Imperfect Unity

I was given the chance to read Psalm 133 in church last week.  It is the unity Psalm that was sung as the Jewish people ascended to Jerusalem for the great worship festivals.  This ascent acted out the life lived upward toward God and ultimately discovered in Jesus Christ.

It is ironic that I should be reading this Psalm since I am not a particularly good unity dweller.  I tend to see the negative, sense the strain in a relationship, talk about what could have been better and notice the slight.  In good Pharisee fashion I insist that every person be as I am, at the same stage with the same stories as mine. 

I am at the same time on a transforming journey.  Because of the cross I have been redeemed and am being redeemed.  The Christ-life that has been imputed is spacious, abundant, full, glorious and vastly different than my fleshly inclinations. 

We all tend toward this polarized tension as we live together in community.  While we wish to interact with perfect people in perfect ways, we instead have to deal with imperfect people….like ourselves. 

We sit beside the person in worship who annoys us with their loud talkativeness and the one whose pain creates a walled distance.  We pray with the person who never seems satisfied and another who is overly opinionated about some obscure point.  We care for our town with the person who parents their children differently and one whose immaturity gets under our skin.   

Unity finds its greatest realization in imperfection.  Unity with the easy is one thing but unity with the difficult is another.  Imperfection heightens the need for us to live out love, compassion and humility with one another.  Incapable of sustaining a superficial relationship we delve into supportive bond fostered by the Spirit. 

Such unity is fragrant and attractive.  It’s as invigorating as a grand ceremony to anoint a High Priest that unites an entire nation in worship.  It’s as refreshing as grass drinking in the morning dew at the summit of a mountain peak.