How Good and Pleasant it Is!

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

When we lived in Clinton, North Carolina, we saw something really cool every spring in front of the Episcopal rectory (rectory is just another word for manse; manse is just another word for parsonage; parsonage is just another word for pastor’s house owned by the church). There’s a peach tree right where the driveway meets the sidewalk. Only, it’s not your ordinary peach tree, by any means. It is a peach tree with two different kinds of flowers. Reddish-pink flowers and white streaked flowers sharing common branches.

I’m going to go out on limb here, and say that something strange is going on. 

Well, a few years ago I asked the priest about the tree. He said that a long time ago someone planted two different kinds of peach seeds right next to each other. The two trees started to grow independently, but because they were planted within a matter of inches of each other, their root systems became intertwined, and their trunks self-grafted. The result is one tree, with two different kinds of peach blossoms growing side-by-side.

It really makes something beautiful, don’t you think?

I see in this peach tree a wonderful metaphor for the church (you should know by now that most of my reflections are based on metaphors). The church is comprised of people from all walks of life who believe in and follow Jesus as their Savior and Lord. Though we are different in many ways from one another, Jesus makes us one. One body, with many parts, as Paul describes the church in 1 Corinthians 12.

The key is that our differences no longer separate us or create divisions. In the church, each of us keeps our own uniqueness, while being united with those who are different from us. Again, I refer to Paul, who describes this dynamic beautifully: 

“There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ.” (Galatians 3:28)

Paul isn’t saying that our unity in Christ eliminates all those differences; rather, he is saying that in Christ those differences are no longer to be used to make one person superior over another or create divisions or practice discrimination. In Christ, we are all grafted onto the same family tree.

This, of course, is how it is supposed to be in the life of the church. Through the centuries, reality has fallen far short of the ideal. But that’s fodder for another reflection. 

For now, I want to lift up the inherent beauty of our unity in Jesus Christ. It really is a remarkable thing when black and white, liberal and conservative, rich and poor, young and old, male and female, American and Latino and Asian and European and all other nationalities and cultures can come together to worship and serve the Lord as one people.

Jesus prayed to God that all of Jesus’ followers would “be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you [i.e., God] have sent me [i.e., Jesus] and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (John 17:23) In other words, Jesus knew that the way that we live together as one people united in him would bear witness to the gospel of Jesus’ love and grace.

After all, that kind of unity is something beautiful to behold.