Unity is a Call, Not a Luxury

by ​Rev. Najla Kassab, President of the WCRC

Visiting a tent for Syrian refugees in Lebanon, I was surprised with the faces of the five children who had burned scars. I approached the mother to ask her why all the children have similar scars on their faces; she informed me that her husband died and she usually leaves them alone in the tent and goes to work in the field. They sit around the stove alone; and while playing they get the burns. Then I proposed to her that the mothers in the surrounding tents could cooperate to stay with the kids and protect each other’s kids . I thought I was providing a valued proposal, but she surprised me with her answer, “At the time of war, everyone is busy with their own pain. Forget about unity; survival is the issue. Unity is a luxury of the good times.”
 
Friends I write this reflection while I am in Beirut, Lebanon, and my writing is interrupted by the several messages received on my cell phone to know which areas in Lebanon were hit and how many are dead till now. The sound of explosions, which could endanger anyone's life, remains a constant reminder. In the last few weeks, more than 3000 civilians were killed, many injured and more than one million Lebanese became refugees; a fourth of the country is displaced, and the future does not look hopeful as violence is continued. The world is silent.
 
The question of unity in diversity is a valued topic that challenges our standing together as a Communion ; A world communion that comes together to witness and work towards justice together. The COVID pandemic has hit strongly our churches and led to great challenges in several of our churches and has pushed our churches in the Communion whether in the Caribbean and North American Area or around the world,  to face several diverse challenges. Several churches became overwhelmed with their pain and undermined our unity. The diverse challenge that every one of us faces, where it could be the issue of war, injustice, loss of membership, lack of leadership in churches, change in identity, and several other challenges, could drive us to take unity lightly and to focus mainly on our pain and burdens. And in this matter, working through a bigger body becomes the least of our interests.
 
In John 17:20–26, Jesus prays for his disciple so they are united.
20 I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, 21 that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, 23 I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me. 24 Father, I desire that they also, whom thou hast given me, may be with me where I am, to behold my glory, which thou hast given me in thy love for me before the foundation of the world. 25 O righteous Father, the world has not known thee, but I have known thee, and these know that thou hast sent me. 26 I made known to them thy name, and I will make it known, that the love with which thou hast loved me may be in them, and I in them.”
 
Jesus prays for the disciples to be one, to live in unity in the line of the Glory of Christ. Glorified unity that resembles Christ; unity that does not compromise truth but lives in harmony with the gospel; lifting Christ in all that we do and striving to look like Christ even when that could mean to carry a cross. Glorified unity is beyond organizational structures but rather living up to the call of Christ, so God’s will in heaven is lived on earth. Glorified unity could shake our organizations and call them to recenter, reevaluate, and become reshaped and reformed. We come together not to gain power but to share all that we have for the dignity of the people, especially those who are struggling among us, and they are many.
 
Friends , I share my reflections in the middle of disturbance, shaken by the amount of death around us in Lebanon now and for long in Gaza and the Middle East. The struggle is: how will the world believe us as a church? Where is this unity in sharing the pain of others and coming together for the  sake of pain of others beyond slogans and threats? How would the others look at us and respond to what we say? The problem is the question of whether the world believes us when they are in pain. Sometimes those who are in pain are reluctant to share their stories with us because we only talk. As President of the WCRC am asked regularly through our visits what you have done to us... And many times I feel challenged to find meaningful answers that meet the daily pain that people face.
 
Since October 2023, we have been challenged as the Presbyterian Church in Lebanon to live like Christ in the middle of a very diverse society, religiously, culturally, and even with our political stands. In the middle of all this diversity, which led to costly price, still the Christian community was united in feeding the people, welcoming a refugee, providing medicine, and lessening the pain of the simple civilian, even when we disagreed with them on several issues regarding our country. To be like Christ is what unifies us and brings us together to live as the body of Christ. This has not been an easy experience for the youth at first, but it is a shaping experience that united them with Christ and with one another. It is an experience beyond the regular “proper” encounter but rather a deeper understanding for the meaning of glorified unity emerged.
 
Why do we come together? remains the key question. We come together to share our diverse contexts of pain and to work together towards a better tomorrow for all especially those who are struggling among us, so that they may believe that we reflect the journey of Christ among them. We come together in unity that teaches us a new way of being the church for today, with renewed imagination as the Wittenberg witness puts it.
 
“Together we long for renewed imagination of what being the church in communion could mean—for our world, in our time. We need new imagination to live together in ways that would embrace our unity not only as a gift but also as calling. We need new imagination to dream of a different world, a world where justice, peace, and reconciliation prevail. We need new imagination to practice spiritualities of resistance and prophetic vision, spiritualities in service of life, spiritualities formed by the mission of God.”
 
We come together to say unity is not a luxury but at the heart of our call and learning of how to reflect Christ in glory.