God’s Heart for Unity

How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity! (Psalm 133:1 NIV)

There we were, the body of Christ, beautifully diverse, lifting our voices in one chorus to the heavens. I remember the moment like it was yesterday. We had been living in Shanghai for a few months when my husband and I decided to check out the only church available to foreigners. I marveled at the diversity as I stood amid hundreds of people gathered from all over the world. We were one body representing over sixty nations and two hundred denominations, and we were all there for the same reason.

At that moment I knew I was tasting a bit of heaven on earth, but I had no idea it would change the trajectory of my life.

Not long after I became a Christian, I learned that the Sunday morning church service in the United States is the most segregated timeof the week. I felt a pull toward racial reconciliation, but I had no idea what that looked like in action. The world and all its systems and brokenness seemed too big and too confusing, and while I believed God could work it out, I didn’t know where I fit in that process. I continued my own journey toward God and the people in my community—mostly white evangelicals like me.

After close to five years of living abroad, we returned to the States, bought a home, and settled back into our previous life. Yet something had changed. Even though we were surrounded by familiar places and faces, life felt lacking and off. I told myself it was a case of the repatriation blues, but my heart longed for the taste of heaven I’d had while living in Shanghai.

Through a series of events, my husband and I felt a call to sell our suburban home, leave the church we had known our entire married life, and move to the city of Detroit. I’d like to say I moved into my new home, made loads of friends, joined a more racially diverse body, and have been sailing along on the seas of racial reconciliation ever since, but the journey hasn’t been that simple.

Like many white people, I was mostly unaware of the depth of racial division we faced in our nation, and the truth is I had very little appreciation or knowledge as to why. I’ve come to learn that not only has our history left a chasm of division in its wake, but the large-scale lack of understanding, repentance, and work toward changing has left the consequences unattended and festering.

As I’ve waded into the work of racial reconciliation, I’ve come to learn some hard truths. The segregation we experience in our churches today is the direct result of the history of segregation and racism in our past. Instead of our churches reflecting the vision of unity Jesus desired, we reflect the segregation of our nation. We are wounded and in need of restoration, wholeness, and healing.

The good news is that we have the early church as our model. Jews and Samaritans, who had walked miles just to avoid seeing one another, started living in community together as followers of Jesus. The once hardened enemies became brethren. They broke bread together daily and cared for one another financially, spiritually, and emotionally. They embodied reconciliation to the outside world.

Theirs was a unity that bore witness to the restorative and radical power of God. Their unity was not only spiritual fruit, but a witness to the world. It was holy and heavenly, and this unity is just as available to the body now as it was thousands of years ago.

As the years have passed and I’ve grown in my faith and understanding of God, I’ve learned more about his heart for unity in the body. This has stirred me and moved me out of the complacency and comfort of familiar surroundings, to a place where I’ve felt called to the work of peacemaking and reconciliation. I’ve moved from passively resting on the belief that God will work it out someday to actively partnering with God’s people in working it out.

Jesus brings restoration and healing, and our partnership with him makes the challenging work of reconciliation not only possible but lifegiving. This work is holy, and with God as our guide, extra grace, and humble hearts, we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.

Jennifer Kinney lives in Shanghai, China with her husband and twin sons. She works as a communications coordinator for a non-profit fighting to end human trafficking in Asia. When she isn’t doing that or playing referee to her two busy boys, she writes at jenkinney.com about her life abroad, random thoughts, and being a mom to a child with epilepsy.

Photograph © Ronny Sison, used with permission