WHAT REALLY MAKES US ONE?

Ouida and I went to hear Ann Kiemel when she visited our little city last week. Our congregation sold tickets to the affair, which were but a dollar, mainly because a number of our sisters have been especially impressed by her ministry and books. Ouida was interested in hearing her, so I went along, but with no special eagerness, for, being a male chauvinist, I have a prejudice against women preachers, though Ann is not exactly a preacher. She sits on a stool, which helps, and uses no pulpit, which also helps, and she doesn’t shout at you, which really helps. In fact she talks quietly, almost in a whisper, and with love and humility. She is disarming, projecting not herself at all, but the one who apparently has complete control of her life, Jesus. She is no phony, that was obvious.

Ouida was impressed with her I’m Out to Change My World, which I have not yet read. I’m suspicious of books written by women. But I don’t need to read it, for our lovely sisters at our congregation, one by one, have told me this story and that anecdote from it and other of her books. So I knew something of Ann’s ministry before I heard her speak. She does things like pray with people (with her eyes open so as not to attract undue attention) on airplanes, talk about Jesus on the streets, and sing little heart songs to folk in restaurants. There was this sophisticated business man sitting beside her on the airliner, who happened to be a Jew. When the hostess served them their meal, Ann asked him if he would like for her to thank God for the food, which she must have done quietly and tenderly, that being her nature. What? responded the man. When she repeated what she had in mind, he told her to go ahead if she wanted to, but to be quick about it! Ann not only thanked the Lord, but prayed for the stranger sitting beside her. He was touched by her loving words to the point of tears, assuring her that it was beautiful, and he could not get enough from her for the rest of the flight.

She is convinced that everyone is hungry for God and His love. When men come to her home to repair this or that, she sings little songs to them, some of which are of her own composition. This often leads them to open up their hearts to her and pour out their aches and pains. I was impressed with her desire to minister for Jesus in her own neighborhood, to change her world if but a bit by showing love to those around her, whether waitresses, bell hops, paper boys, or those who park cars and sweep the streets. She has but one theme and that is Jesus and his love. She also scored with me in revealing her love and loyalty for her mama and daddy, even to keeping an appointment with them rather than to accept a lucrative assignment. She is unmarried.

But I was as much interested in the audience that had gathered as I was in Ann, which was made up of some 400 of our citizens, young and old alike, and probably of every denominational persuasion in town. As we all listened to Ann tell about this poor, wayward waitress who came to her home at love’s invitation and poured out her life of sin to God on bended knees in the middle of Ann’s living room, my own eyes were filled with tears as I am sure most everyone else’s were. This was because we were all touched by the humble ministry of an unpretentious woman who desires only to share the love of Jesus with people who hurt.

On the way home that Saturday I told Ouida that almost certainly most of those who had gathered to hear Ann experienced a more spiritual and moving fellowship than they would the next day with their churches. She told us about her life with Jesus in that hard, indifferent world out there, and there isn’t much of that in our churches. It was a cold, uncomfortable day, but still hundreds gathered, busy people who had other things to do that Saturday-to hear a person who is out to change her world by sharing Jesus.

I felt a oneness with those who had gathered. They were there to hear how Jesus has changed people’s lives through one simple person. She so projected the Lord and magnified his love in her own personality that Jesus seemed to be present himself. There we were, as diverse as any assembly of believers would likely be, sharing our tears of joy with one we did not even know personally, and all this because of him whom we all love, having never seen. Jesus the Lord! What a difference he makes!

Isn’t this the only unity and fellowship that has any meaning? It is Jesus who really makes us one in spite of all our differences and hangups. Had Ouida and I brought Ann home with us for the weekend, there would have been an immediate bond between us. She could not be a stranger in our home because she loves him whom we love, and she, like ourselves, acknowledges him as the Lord of her life. “He is himself our peace” Eph. 2:14 assures us. It is only his love that can heal divisions. Doctrinal conformity never healed a broken heart and never united that which is divided. Power is in love, not in a chart outlining the five acts of worship. Healing and unity are in a Person, not in “doctrinal soundness.”

On the other hand, should we have in our home some of the elders of the Churches of Christ of this city, with whom we would surely have more doctrinal agreement than with Ann Kiemel, they would be strangers to us and there would not be “the unity of the Spirit.” Sectism and legalism have driven these men not only to be rude and disrespectful but cruel and despotic as well. Never mind that they belong to “the Lord’s church” or that they may be able to quote a lot of scriptures. They don’t really love Jesus. They may know some things about him, but they do not know him. Otherwise they would not be heartless and oppressive toward their own people who deviate only slightly from the party line, however humbly. One who loves Jesus does not hate and maltreat his brothers.

The enmity that Jesus came to remove, the middle wall that he took away, is the pride, selfishness, and partyism that separate people from each other. When sectarian pride is removed and the love of Jesus rules the heart, then folk are no longer strangers. They are brought nigh by the blood of Christ. They still have hangups and they are still wrong about some things, but there is a new song in their hearts and it is this power that makes them true friends. It is not so much that they have learned a lot more, but that they have discovered a Person.

This is why we must conclude that the true disciples are those who love Jesus and crown him as the Lord of their lives, and it is this and only this that brings us together in the fellowship of the Spirit. If one loves Jesus, we may assume that she is seeking both to know and to do his will, for if we love him we will keep his commandments. It is this seeking that makes one a true disciple. Those who have already learned it all and stand in cruel judgment over all others who are less enlightened than themselves may be good legalists but they are not faithful disciples. Such ones are uncomfortable in the presence of people who love Jesus rather than a party. They are threatened by those who would be free from sectism and devoted only to Jesus.

A congregation is not united simply because they have all been baptized and all gather in the same building, or even because they more or less believe everything alike. A party has never united anybody and never will. It may set them apart as a sect, separated from the rest of the Body of Christ, but it never heals, comforts or unites. Only the love of Christ does that. Even a Hitler or a Nero could have been transformed into a gentle, compassionate, child-like person by the love of our Lord. But nothing else could have done it, and nothing else can do it for us. No party, no philosophy, no church, no set of doctrines, no good works. We need God’s grace and Jesus’ love as much as any Hitler or Nero ever did. It is only the gospel, the good news of Jesus’ love for us, that makes us one.

Think of it, the likes of the wicked Nero would be a friend and brother in your home once he is changed by the love of Jesus. United with a Nero in the Spirit! Such is the power of the gospel of love. Unless that love burns in people’s hearts we are not and cannot be one with them in the Spirit, whether they be educated clergy, sophisticated church folk, or influential editors.

“To’ crown all, there must be love, to bind all together and complete the whole” (Col. 2:12, NEB). —the Editor

It is obvious that Thomas Campbell found Christians in all churches. He was not disposed to challenge the Christianity of those who differed with him in matters of theological detail. If there had been no Christians among the Methodists and Baptists of his day, there would have been none to unite, and his entire plan would have fallen to the ground. —Stephen J. England