Nehemiah 8.1-3, 5-6, 8-10; 1 Corinthians 12.12-31a; Luke 4.14-21

I want to begin today with a quotation from a report published by the Church of England’s board for Education in 1988. The report itself was about the place of children in the Church, but I think what this passage is saying can refer to all of us, young and old.

“Imagine a group of people of all ages going on a long walk together. At times the children and adults will walk along together, talking as they go, sharing storied with first one person and then another, observing different things and sharing their discoveries.

“At times the children lag behind and the adults will have to wait for them and urge them on. Sometimes the smallest children will ask to be carried. At other times, though the children will dash ahead making new discoveries and may, perhaps, pull the adults along to see what the have found. Some adults may well behave like these children, of course.

“For all there will be times of progress and times of rest and refreshment, time to admire the view and times of plodding on, and the eventual satisfaction of arriving at their destination.

“Of course, a pilgrimage is something more than a hike. Traditionally it is a group of people of all kinds of ages united in reaching a common goal. They stop at significant places on the way. They exchange their own stories and share past experiences and memories of those who have gone before them. They look forward to the rest of the journey and to reaching their ultimate destination.”

What better description could one find of Christian unity? People at all different stages of their Christian life, journeying together, sharing discoveries, supporting the weak and celebrating the joys.

If I look around the world at Christians today, I am saddened by our inability to live together in unity. It was, after all, something that Christ prayed before his crucifixion - that they might be one. It is what Paul is seeking to describe in that letter to the Corinthians. The Corinthian Church hadn’t taken long to fall into divisions and discord.

 We are in the middle of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. Christian Unity, as I see it, does not mean to say that we all have to be the same. Paul in his letter makes clear that there are different sorts of people, but that all belong to the Body of Christ.

He highlights the importance of vulnerable people - that they have as much right - and more - to be seen as part of the body. They are the ones to whom special care must be given. How do we enable these people to be an important part of Christ’s Body? How do we enable children to be part of the Body? Or the frail and housebound? People who are sick or mentally impaired? What about those who outwardly seem strong but inside are crying out to be loved or to feel good about who they are?

Where Christian unity comes apart at the seams, it tends to be because one group sees itself as strong - or right in its practice and beliefs - and all others as weak. The strong group tend to distance themselves from the others, to put secure boundaries around their own space.

It seems to me that this is the exact opposite of what Paul is saying. He argues that the weak and vulnerable - whoever they may be and however we see them - are people for whom we should show a particular care.

And when we are divided, then we lose our strength. The divisions in the Anglican Communion today about the issue of homosexuality are sad. What saddens me most is that in the midst of the disagreements, love has been pushed out by some. It is possible, in Christ, to love those with whom we disagree. It’s hard but possible.

There’s a story of a wealthy Indian landowner who has two quarrelsome sons. They were always arguing and jealous of each other. He was disturbed by this behaviour and on his deathbed sought to teach them a lesson.

He called them to his bedside and divided his property between them. Then he asked for some sticks to be brought. He tied them into a bundle and asked the elder brother to break the sticks. It was impossible. They were tightly held together and none could be broken.

Then he untied the bundle and asked the younger son to break the sticks. One by one, they snapped. Now the task was not difficult at all. The father had made his point - united they stood firm; divided they snapped and broke. Weak things united become strong.

Our divisions within the Church are weakening the Body of Christ. Paul’s concern is for the Corinthian Church to remain strong in Christ, to be united, not to break apart because of dissension. It is God who has designed the Body and given everyone a place in it; who are we, then, to decide who is and who is not welcome.

In comparison with God, we are all weak. In Paul’s Second Letter to the Corinthians is that wonderful reminder that when we are weak, God can be strong. None of us have the monopoly of truth about God. None of us can know God fully - in the chapter following today’s epistle reading Paul describes us as seeing in a glass darkly.

So, why do we find it so hard to live alongside other Christians who differ from us in the way they like to worship, in their views over ethical issues or how we interpret the Bible?

And why do we risk so little in the cause of Christian unity?

None of us likes to move out of our comfort zone - that is why when churches discuss changing styles of worship, people become so upset and defensive. That is why people begin to be negative about Christians of a different sort. I’ve heard Evangelicals rubbish Catholics, and Catholics Evangelicals. I’ve hear conservatives speak harsh words about liberals - and liberals return the insult. Some of the language used on both sides of the ordination of women debate was far from loving and the same goes for debates about current issues between Christians.

But it is when we do move out of the comfort zone that our faith can truly grow because it is then that we rely more fully on God and less fully on ourselves.

Luke gives us a picture of what Jesus has come to do - that passage from Luke 4 we heard this morning is sometimes called Jesus’s manifesto, because it sums up so well how he saw his work: “to bring good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.”

Jesus’s work is about bringing release and freedom. Jesus’s good news is about restoring God’s broken people, people broken as individuals, spiritually and emotionally, mentally and physically, but, when we place Christ’s words alongside those of Paul, we can see how broken we are as a Body corporate too.

Let’s think back to the quotation with which I started - all travelling together towards our ultimate destination. All Christians are on that journey towards death. We are doing that together, except that so often, we allow our differences to separate us.

Some of us are storming ahead towards eternal life; others of us are much more hesitant about our faith or only at the start of our Christian life. But the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity can remind us that, however we interpret Scripture - and that seems to be at the heart of the Church’s current disagreements - there is no getting away from the fact that in Scripture we see Jesus himself declaring unity as something to be celebrated and cherished.

When we fail to approach those with whom we disagree with a deep love that can transcend our differences, we are breaking Christ’s Body and oppressing others.

We are called to continue Christ’s work: “to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour.” If we as Christians do this together, we may get somewhere. If we continue not to approach the other in love in our dissensions and disagreements, we are destroying the very Body of Christ.