Bible Text: 1 Peter 3:8-12 | Preacher: Pastor Dorry Newcomer | Series: 1 Peter | This week I spoke on the phone with a Lutheran pastor in Puerto Rico.  I never met her before, and we were talking only a minute or two when we heard ourselves both saying the word, “overwhelmed” at the same time!  I immediately thought about our scripture for today, and how Peter urges his readers to have a “unity of spirit”.  These days we are united with people all over the world, people we’ve never met before.  Our spirits are in complete agreement, that quarantine stinks, we’re tired of pandemic pandemonium, and we are anxious for things to get back to normal!  There’s a unity of spirit I’m not sure I’ve ever seen before—we’re united in our spirit of frustration.

But Peter is urging a different kind of unity of spirit.  “Finally, all of you, have unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and humble mind.”  (1 Peter 3:8)  It’s one thing to be united in a spirit of feeling overwhelmed and frustrated.  But Peter wants the Church to be united in kindness and hope.  He wants the church to think and act noticeably from everyone else.  We are not to be people who repay evil for evil or abuse for abuse.  We are not to be people who insist on our own way.  We are not to be people who lose hope, and go rogue and do whatever feels good at the time because what we do doesn’t matter anyway.  No.  Peter wants the Church to think and act noticeably different from everyone else.  And we are to be especially united in how we respond to difficulty and suffering:  with sympathy, compassion, tenderness, and blessing.

I love this term, ‘unity of spirit”.  The Greek word behind it is homophron, which occurs nowhere else in the New Testament.  It means unity, akin, together, harmony.  Peter did not instruct his followers to all think alike.  He did not expect them to have a unity of mind.  He instructed them to have a unity of spirit.  He expected them to be uniform in their behavior, and federated in their response to persecution.  He did not instruct them to agree on every theological issue!  But he did expect them to be consistently compassionate, sympathetic, tender hearted, humble, and kind.  He expected them to consistently find ways to be a blessing.

My original plan for the sermon today was to talk about General Conference, and report on how we had hopefully found a way to iron out our differences of thinking about human sexuality.  But of course, General Conference has been postponed because of the corona virus.  I wonder what Peter would have to say about our theological differences in the United Methodist Church.  I think probably he would say, yup, that happens.  People don’t all think alike.  But then I think he would challenge us.  Can you find ways to consistently respond to each other with sympathy and caring?  Can you find ways to, together, consistently respond to the world with compassion and blessing?

I have to tell you, I think United Methodists are doing an amazing good job of that!  This week I spent some time looking at websites for our global denomination, our Eastern PA conference, and for UMCOR, the United Methodist Committee on Relief. United Methodists are doing so many good things around the world, they can’t be recorded and reported on all in one place.  We do not have a unity of mind in our denomination.  But we do have a unity of spirit.  We are people who are striving to find ways to respond with compassion and humility.

So much of what defines Methodists is not available to us right now:  no seeing each other on Sunday mornings, no singing together or sharing a loaf of communion bread.  So much of what defines Lima Methodist is not available to us right now:  no pre-schoolers in our building every day, no kids on the playground after school, no potluck suppers, no rummage sale, no community concerts.  We miss all those things; we feel the absence of all of that very deeply.  But Peter reminds us that what we were called to do, our purpose for being the Church, is to be a source of blessing in the world.  And, miraculously, it turns out we are still able to do that, even when we aren’t able to be together in person.

But it requires re-defining the word “community”.  One of the ways I have cultivated community for myself during this time of quarantine is through books.  I decided to record my sermon today here in my office at church where I’m surrounded by “friends”—books written by favorite authors who have kept me company in many difficult situations over the years.  Another way I have cultivated community during this time of quarantine has been by cooking.  I am especially fond of church cookbooks—I feel a sense of belonging with the people who have submitted and tried out these recipes over the years.  A few weeks ago I made a ham and broccoli quiche that did not turn out very good.  Too watery.  It never set up, do you know what I mean?  But this week, I made Carolyn Bobiak’s quiche recipe from the Lima Church cookbook, and it turned out perfect.  It coalesced.  It congealed.  It was firm and delicious and if it didn’t have so many calories, I would make it again tomorrow!

