Acts 2:1-21 (Pentecost)
St. John, Galveston 6/8/25
Rev. Alan Taylor
“True Christian Unity”
+ In Nomine Jesu +
Grace and peace to you, from God our Father and from our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Lutherans are often accused of being the instigators of Christian disunity. The Church was united, some would say, until the Reformation of the 16th century, when Luther, that wild boar of a man, that drunken monk, as Pope Leo X referred to him, ran amuck in the house of God. The Lutheran position regarding certain issues of faith and life was clearly and forcefully delivered in the presentation of the Augsburg Confession of 1530, when the Princes of the various German provinces knelt before his Imperial Majesty, Charles V, and said, “we would rather have our heads severed from our bodies than give up the truth of God’s Word.”
Richard John Neuhaus, was a former Lutheran pastor who became a Roman Catholic priest. He wrote an article sometime back titled “Augsburg and Catholicism – Healing the Reformation Breach.” The article was written on the occasion of the Roman Catholic Church’s consideration of “accepting” the Augsburg Confession. In that article, Neuhaus said, “Missouri (meaning the Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod) is clearly more comfortable with the encrustations of schism than with the Augsburg Confession's ecumenical imperative.”
Neuhaus was referring to a statement in the Preface to the Augsburg Confession, where the German Princes pledged that they would do all in their power to support Christian unity. “If no amicable and charitable negotiations take place between us (they said), and if no results are attained, nevertheless we on our part shall not omit doing anything, in so far as God and conscience allow, that may serve the cause of Christian unity.” Neuhaus’ point was that the LCMS (at least in his mind) was more invested in division among Christians than in unity.
Hopefully you don’t agree with Neuhaus’ assessment. Or, maybe you do. Either way, you might be wondering what this discussion of Christian unity has to do with Pentecost Sunday. On Pentecost we reflect on the “birth,” if you will, of the Church. This is the day that the Holy Spirit was poured out on the people who gathered that day in Jerusalem after Jesus’ Ascension. A people divided by language and race all heard the voice of God in their own language. They were Parthians, and Medes, Elamites and so forth. The text of Acts 2, which is the Pentecost narrative, is, among other things, about unity in the Church.
There is an important contrast though between the Old Testament passage from Genesis 11 and this reading from Acts 2. In Genesis, God scattered the people and confused their language because, as He said, “the people are ONE and they all have ONE language, and this is what they begin to do (that is, they build a tower to the heavens in order to distinguish themselves, to make a name for themselves);and now nothing (God says) that they propose to do will be withheld from them.”
And then, in Acts 2 God gave the people the ability to hear His word once again, as a united people, in their own language. Luke begins his Pentecost account by exalting the unity and the oneness of God’s people, saying, “When the Day of Pentecost had fully come, they were all with ONE accord in ONE place.”
The Day of Pentecost then has a great deal to say to us about oneness, or, unity in the Christian Church. The truth is, unity, particularly among God’s people, can be a good thing, but interestingly enough, it can also be a bad thing. Remember, the people came together in Genesis 11 as one people, and yet, their joint actions displeased God such that He destroyed the tower they had built, a tower that rose up as a fruit of their unity. In Acts 2 He united the people once again, specifically though that they might be of ONE mind, of ONE voice, that they might offer a common confession of their faith. In the same way, the Holy Spirit unites us today, calling us to be of one mind, as Paul admonished the people of Corinth to “Become complete. To be of good comfort, of ONE MIND, to live in peace; that the God of love and peace will be with us.”(II Cor. 13:11)
It is generally considered a good thing when people of different beliefs, different points of view, come together for a common cause. In the aftermath of the 9/11 travesty, for instance, Americans were united against a common enemy, namely radical Jihadists who were and are bent on the destruction of western culture. Our country, frankly, is built on just this kind of unity. People of different races and different religious beliefs come together for the common good, namely the preservation of liberty. And so, culturally we practice what some have called “reconciled diversity,” and in doing so we pose a formidable force for the establishment and protection of our beliefs and ideals.
And yet, the concept of “reconciled diversity” should really be foreign to those of us who bear the name Christian. There is a children’s song that says, “Jesus loves me this I know for the Bible tells me so.” Some might wonder why we Christians can’t just believe those words and leave the details alone. Or, more specifically, why we Lutherans can’t follow our cultural model and practice “reconciled diversity” in doctrinal matters, simply “agreeing, if you will, to disagree” in matters that currently separate us from other Christians? After-all, isn’t a united Christianity better than a divided one? The argument certainly isn’t a new one. In the 16th century reformation, Pope Leo X railed against Luther because the Turk, the enemy of Christendom at that time, was poised to take over Christian lands, and there was Luther dividing the Church.
It’s really that last question, the one about a united Christianity being better than a divided one, that sets up the “straw man” that we must contend with when it comes to the issue of Christian unity because it suggests that there is no possibility of unity in confession and faith, that we can’t again live, as the disciples did, in “one accord.” Without a doubt our God grieves over the divisions in the Church, whether they are over doctrine or some other issue. Our doctrinal issues grieve God because He has given us His Word, which is without error, and is clear in and of itself. He has also given us His Holy Spirit, the Counselor, the Spirit of Truth who calls us to be of ONE accord, of ONE mind, to walk in a fashion that exalts the Holy name of the One true God, who always points our troubled, sin burdened souls to Christ Jesus and Him crucified.
There was something about the confession of those German Princes that really moves the heart. I mean, they were willing die, literally to have their heads chopped off, rather than be forced to confess something that they didn’t believe, or, that violated the voice of their conscience.
There is a freedom given to us in the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ, a freedom that enlivens the soul because it takes away the condemnation of an angry and wrathful God. That freedom, of course, comes to us from a God who says to us “I see your sin, but I forgive you!” Those words, my friends, and all that supports them, the giving of the Son of God, the blessed presence of that Son in the Sacrament of Holy Communion, the renewal afforded us in the water of Holy Baptism, and so forth, are all worth fighting for because, in these, we find our freedom, indeed, in these we find our life and salvation.
Several years ago, I received a poster in the mail. It was a poster announcing a Vacation Bible School that was going to be offered. The theme of the VBS was “Go Green for God.” I contrasted that theme with the theme of the Augsburg Confession, which offered such a freedom to men that they were willing to lay their lives on the line in order to preserve it, and, I thought to myself, is this the best that we can give our children? Has political correctness so captured us that Jesus Christ, and Him crucified, is no longer the center of what the Church has to offer and give to the world?
The Tower of Babel came crashing down as God judged the people’s unity to be detrimental to their faith in Him. In Acts 2 they were united again by the power of the Holy Spirit. From that moment on they were to be of ONE mind, giving glory to God by lifting high the cross of Jesus. And they went their way to face martyrdom rather than give up the freedom they had in Jesus’ forgiving grace. What they believed seemed to them to be worth their lives. God grant us the resolve of martyrs, our confession being grounded in His Word, the only foundation of True Christian Unity.
In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
The peace of God that passes all understanding keep your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus unto life everlasting. Amen.
+ Soli Deo Gloria +