Reaching Around the World & Finding the World at Home:
On Putting Unity into Practice
a sermon on 2 Timothy 1.1-14
for World Communion Sunday
by David C. Mauldin
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mobile, Alabama
When you consider how different men and women are, you have to think God has a
sense of humor. He made us so different, then he gave us marriage and brought us
together—one man, one woman—for a lifetime. Something that crazy must be either
lunacy or pure genius. If you ever reach the point of discerning how
complimentary the differences are, you see more than humor. You see God’s wisdom
and love. God made the family the basic building block of human society. It
works because a marriage is greater than the sum of its parts.
God likes to do this. He likes to take very different things, bring them
together, and from their union create something great and unexpected. He did
this with the church. In the Old Testament, God chose one family, Abraham and
Sarah, and made them a great nation and his special people. Yet from the
beginning, God had the entire world in mind. He crafted a plan as broad as
creation itself. And once Jesus died and rose again, the blessings of the gospel
spread to all the earth. When God renewed his people and created the church, he
broke down every barrier that divides humankind. Into his church God calls men
and women, people of every social and economic class, every race, every
language, every culture, and every nationality. The church is truly universal
because every person who belongs to Jesus Christ is part of the body of Christ.
The image of the church as Christ’s body is important in scripture. It speaks to
the organic unity among believers. From every race and nation, God has formed
for himself one special people, defined by faith in Jesus Christ. He has made us
one, although we often struggle to live our unity in a way that people can see.
The early church struggled to keep up with God as he broke down the barriers. At
first, it was the Greek-speaking Jewish Christians who felt slighted by the
Aramaic-speaking Jewish Christians. Then Gentiles (non-Jewish people) began
coming to faith in Christ. The church struggled to understand what God was
doing. It took some work, but they finally got it right. They came to see the
truth of what Paul wrote to the Galatians, “There is no longer Jew or Greek,
there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male and female; for all of
you are one in Christ Jesus” [3.28].
Now, it is all well and good to talk about the worldwide unity of Christians and
how God has made us one. Today is World Communion Sunday, a day we do just that.
But, what we really need is to make this truth practical and personal. Our
scripture reading does this. It is not about worldwide Christian unity, but it
gives us a picture of Christian unity in practice.
Paul writes a letter to his friend and partner in ministry, Timothy. Paul is in
prison, in all likelihood in Rome. Timothy is probably in Ephesus, leading the
church there through difficult times. Paul writes in order to encourage Timothy,
and to be encouraged by him.
As I read this passage, I am struck by similarities between Paul and persecuted
Christians today, on one hand, and Timothy and us on the other. A few verses
stand out to me as being not only God’s Word to us, of course, but also what our
persecuted brothers and sisters might say to us if they had the chance. In
Europe and North America today, despite our freedoms, the institutional forms of
the Christian church are dying. This does not mean the church will disappear or
that God is not at work. I believe God is pruning us the way he has pruned his
people in the past. He will preserve a remnant, and it will be more faithful and
alive than before. God cares very little for institutions; they are simply tools
for mission, and when they begin to hinder more than help, God simply crafts a
new tool.
Meanwhile, Christianity is exploding in Africa, Asia, and South America. In some
places, Christians enjoy freedom like ours. In others, they do not. The Middle
East, China, and Southeast Asia are particularly dangerous places for
Christians. Christians are harassed, churches are burned, and pastors disappear.
Listen to this from the Voice of the Martyrs website: “Around the world today
Christians are being persecuted for their faith. More than 70 million Christians
have been martyred for their faith since AD 33. This year [2007] an estimated
160,000 believers will die at the hands of their oppressors and over 200 million
will be persecuted, arrested, tortured, beaten or jailed. In many nations it is
illegal to own a Bible, share your faith, change your faith or allow children
under 18 to attend a religious service.”
What would these brothers and sisters—our family—say to us if they could? I
think several things Paul says to Timothy:
1. “Do not be ashamed, then, of the testimony about our Lord or of me his
prisoner, but join with me in suffering for the gospel, relying on the power of
God.” Do we avoid talking about our faith because in our pluralistic society it
is impolite? Do we ever give thought or prayer for Christians who suffer? We
need to follow their example of faithfulness, even though we will not pay nearly
the price they do. They know the power of God because they have to rely on him.
Do we think we can get along well enough on our own, and so miss out on God’s
power?