We don’t use the words coalesce and congeal much in church, except maybe when we have a potluck supper and someone brings jello salad.  But coalesce and congeal are good words for church!  They are a little like the word submit which we talked about last week—at first these words feel constricting.  The idea of having to be stuck together with lots of different people is a little off-putting, especially if they don’t think like I think.  But Peter is a realist.  He never insists on unity of mind.  The goal isn’t for all of us to think alike.  The goal is to love alike.  Can we coalesce around the idea of being a blessing, wherever we are?  Can we let compassion and tenderness and kindness be what congeals us together?

Harmony.  Akin. Together.  This spirit of unity thing is awesome!  And it’s everywhere, if we look for it.  This week we got a newsletter in the mail at church from Project Home, a network of shelters and resources in Philadelphia trying to break the cycle of homelessness.  That’s a tall order in the best of times!  But during a pandemic?  I assumed their newsletter would be a bunch of stories about how a hard job has been made harder.  But instead, it’s chock full of real life examples, of how people are doing what they can to help.  No one person’s efforts will solve the whole problem.  But each person doing what they can is adding up to a lot of blessing.  Project Home was founded by Sister Mary Scullion, a woman I’ve never met.  But reading their newsletter, I immediately felt a unity of spirit with her.  We are united with her in a spirit of hope and blessing.

Recently, we made a similar newsletter here at Lima.  We called it our “Really good news newsletter”.  We had little articles in there about people from our church sewing masks, and others providing dinner this weekend for the Life Center residents in Upper Darby, and even showing the young man who has used the church being closed to strip and wax our floors like never before.  We are united in our desire to be a blessing, and this unity is powerful.  If you are able to make a phone call, or send a card, or check in on a neighbor, or spend extra time in prayer, or send a donation to UMCOR, or keep current with your pledge for church, or introduce yourself to someone in your neighborhood you don’t know—whatever you can do, it counts!  If you can say a kind word even when someone has been rude to you, if you can brush off an insult or slight, if you can actively forgive a wrong—whatever you can do, it counts!  If you can turn away from evil and do good, you are expressing the unity that Jesus wished for his followers.  You are congealed with Christ!

To me, this is amazing good news.  I like the idea, that every act of blessing counts.  Because let’s face it.  Congealed with Christ is the best we can hope for.  We are living the best-case scenario, we just haven’t realized it yet.  Do you believe that?  That during a pandemic, we can be living the best-case scenario?  This is the day the Lord has made. Every day is an opportunity to live, congealed with Christ.  Yes, we are separated from other people by physical distance.  We are separated by theological differences.  We are separated by political leanings.  But we can be united in our spirit of hope, and in our desire to be a blessing.  We can be united in our commitment to never give up doing all the good we can.  We can be part of a community that is paying attention to the Spirit, and joining in God’s work of making earth more like heaven.

That’s a community worth being part of if you ask me!  And this community is not confined to any one time or place.  Peter quotes from Psalm 34:  If you want to live a good long life, keep your tongues from evil, keep your lips from deceit, turn away from evil and do good, seek peace and pursue it.  Pivot away from your desire to have everyone think like you think, and instead seek a unity of spirit.  Congeal yourself with Christ.  See if you can get people to coalesce around the idea of being a blessing with you.  Remember what it is you were called to do, and do it!

It’s no secret, I am really missing seeing everyone at church.  Next week is Pentecost, and the sanctuary and fellowship hall will be empty, and I feel sad about that every time I walk through the narthex.  But what I realize today is, right here alone in my office at Lima United Methodist Church, I actually have a front row seat to an amazing Pentecost moment.  God has placed me, God has placed all of us, in an eternal community of believers.  We are united in spirit, united in hope and in our desire to be a blessing, and we are seeing fantastic displays of love in action all around us.  I started out this sermon telling you about my phone call with the Lutheran pastor in Puerto Rico, and how one or two minutes in, we heard ourselves saying, “overwhelmed” at the same time.  But by the end of our conversation, we had each been strengthened and nourished by the Holy Spirit.  We were united in hope, and united in our commitment to do all we can to serve faithfully.

This phenomenon is being played out every day all over the world.  We are witnesses to and participants in a Pentecost moment.  I can’t wait for the day when we can have a potluck supper and hopefully have ten different kinds of jello salad on our buffet.  Until then, be encouraged, because we are congealing around what matters most.  Be proud that we are coalescing around what counts.  Stand firm in your calling, and do not lose hope, for we are to be a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s own people, in order that we might proclaim the mighty acts of him who called us out of darkness and into his marvelous light (1 Peter 2:9).  Amen.