We Can Choose Our Like Minded Friends, But Not Our God-Chosen Spiritual Kin

Too little has been written, and too little said,
about the scandal of a divided and splintered
body of Christ.

For most of my adult life I have been a member of the Virginia Mennonite Conference, an imperfect but blessed expression of God’s beloved community. For me VMC has not been just another "Gesellschaft," like a social organization, but a living part of a worldwide "Gemeinschaft," a spiritual communion of blood-bought close relatives.

So I grieve when congregations in this or any other God-chosen community of faith choose to separate themselves from others in their extended faith family, their spiritual kin. 

In the words of pastor and author Benjamin Cremer, "The world is not impressed by a church where everyone who is essentially the same is getting along with each other. The world needs to see the church practice what is extremely difficult to accomplish: an incredibly diverse group of people loving and advocating for one another.”

In the U.S. prior to the Civil War, one of the nation's major divisions was between Unionists who wanted to preserve the nation’s "E Pluribus Unum" (“of many, one”), and Secessionists who worked at forming an alternative confederacy of states. 

Today there is a similar divide between "unionists" (lower case) and “separationists” in the church, each believing theirs is the only right position to take in the face of significant differences of faith and practice.

But what message are we sending non-believers and to our children and grandchildren when we simply give up on maintaining long held spiritual ties, and give up on prayerfully seeking to work things out as blood-bought members of “one faith, one baptism, and one body?” 

There are of course clear instructions in the Bible about removing unrepentant individuals from a congregation, but is there any mandate for congregations separating themselves en masse from other whole groups of churches? 

I know of none. Jesus's fervent prayer is "that they all may be one, as I and the Father are one,” so that “the world may know that you are my disciples." It is clear that we are called to become members together of one new, God-chosen body and bride of Christ.

So while we may surgically remove a malignant member who threatens the life and health of the congregation, we should resist any amputation of whole limbs or organs of Christ's body unless it is clearly a matter of spiritual life or death.

We are always to "choose life," and always seek to demonstrate the kind of unity in our life here that we expect to experience in the life hereafter. In this way we become an answer to our Lord's prayer that the redemptive and reconciling will of God “be done on earth as it is in heaven.”

To me, this means we should be "unionists," intentionally expanding our circle of spiritual relationships and adding to the ties that bind us to other faith communities. As "separationists" we tend to subtract from, and further restrict, the circle of spiritual kin with whom we fellowship and work. 

Some may fear that too much focus on becoming “one in the Spirit” might result in a blurring of boundaries that mark a clear difference between light and darkness, between insiders and outsiders.

I agree that congregations should take seriously their responsibility to prayerfully determine, to the best of their ability, what they believe is heaven's judgment regarding what are truly matters of spiritual life or death. In other words, to ask, “What actually excludes people from God's Book of Life and from being a part of the wedding celebration of the Lamb?”

For example, Anabaptist-minded believers might exclude from their communion tables (and even their work tables) congregants who engage in bombing and killing people, who abuse and oppress the least of these, who manufacture and promote harmful drugs or military style weapons, or who "fare sumptuously every day" without regard for the homeless and hungry Lazaruses among them.

At the same time we should seek radical inclusion with all who are committed to “doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly with God,” and join in fellowship with those who pledge to "love God with their whole heart, soul, mind and strength,” and to “love their every neighbor as they love themselves.” This kind of agape-based love, by definition, will never do harm to another, even to an enemy, but will reach out to insiders and outsiders alike, just as God does. 

ln the case of insiders Christ’s love takes the form of discipleship. With outsiders, that love is about warm invitation and the sharing good news of God's abundant mercy and amazing grace.  

In short, we humbly bind and loose, separate or embrace, based on our best understanding of what we believe to be the will of heaven, but never separate ourselves from others whom God has joined together and made citizens of the kingdom, or “kin-dom," of heaven.

After all, this is God’s covenant community, not ours. We’re just fortunate to have received God’s gracious invitation to become adopted members of it.