First word

I

T occurred to me while listening to candidate Ferdinand Marcos Jr. intone over and over the words “unity” and “sama-sama” during the recent election campaign, that he was addressing a nation of mostly Christian citizens who worship in different churches and denominations, but were bound together by their core belief in Jesus Christ and his teachings.

We are not a nation of multiple religions and sectarian communities. Except for sporadic conflicts and disorders that have visited our Muslim communities, we have generally been spared from the sectarian troubles of other societies.

It would be sensible, I thought, if Marcos could spend some time reflecting on the essential truths and values that unite Christians everywhere. He could vault over the divisions and quarrels among Catholics, Protestants and evangelicals, if he could address the hopes and concerns that they have in common.

Surprisingly, I found in my research that one of the most eloquent statements and briefs on unity in published works is to be found in articles on Christian unity that were written as far back as the Middle Ages.

Bush inaugural

When US President George H. W. Bush was sworn into office on Jan. 20, 1989, at a time when the world was in upheaval over the collapse of communism in Europe nd the Soviet Union, he cited unity as one of his chief concerns. His fine inaugural address opened with these words:

“I come before you and assume the presidency at a moment rich with promise. We live in a peaceful, prosperous time, but we can make it better. This is a time when the future seems a door you can walk right through into a room called tomorrow.

“I take as my guide the hope of a saint: ‘In crucial things, unity; in important things, diversity; in all things, generosity.’”

I was intrigued and fascinated by the quote. I immediately started a search online for the saint or personage who wrote and first uttered the words.

I am pleased to report that I have found the author. courtesy of an essay on Christian living by Mark Ross, which was posted on the website, ligornier.org. The original author was a German Lutheran theologian in the 17th century.

Mark Ross titled his piece with the text of the quotation: “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity.” I quote his article at length below:

Watchword of peacemakers

“Philip Schaff, the distinguished 19th-century Church historian, calls the saying in our title ‘the watchword of Christian peacemakers’ (History of the Christian Church, vol. 7, p. 650). Often attributed to great theologians such as Augustine, it comes from an otherwise undistinguished German Lutheran theologian of the early 17th century, Rupertus Meldenius. The phrase occurs in a tract on Christian unity written (circa 1627) during the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), a bloody time in European history in which religious tensions played a significant role. The saying has found great favor among subsequent writers such as Richard Baxter, and has since been adopted as a motto by the Moravian Church of North America and the Evangelical Presbyterian Church. Might it serve us well as a motto for every church and for every denomination today?

Unity

“Those who are united by faith in Christ are thereby united to one another in the church, the body of Christ. We call this union the communion of saints. It is a mysterious thing, and to understand it properly we will need to see it both in its ‘now’ and ‘not yet’ aspects. Because it is a union created by Christ in baptizing us all by one Spirit into His body, the church (1 Cor. 12:12–13), it is true of all Christians now, a fait accompli. But the manifestation of that unity is not always apparent. Christians can display ugly divisions between one another, as at the church of Corinth (1:10–17). Their disunity could be seen in the public square as members sued one another before the ungodly in civic courts (6:1–8). Even the Lord’s Supper was not sufficient to bring them together in love and unity (11:17–34).

Liberty

“Tensions arising from diversity of belief and practice among Christians are already apparent in the pages of the New Testament and remain with us today. There was apparently a thriving vegetarian faction within the church at Rome (Rom. 14). ‘One person believes he may eat anything, while the weak person eats only vegetables’ (v. 2). There was also a difference among them about whether certain days were to be honored (v. 5). How do we live with such differences among us? Paul says, ‘As for the one who is weak in faith, welcome him, but not to quarrel over opinions’ (v. 1). Such a person is to be welcomed, says Paul, and not just welcomed for the purpose of quarreling with him over his views. Love for such a person, weak in faith though he is, must continue.

“In that love, we must extend liberty to each person to hold fast to his own conscience on what Christ has commanded (Rom. 14:5); but how far can that liberty be extended? Apparently, it would extend far enough to include vegetarians and those who maintained that Christians should continue to honor the Jewish feast days…

“After 2,000 years of Church history, Christians are still divided on many key doctrinal issues, even on the very signs of our unity in Christ — baptism and the Lord’s Supper. How, then, can we be one in Christ and demonstrate the communion of saints? It would seem that either we must ignore our doctrinal differences and treat them as inconsequential, or we must remain permanently divided and in opposition to one another until Christ returns. Is there not a more excellent way? (1 Cor. 12:31).

Charity

“Love for Christ must include a love for His truth, and so we can never treat as inconsequential anything that Christ has commanded. Only those who abide in Jesus’ word are truly His disciples (John 8:31), and disciples are to be taught to obey all that He has commanded (Matt. 28:19–20). So the route that we might call doctrinal minimalism is not open to us. We cannot simply reduce the number of doctrines to be taught and believed to what we can all accept as important and ignore the rest. Movement in that direction always seems to lose its brakes and eventually nothing distinctive of Christianity remains.

“But neither can we lock ourselves up in very small groups with maximal agreement on doctrine and morals, and then separate from others and refuse to acknowledge as Christians those who do not embrace all our distinctives. The multiplication of small groups who pride themselves on purity but who denounce and despise those who fall short of that standard does nothing to express the truth of ‘the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church’ for which Christ died. The love we must have for all of Christ’s disciples has no expression in this path. Where, then, is the more excellent way?…

“The saying of Rupertus Meldenius strikes the right balance. It calls for unity on the essential things, the core of truth in our union with Christ. In nonessentials (not the unimportant, but those things that if lacking do not prevent our union with Christ), it calls for liberty so that all might follow their consciences under the Word and Spirit. In all things, however, there must be love (‘charity’ from the Latin caritas, or ‘love’), ‘which binds everything together in perfect harmony’ (Col. 3:14).”

President Marcos, of course, could have an entirely different idea on how to forge unity among his people. He could pursue national unity through pathways other than religion,

I only wish to suggest here that religious faith is a beginning. When there is a shared belief in common values and Christ, people can quickly work together as a community or in a spirit of ecumenism.

Ironically, it may be among his fellow Catholics and Catholic prelates, where our new president will encounter the most resistance.

But it will pass.