Interdependence and Union

Unity–the state of being one; oneness. a whole or totality as combining all its parts into one. the state or fact of being united or combined into one, as of the parts of a whole; unification.

We stand at a unique intersection of two very different congregations.  We hold different forms of worship and follow different structures of organization.  Yet we are unified into one building dedicated to the glory of God.  Can we do more together?

Last week theologian Kate Bowler wrote her Fourth of July post on Interdependence.  As she talks about her family and culture, she offers this question:  “What if real freedom isn’t about independence at all?” and suggests the negative of cultural American individualism:

The bootstraps model of independence–the one where everyone is expected to manage their own needs and quiet their pain and somehow solve every problem with sheer force and determination–has done a number on us. It tells us that needing others is a failure of character. 

Sadly, how true!  Perhaps a cultural stereotype of the rebelling colonists, but  the fight for freedom was not meant to be “we don’t need you anymore–period.”  It was way more nuanced than that and it definitely required a new recognition of unity.  Consider the request that they all sign that document, for “we must all hang together, or most assuredly we shall all hang separately.”  

With his Christian awareness, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr writes to the white churches from his jail cell:  “We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.”  ( “Letter from Birmingham Jail”)

Politics, racial equity and God’s desires.  Paul reminds his readers

4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, 5 so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. (Romans 12:3-5 NIV)

The Moravian Church, acknowledged as one of the oldest Protestant churches dating back to the 1500s, defines unity as being grounded in the living experiences of life in Christ, and in loving one another. Unity recognizes what God is doing and defines us all as “partners on a shared journey.”  (https://www.moravian.org) 

Like Bowler, I keep circling back to the idea of interdependence and faith.  Love is communal, it is relational and based on two or more.  Different experiences to learn and grow build us in unity with God and one another.  Jesus as he prays in John’s gospel prays that disciples will find that unity through him, not through a sameness of experience.

22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: 23 I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. (John 17:22-23 NIV)

I conclude with Kate Bowler’s conclusion, a prayer to ”practice interdependence” not just during July 4th but going forward into a divided and diverse world:

May we all risk being known, practicing intimacy with the way we listen and share and ask each other questions (even when we might not like the answers);

May we learn how to love when it makes no sense, and be loved when our humanity feels like a liability;

May we find ourselves reminded that we belong to one another. Neighbors. Strangers. Friends. All wrapped up together in this web of beautiful, terrible interdependence.