Cincinnati Great Communion

For the several thousand who were unable to attend :-), the following is the message I delivered at the Cincinnati Great Communion on October 4, 2009, celebrating the 200 anniversary of Thomas Campbell's Declaration and Address.

After I had been recruited for this gig I was given information about what might be expected of me. I was told to be positive and speak of the future instead of the past. That is what I consider to be a daunting task when we consider the audience and our shared history.

And then the planning committee assigns me the task of speaking on Thomas Campbell's first point in his famous (to us) Declaration. Campbell said: "That the Church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one; consisting of all those in every place that profess their faith in Christ and obedience to him in all things according to the Scriptures."

What in the world was he thinking? What in all of his Christian experience would inspire him to talk such crazy talk? Using unity and Christians in the same thought is crazy talk. Thomas Campbell made a mistake rarely made by theologians and preachers. He read the Bible. Really read the Bible. He read the Bible with an open mind. He read the Bible without an agenda, without an idea to defend. He read the Bible and took what it has to say seriously. When one does that, one becomes a radical. Because the Bible, especially the New Testament, calls for radical thinking and radical living.

I find looking at what Jesus had to say interesting for both what Jesus said and what he didn't say. For example, when asked by an interested party what is really important in the Kingdom of God, Jesus had a great opportunity to enumerate the exact doctrine we should adhere to and tell us all of the rules of proper living we should follow. What He said and didn't say is interesting. Let's look at that conversation recorded in Mark 12:28-31. ²⁸One of the teachers of the law came and heard them debating. Noticing that Jesus had given them a good answer, he asked him, "Of all the commandments, which is the most important?" ²⁹"The most important one" answered Jesus, "is this: 'Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one. ³⁰Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.' ³¹The second is this: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no commandment greater than these."

Very interesting.

Jesus prayed for us… for you and me. That prayer is interesting for both what it contains and what it doesn't contain.

John 17:20-23. ²⁰"My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, ²¹that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. ²²I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: ²³I 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."

It is my guess Campbell read these words of Jesus and took them at face value.

Jesus doesn't pray that we remain comfortable, happy, correct, or safe. Jesus just prays that we have some unity. Not for comfort's sake. But so that people who do not yet know God will know that this bunch of Jesus followers really are God's messengers to this lost world. Jesus knows that nothing will attract people to the message of Christ and convince those people more powerfully that the message Christ offers is a wonderful, life giving, life changing message than a bunch of people who claim to know God hanging together with the glue of God's love.

For too many years too many of us in the church have viewed people, who are also in the church, but who have failed to believe or act exactly as we believe and act, as unbelievers. Fortunately we live in a wonderful time when it is quite easy to see the difference between people who know God and those who don't.

Friends, we are all in this together. There are a vast number of people all around us who are completely clueless about God. These people need to see, in a very real way, God's love lived out in our lives. If we Christians are going to choose up sides, I would hope the competition would be to out love each other. I am pretty sure that would make Jesus smile.

I would remind us that unity is not uniformity. We don't all have to look alike, act alike, dress alike, worship alike, or even believe everything alike. I am not interested in uniformity. I have been a part of the church for several decades and I have been observing the church for several decades. So I am not interested in uniformity. I may love you but, trust me on this; I don't necessarily want to be like you. And though most of you have just known about me for a few minutes, most of you have probably concluded you don't want to be like me.

But I want to be united with you in loving God, loving others and helping to spread the outrageously good news that God loved the world so much that He gave his only son as a sacrifice for our sins so that we could know Him and live with Him eternally.

So, brothers and sisters in Christ, will you join me in doing something outrageous and life changing? Join me in reading the Word of God. Read it without an agenda or something to prove. Read it with an open heart and an open mind. And then, I challenge you to take it seriously.

I believe that if we, you and me, do this, we will finally find the elusive unity that Jesus prayer for us to have and Thomas Campbell believed we could achieve.

Copyright © 2009, William T. McConnell, All Rights Reserved