On this annual meeting Sunday, we hear Paul make a passionate plea for the church to be united in Christ, knit together in the same mind and the same purpose. Yes, church annual meetings are bureaucratic procedures, but on another level, they offer an opportunity to practice living out this call for unity.
Today’s sermon is also a reminder that unity does not mean conformity, but rather working towards the same goal with the same purpose. Our unity is found in our identity as the body of Christ, and when one part of the body is wounded, the whole body hurts.
The Scripture readings for this third Sunday after the Epiphany are Isaiah 9:1-4; Psalm 27:1, 4-9; 1 Corinthians 1:10-18; and Matthew 4:12-23. A few bits of this sermon come from my previous sermon on Christian unity and the miracle of the church way back in 2017.
Here’s the livestream from Christ the King and the sermon podcast audio.
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Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.
Happy annual meeting Sunday! Some of you have heard me say before that I think someone at every church annual meeting ought to make a motion to close the church, not because I think we should close, but so that we all have the chance to vote on staying open, to make the commitment together that yes, we still believe God is calling us to be a church here, in this time and place.
I haven’t given much thought this year to the church closing, but I have been thinking a lot about why we’re here, what our identity is. I talked about this in my annual report, which I trust you’ve all read or will read soon (right?) but we’ve spent a lot of time and energy this fall as congregations working on visioning and mission statements, all exploring the question, “Why are we here?” What’s the point of being a church in Saukville & Port Washington, Wisconsin in 2026?
That process of discernment, meeting together, listening to each other has led to new mission statements: We are Alive in Faith, Loving God and Neighbor, Living Hope. And for Christ the King: Rooted in Christ, Nurturing Faith, Loving and Serving All.
From those mission statements, church council has worked on goals to help guide us over the next year, into the future. And I know spending time and energy on mission statements and goals can be risky, because talking about doing something is not the same as actually doing it.
God calls the church to be the hands and feet of Christ—Christ’s body at work in the world—not just to craft mission statements. Somehow this weekend, budgets, reports, and wordings in the church constitution feel inadequate.
But through the time and energy we’ve spent in this process, we’re trying to live out the first verse of today’s reading from 1 Corinthians.
Paul writes, “Now I appeal to you, brothers and sisters, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you but that you be knit together in the same mind and the same purpose.”
That’s why we’re here having an annual meeting this morning. Yes, there’s legal stuff about needing to elect officers to satisfy state laws, but the point of all this is so we can be unified as a church, so we can be working in the same direction.
Now, unity does not mean we are all the same. It doesn’t mean we have to agree on every issue, or vote for all the same candidates, or be passionate about all the same causes.
In our churches, we might disagree about worship times or music styles, or what parts of the building most urgently deserve attention. We might have some tension between congregations about who gets to host an event, or what resources ought to be shared or kept separate.
I don’t know what the precise issues were in Corinth, but evidently some quarrels led to people dividing into factions, into different groups. Some called themselves followers of Paul, some followers of Apollos, and some followers of Cephas. That’d never happen today, right? Divisions in the church?
I appreciate this reading because you can hear Paul’s frustration: “I thank God I baptized none of you except Crisps and Gaius, so no one can say you were baptized in my name. Oh, and Stephanas’s family. I baptized them too. And maybe I’m forgetting someone. But still, that’s not the point.”
Baptism is not about who baptized you, who proclaimed those promises of God over you; baptism is God’s action, God’s work, joining us into Christ’s body, the church. As we talked about two weeks ago, baptism declares you belong to Christ. Your ultimate identity is as a child of God.
As Christians, it is perfectly fine to have disagreements. Unity is not uniformity. We can argue about whether or not a data center will be good for the community, or whether our city should allow zoning variances for new apartment buildings. People can passionately disagree, and come up with powerful arguments.
On a national level, there’s room to debate solutions to the immigration problem. I’ve yet to hear anyone make the argument that our current system is perfect, or even really adequate. (Functional seems like a high bar.) We all want there to be less waste and fraud in social service programs. Foreign policy is complicated.
But what we cannot do as followers of Jesus is lose sight of each other’s humanity. No matter what the issue, the people on the other side are made in the image of God. They are people for whom Jesus died. So are the people affected by policies and programs. God so loved the world.
Sometimes we’re tempted to take unity as an excuse to remain silent, to avoid disagreements. Why can’t everyone just get along? But unity does not mean conformity; unity means recognizing we are bound together.
Christian unity means what Paul says later in this same letter, in First Corinthians 12:26, “If one member [of the Body] suffers, all suffer together with it.”
Or, as Dr. Martin Luther King whom we remembered a few days ago put it, “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly, affects all indirectly.” (From Letter from a Birmingham Jail)
Being unified in one body doesn’t mean avoiding hard topics so no one gets upset; it means standing up for justice, lifting up people who are hurting. Seeking justice. Loving like Jesus.
As a church, as followers of Jesus, we are not neutral in this world; we have something to say. We are here to proclaim a message of hope in Christ, a message of grace, forgiveness, and welcome.
Sometimes that message is countercultural. We’re here to be an embassy of God’s love, to declare that no matter what you might hear from other parts of society, no matter what the world might say, you are loved. God’s love is for you.
That’s our message as a church. That’s the message we can’t stop proclaiming, because our world needs to hear it. Our neighbors need to hear it. You and I need to hear it. Jesus loves you. God loves you so deeply that Jesus left behind the riches of heaven to come into this world to lay down his life for you.
Paul calls it the “foolishness of the cross.” And in a world build on might making right, on climbing your way up the ladder, looking out for yourself first, the message of the cross is foolishness. The idea of justice and peace prevailing is foolishness.
Jesus’ sacrifice goes against any logic of the world. Jesus doesn’t just tell us to love our neighbors, he lays down his life for people who don’t deserve it, for people who reject him. He forgives the people who are killing him.
And to prove hatred, evil, and death don’t get the last word, Jesus rises from the dead. The end of the story is life. Isaiah says, “The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light; those who lived in a land of deep darkness-on them light has shined.”
We are people who have seen the light, who have heard the good news. We are sinners invited to our Lord’s table, welcomed by God’s grace.
And we get to be partners in sharing that good news—that invitation—with others. Not just for some future hope, but the promise Jesus lives out of the kingdom of heaven coming near.
God’s grace breaking into our broken and hurting world. Justice and freedom for the oppressed. Hope for the hopeless. Rest for the weary.
Matthew summarizes Jesus’ mission in verse 23: “Jesus went throughout all Galilee, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the good news of the kingdom and curing every disease and every sickness among the people.” That’s not exactly a mission statement, but it’s a picture of Jesus’ mission in action.
This is God’s work: Healing, teaching, proclaiming good news. Offering hope. Sharing grace. Pointing to Jesus, the light of the world, God with us.
Why are we here? To participate in God’s work. This is why we’re staying open. Not to maintain a building, not to start programs, not to edit constitutions or manage budgets or make sure volunteer slots are filled.
All those are important, all those are worthwhile, but only as tools. God’s church is not an institution or a building; the church is the body of Christ. God’s people gathered together to worship and sent out to serve. Answering Jesus’ call to follow.
We are the church: Alive in Faith, Loving God and Neighbor, Living Hope. Rooted in Christ, Nurturing Faith, Loving and Serving All.
And may the peace of God, which passes all understanding, keep your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Amen