitment to God[3] through the sort of love that seeks the good of those around us, the one that reveals they “love the Lord [their] God with all [their] heart, and with all [their] soul, and with all [their] strength, and with all [their] mind” by loving “[their] neighbor as [them]self”[4]?
I don’t need to agree with everything someone thinks. I don’t need to assent to every single one of each denomination’s doctrines or ideas or practices to recognize God’s family. It’s certainly nice when everything lines up the way I’d prefer, but after nearly five decades of Christian life and ministry, my primary need is to see one thing: how you love. How do you treat people, any or all of them? How do you serve your neighbor—whoever it is that happens to be nearby you at any given moment? How do you behave toward your siblings—all those seeking God and following the Christ, no matter their practices and expressions? How do you honor God’s Image, both in the individual and as a collective?
How can I identify fellow members of God’s family? Simply by observing how they love.
In the words of the Apostles, “This is the message you have heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.”[5] “Let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.”[6] “Maintain constant love for one another, for love covers a multitude of sins.”[7] “Owe no one anything, except to love one another; for the one who loves another has fulfilled the law.”[8] Or as Jesus told us, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you.”[9] “I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another.”[10] “Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples” [11]—not by what we say or wear or how we look or think or even how we express our worship. No, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”[12]
How can we find unity across difference? Who is my Christian neighbor? How can any of us recognize a fellow servant of God?
In the end, it truly all comes down to love.
[1] All Bible quotations are from the NRSV unless otherwise noted.
[2] Or even broader religious community; see Paul’s argument concerning the acceptance of Israel as a people in Romans.
[3] Or “Goodness” or “the Universe”—however a person may refer to the undefinable Divine
[4] Luke 10:27
[5] I John 3:11
[6] I John 4:7
[7] I Peter 4:8
[8] Romans 13:8
[9] John 15:12
[10] John 15:17
[11] John 13:34b-35
[12] John 13:34b-35