Warning: Theological Meanderings!

“A time of peace. . . I swear it's not too late.”
(A modest proposal for preserving unity)

Pete Seeger’s 1954 musical rendition of Ecclesiastes 3:8 in “Turn,Turn,Turn” ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn,_Turn,_Turn ) remains a challenge to the Body of Christ. The apostle Paul begs, implores, urges us in Ephesians 4 to walk worthy of our calling by enlisting “all humility and gentleness, with patience, [and] tolerance for one another in love” to “be diligent to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bonds of peace.” If the word for “preserve” weren’t in the original, I’d say, by all appearances, Paul got it wrong. Everywhere I look, the disunity of the church is painfully evident – from the rampant difficulty of husband and wife, parent and child, fellow congregants, and occasionally leaders within a Christian group to simply “get along” to the splintering of denominations across neighborhoods and the world. I live near a town whose official population is 156 souls yet it sports 4 different churches. I propose that this is excessive, but probably not an extreme. I don’t see much unity to preserve! But God gets it right. Our Savior prayed for our unity. The unity is and it is spiritual: substantial but not visible, so preserve we must – and diligently. The directives are even plain: All humility, gentleness, tolerance, and love in the bonds (constraints) of peace. But simple is rarely easy, and so with this. My proposal is far from the noble and often mistrusted ecumenical declarations:
What if Christians who have the privilege of several local assemblies to choose from periodically attend one other than their own “church of choice”? For instance, let all adherents be hereby encouraged to attend one meeting or gathering of a different denomination every month or two. Stretch your associations as far as you dare! At least once a year, darken the doorway of a religious establishment you’ve never before entered – or perhaps ever imagined entering. My basis is that the injunction of unity preservation in Ephesians applies to each and every believer, not just to resolutions from leadership councils. What if this were extended to pastors and other leaders as well as “us ordinary folk”? How can I say I love God whom I have not seen if I don’t [even give myself the opportunity to] love the brother I have seen? The unity of the Spirit is alive, but we must nurture, encourage and preserve it – “I swear it’s not to late!”