Is Christian Unity Possible?

25 January 2026  Isaiah 8:23-9:3

Week of Prayer for Christian Unity

“In the former time he brought into contempt the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali, but in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea, the land beyond the Jordan, Galilee of the nations.” (Isaiah 9:1)

A little geography is needed to understand this one.

In the 8th century B.C. the land of Zebulon and the land of Naphtali were northwest of the Sea of Galilee, which put them directly in the path of the expanding Assyrian Empire, which scooped them up and sent their best and brightest into exile, the first Jews to experience exile, in 733 B.C. Judah and Jerusalem would experience the same thing at the hands of the Babylonians about 150 years later, but unlike Judah and Jerusalem, the land of Zebulon and Naphtali never got the chance to return to their ancestral homeland. Foreigners had been brought in from Media and Persia, and they adopted the Jewish religion they found there, but the Jews of Judah and Jerusalem never trusted them.

The challenge to the churches in our time is to celebrate the things we can learn from each other, and work harder to resolve the big questions that still divide us by fearless preaching, clear teaching, fervent prayer, and love of Jesus that exceeds our desire to be right.

Galilee was always “Galilee of the Gentiles” to Judah and Jerusalem, leading Galileans to regard them as religious snobs at best, bigots and adversaries at worst. Small wonder, then, that when Jesus appeared from Nazareth in Galilee, Jewish authorities in Jerusalem scoffed, “Can anything good come out of Nazareth?” (John 1:46)

The ancient Jews never did settle the problem of bitter division. After the Jewish War of A.D. 70, and the Bar Kochba rebellion of A.D. 132, the Jews were scattered all over the Roman Empire. Antioch in Syria became the new center of Christian missions, replacing Jerusalem, and Christianity became centered in the cities and towns along Roman roads in Asia Minor.

Division has been an albatross about the neck of Christianity, too. From the Great Schism in 1054, to the Western Schism of the 14th century, to the Protestant Reformation of the 16th century, to the over 45,000 different Christian denominations today, unity has been scandalously elusive. Some have suggested that perhaps it isn’t as big a problem as all that. St. Paul said that among individual people there can be “many gifts but the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:4-11), and the same can apply to whole denominations. That is true, but only if there is substantial agreement on the big questions first – Who is God? Who is Jesus? What is the Trinity? What is sin? How is sin overcome? If there is disagreement on the big questions, even Jesus said that division is sometimes necessary – people get a warning, a warning with witnesses, and if those fail, then they must be separated from the Church (Matthew 18:15-17).

Denominations can learn from each other, and so some differences can by salutary. Mainline Protestants are better at Bible Study, the Orthodox at spirituality, Catholics at liturgy and Evangelicals at witness and outreach. All of these are good and holy gifts that we can use to help strengthen each other. They can be sources of help and cooperation. If, however, there are differences over big issues, then separation may be the only faithful choice. When denominations are divided over questions like, “What is a man?”, “What is a woman?”, “What is marriage?”, it is hard to see what kind of communion is possible. What kind of common worship can we have when we cannot say with certainty what sort of human the other one is?

Servant of God Dorothy Day could receive communion from St. Paul VI (which she did in 1967) because they were in agreement on the big things, and differences over politics and economics did not impede their holiness. The challenge to the churches in our time is to celebrate the things we can learn from each other, and work harder to resolve the big questions that still divide us by fearless preaching, clear teaching, fervent prayer, and love of Jesus that exceeds our desire to be right.