Finding love in unity

By Dominee Mike Smuts

One day in the 1960s I travelled by car from Pretoria to Durban. Along the way I picked up a young hitchhiker. When he learned that I was studying to become a minister, he said that he was not a Christian and glad about it. “You know”, he said, “when I look at Christians I feel like somebody standing on a balcony, looking down on the street and all I see are Christians fighting each other.”

This was my first experience of being sensitised about the divisions among Christians. In those days it was fairly common that Christians competed on who had the better grasp of the biblical message and truth about God. Each of us thought that our doctrines were better than those of other Christians and that our particular church was superior. Many believed that they had the inside lane to heaven, to quote John Grisham.

During my ministry I gradually came to appreciate that God’s emphasis and requirement for his Church was not so much how eloquently we can formulate our doctrines, but how we give expression to the unity we have as the family of God; an expression of love, caring and compassion for our brothers and sisters in Christ—irrespective of denominational boundaries. I became aware of how we lack this love.

In my previous congregation we decided that each Sunday evening we would invite a representative of one of the other churches to come and introduce their church to us. We said: “Come and share with us what the nature and identity of your church is and how you would like us to perceive you.”

What a blessing this was! Our members discovered how our common faith in the Lord Jesus was more important than our differences. One of these speakers was a priest of the Catholic Church. In his summary at the end of the evening, after discussing issues on which we differ, he said: “Mike asked me to tell you how you would like to see us. I will be so thankful if you see me tonight as just another child of God who dearly loves Jesus Christ and wants to serve him!”

Now, there you have the basis of our unity!

Another outstanding experience we had, was in the 1990s, after the transition to the new South Africa. We invited Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu to preach in our church. Here was a man who was maligned by the Afrikaans press and politicians, preaching to a congregation of Afrikaans speaking intelligentsia. He had the ideal opportunity to get back at them.

Instead he preached on the theme “God loves you!” He said: “During the horrible years of apartheid, this is the message I preached to my black brothers and sisters. What a privilege to now also preach it to my white Afrikaans brothers and sisters!”

After the sermon, my colleague went on to the pulpit and said: “I speak as an Afrikaans dominee of the Dutch Reformed Church, a part-time chaplain of the army. I now want to say to Bishop Tutu: I am so sorry for what we have done.”

At this stage he broke down and could not continue. Archbishop Tutu went to him and hugged him. Then something unheard of in a staid Dutch Reformed church happened: everybody stood up and applauded them, tears running down many cheeks.

Unity happens when Christians value the love of God and the love he commands, higher than their differences and divisive histories; especially when Christian love compels us to forgive as he forgave us.

Creating divisions and maintaining it is part of our sinful nature. The Bible gives many examples of such divisions. In the time of Jesus deep divisions existed among the Jewish peoples. Even the apostle Paul experienced great pain because of divisions within the first churches.

He warned that such behaviour is tantamount to dividing Christ Himself. The Afrikaans translation says: “Is Christus dan in stukke verdeel?” (1Cor 1:13) Therefore he pleaded: “Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace” (Eph 4)

May God show each of us how we can obey this command!

Mike Smuts is a retired Dutch Reformed Minister in Boesmansriviermond, Eastern Cape.