The number “one” gets used in a lot of ways and means a lot of things. For example, the rock band Three Dog Night tells us in their 1968 song that “one is the loneliest number.” When it comes to sports, we often hear the fans of particular teams shouting that their team is “number one” . . . even athletes have proclaimed that they are “number one”. Society tends to rank things and determine what is the best . . . what is “number one”. Even as individuals we have used this meaning of “one” when we tell people that we are taking care of ourselves . . . that we are taking care of “number one”.
Such an understanding of the number “one” is quite acceptable and seems to be the prevalent view of it . . . the “best” . . . the “only”. There isn’t argument against its meaning when used in that manner, unless you happen to have a different opinion with what is being called the best and only one. For example, the number one college football team to watch is the University of Nebraska Cornhuskers. They are number one in my opinion. But not everyone agrees. Around here people would argue that the University of Montana Grizzlies or the Montana State University Bobcats are the number one teams to watch. Even within my own family there is not agreement as there is one child who thinks the Virginia Tech Hokies is the best team. Yeah, he’s been written out of the will.
The point is when using the number “one” to rank and declare something as the best or the only acceptable one . . . well, there is going to be disagreements. We do not always agree with what is “number one”. Plus, when you think about, when we use this understanding of the number “one” we are focusing on a narrow interpretation of what that number means . . . it becomes limited and leaves out a whole bunch of others. There are 893 college football teams in five divisions of collegiate sports in the United States. When I declare the Cornhuskers as “number one” I relegate the other 892 teams out of the picture . . . as not counting. But the fans of those teams would disagree. Using “one” in this way creates separation and puts a value that is less than for those not “number one”.
In that case, maybe Three Dog Night was right . . . “one is the loneliest number.”
But . . . the number “one” can also be seen in another significant way. It can be used to connote “unity” . . . a “oneness”. Here is where the Apostle Paul falls in our scripture reading this morning. The apostle writes: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” For Paul the followers of Jesus are “one” through him . . . one community . . . one family . . . one body of Christ. All under God. We are “one”.
Basically, Paul is calling for the followers of Jesus to be “one”. The congregation in Ephesus was what we would call a multicultural group of believers—mostly Jewish and Greek. Culturally and religion-wise the congregation had different understandings, different ways of doing things, different experts of the faith they followed . . . just good old differences. These differences did not always make for a smooth road towards being the “church”, or as Paul calls it here—the “Body of Christ”. Needless to say, there was some tension within the body of believers . . . there was some disagreement and arguments . . . some plain old not getting along. The result was two-fold . . . first it did not speak well to their understanding of Jesus, his life, and his teachings; second, it was not a good witness to the community nor towards others contemplating the faith. Thus, Paul’s plead to the group in Ephesus to be “one”.
Now the apostle understands the individualistic experience of faith that God speaks to each of us individually through Jesus. That is how all of us come into relationship with God and each of our experiences is unique and different. He acknowledges this individualistic understanding as he speaks of “the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers”. Also, he expounds on this in his first letter to the church in Corinth where he talks of the many different parts of the body of Christ. In I Corinthians 12: 12-14: “There is one body, but it has many parts. But all its many parts make up one body. It is the same with Christ. We were all baptized by one Holy Spirit. And so we are formed into one body. It didn’t matter whether we were Jews or Gentiles, slaves or free people. We were all given the same Spirit to drink. So the body is not made up of just one part. It has many parts.”
Paul also understands that it is out of this individual experience that the followers of Jesus are called to a communal experience . . . called to be “one”. Paul understood that individually each person had a call to fulfil in relationship with God’s desire for that individual. At the same time, he knew that individually there could be no body of Christ . . . unless those individual parts came together like a great cosmic puzzle to become “one” . . . a family, community, church. Together the individual parts . . . working together . . . became the embodiment of Jesus in the world. As Paul saw it, it takes a “oneness” to fulfil God’s desire through Jesus.
Because of this the apostle calls for unity . . . calls for everyone to come together to be “one”. In order to do this differences of opinion must be set aside. There must be a willingness to move from “one” being a number that separates and declares one thing better than all the others to “one” be a symbol of unity . . . of being “one”. He tells us that this is done through love . . . the love shown to us through Jesus . . . the love we have received upon deciding to follow Jesus. Paul tells those reading this letter: “I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.”
Today we live in a contentious and divisive world. It seems about the only thing that any of us can agree about is that we can disagree. It does not matter the realm or group we move in there seems to be a movement of unwillingness to move towards unity. Instead, it seems as if everyone is running around stating their views and understandings are “number one” and thus their way is “number one”. No one and nothing else matters . . . just that they are “number one”. It is destroying the world we live in and the dream of God’s kingdom. That is within the secular world and within the “church universal” . . . the body of Christ. The body of Christ is falling apart which makes one wonder if it was ever whole to begin with.
Paul urges us to be “one”.
God calls us to be “one”.
Jesus shows us how to be “one”.
Love. Love of God. Love of self as created by God. Love of others as God loves us. It is being humble and gentle . . . patient . . . loving. It is setting aside the desire to be “number one” for the desire to be “one” in Jesus. It is not giving up who God created us to be . . . we are all individuals with different callings from God. It is figuring out how we put all these different pieces together to form one body . . . one community . . . one church . . . one family. It is from this position that we fulfil God’s desire of being the presence of Jesus in the world . . . of being God’s kingdom in this time and place.
“One” does not have to be the loneliest number that there ever was. No, Jesus shows us the way to where “one” is the only way to be. As Paul wrote: “There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Together we are “one”. Amen.
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