2. One of the most beautiful verses in scripture—verse 12: “I am not ashamed,
for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to
guard until that day what I have entrusted to him.” Persecuted Christians attest
to the power of God. They know. They have relied on his power. They have held to
his promises. How can they endure suffering, even in some cases death? Is their
faith in Jesus worth the price? Absolutely. They—and we—know the one in who we
have put our trust. He is able. He is faithful. Nothing can separate us from his
love.
3. Verse 13: “Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from
me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.” Christians in the rest of
the world are horrified at the way some North American Christians compromise
Christian faith and morals to accommodate them to our culture. They constantly
remind us of the authority of scripture, that there is no salvation apart from
Jesus Christ, and that traditional morals are non-negotiable. When entities like
our General Assembly do things that cast doubt or confusion on these basic
Christian truths, Christians in other countries pay the price. Muslims and
others point at them and say, “You are no better than those American Christians
who don’t even believe or practice their faith. How can you still say
Christianity is true?”
If persecuted Christians could speak to us this morning, I think this is what
they would say: Stand firm in your faith, pay whatever price you have to, and
trust in Christ, he will not let you down.
God has made all believers one body in Christ. We are united. Saying we believe
this but then not putting it into action is worse than not believing it.
Christian unity is like every other truth of Christianity: It must be lived! How
can we do that? How are we doing that? Three practical ways:
1. We can pray for persecuted Christians. We need to be mindful of them. In some
cases there is nothing more we can do. And of course, we cannot help all of
them. But we ought to help some of them. This leads me to …
2. We reach around the world. For a long time now Westminster has helped support
two medical missionaries in Bangladesh, Les and Cynthia Morgan. Twice in the
past four years we have given generously to the church in Bangladesh as well.
The Morgans have made us aware of needs for church repair and building new
churches. We have responded. I had originally intended in this sermon to share
with you the stories of a number of persecuted Christians around the world.
Instead I want to share with you something Les wrote in a newsletter on August
10 this year:
Proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ is for me the most difficult missionary
task. In Bangladesh, and particularly in the city of Dhaka where I work, there
is no end to the obstacles that hinder me from bringing the good news to those
who seem to need it most. Simply surviving in Dhaka is a major feat, with its
erratic electricity, garbage on the streets, typhoid-contaminated water, and
postmen who steal my mail. Then I have to travel through the horrendous traffic
on overcrowded buses and on roads jammed with rickshaws. Even after I make it to
the sites of my ministry, there is still the challenge of language, the final
task of communicating with the people in ways they understand, in ways that
speak to their deepest needs. Of course, Bangladesh being a Muslim country that
includes fundamentalists, I face special risks as a Christian missionary.
Evangelizing too loudly could get me killed.
Despite the obstacles, God continues to call missionaries like me to proclaim
the gospel of Jesus Christ in Bangladesh. Jesus cares tenderly and
compassionately for all people, and he suffered and died not just for some of
us, but for all of us. He calls those who have heard this good news to bring it
to those who have not, and he sends us out to proclaim the truth of his
resurrection in bold and authentic ways.
That speaks for itself. You have a hand in that work. If you give to this
church, you support Les and Cynthia, you help Christians in Bangladesh, and you
make possible a witness for Christ in a most inhospitable environment. Our
prayers and our giving are practical expressions of our unity with the
Christians of Bangladesh.
3. God has brought the world to us. Westminster, like the church universal,
includes different races and languages. We now have in our church family, beside
a couple of Canadians, three families originally from Liberia. God has brought
us all together and made us one family. Why? I believe the most important reason
is this: God wants us to experience his power. Have you ever thought about the
world and become discouraged? You think, “If Christianity is true, how come the
world and the church are so broken? Where is God? What is he doing?” That’s a
deep question that would require a long time to answer completely, but I can
begin to give an answer this way:
Paul lived in a world worse than ours in nearly every respect. You know about
his suffering. What did he believe was the most persuasive argument for the
truth of Christianity? What did he expect non-Christians would find so
compelling about our faith? It was the way God brings together in the church all
races and classes of people. Jew and Gentile? Forget all that? Greek and
Barbarian? Those words mean nothing any more. We are all one in Christ Jesus.
God has brought all of us at Westminster together not just to teach us
something, not just to remind us that he is God of the whole world and a God of
power and might, but above all so that we might experience his power for
ourselves—as we love one another.
Like the gift of global Christian unity, our unity as a church family is both a
gift from God and something he expects us to put into practice. We need to reach
out, overcome language barriers, build friendships, and love one another. Then
the unity of Christians will not be an abstract doctrine, but a living reality.
Then we will know firsthand the power and glory of God. Amen.