White Tailed Deer (Odocoileus virginianus) ~ Unity

Behold, how good and pleasant it is
When brothers dwell in unity!
It is like the precious oil on the head,
Running down on the beard,
On the beard of Aaron,
Running down on the collar of his robes!
It is like the dew of Hermon,
Which falls on the mountains of Zion!
For there the LORD has commanded the blessing,
Life
Forevermore.

—Psalm 133

Three days ago hiked up Deer Creek Trail.  It’s a peaceful valley, situated just behind the hogbacks.  The morning sun bathed everything in light, and the grasslands were like a swirling sea of gold.  Most birds have gone for the winter, but a few sang their cheery greeting.  As i surveyed the scene, i observed some beautifully shaped rocks at the summit of the hogback.  i assessed the thick willows and acorn bushes barricading the crest of the hill.  Figuring i could bushwhack my way up, i started my ascent.

The November morning was warm and calm.  Time melted away in the methodical zig zagging through underbrush.  Only the sound of my heartbeat and heavy breathing filled the air around me.  About halfway up i paused to take in the scenery.  CRASH!!!!  A buck white-tail deer leapt straight up into the air right next to me.  My heart leapt into my throat!  Stunned, i watched him in silence.  He moved like he was on the moon, like gravity did not affect him.  Something floating on air doesn't strike its foot on a rock.  But he did.  And suddenly he was limping.  It was terrible to watch.  This creature, just a moment ago so other-worldly in grace, now struggled against the bramble.  "Sorry!" i called.  

In the New Testament, Paul depicts the church as The Body of Christ.  If one of those pieces is hurting, he explains, “all suffer together”(1).  That idea struck me as i watched the buck limp away.  Are we strong and bold, wild and graceful as the deer?  Or are we, the Christian Church in America, limping pitifully?  i would like to argue the latter.  And i’d like to share an idea of why this might be happening.

There is a difference between cobelligerance(2) and alliance.  Allow me to define my terms.

Cobelligerance: a group of people who work together against an issue without necessarily sharing foundations.

Alliance: a group of people who work together in order to achieve something.

To take an example from social justice, we might formulate a relationship of cobelligerance with others who fight against human trafficking.  Those we fight arm in arm with against this monster are on the same page as us where the issue is concerned.  Yet we may have a totally different philosophy from them.  i can stand against sexual slavery with my atheist friend, though we both do it for different reasons.  

An alliance would look different.  In the vein of this example, an alliance might comprise of people who stand for human value as a moral truth.  It is because of this alliance—this standing FOR—that they fight against human trafficking.  My atheist friend would likely not list human value as a reason to petition against trafficking because of his philosophy of self-defined morality.

Which is stronger, to stand for something or to stand against something?  In my opinion, it is only by standing FOR something, together, in a holy alliance, that we will ever have a hope for standing AGAINST something.  It is by standing FOR Christ now, together, in a holy alliance, that we ever have a chance of unity in the face of battles later on.  Without sharing the same foundation, it’s merely cobelligerance, which will never be as strong as an alliance.

So now we are faced with a question: how do we get to a place of alliance as a body of believers?  Francis Shaeffer said, “True oneness is always conditioned on the holiness of God.”  It is my belief that by forming a lasting unity with Christ, a natural unity with our brothers and sisters will proliferate in His Body.  The writer of Hebrews touches on this when he commands us to “exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  For we have come to share in Christ.” (3)  The ‘sharing in’ Christ is much different than ‘sharing against not-Christ’.

A good example of this would be the campus i work on as an apologist.  Recently we had a worship night for the entire body of Christ on that campus, and all the different Christian clubs were invited.  We had a club that focuses on athletes, on that reaches international students, another that runs most of the bible studies, our apologetics group, another team that runs student retreats, and the list goes on.  Both faculty and students were in attendance.  It was an incredible night of unity and worship.

Now imagine that instead of having a night of worship we had a protest against some recent events on campus regarding religious freedom.  We certainly could have done that, but i highly doubt our sense of unity would be as strong at the end of the night.  Focusing on God is the only way we will see the world’s problems clearly.  It’s so easy to get caught up on the Facebook Fads: issues about yoga pants in the church, red coffee cups at Starbucks, etc.  But is that what unity in the Body of Christ looks like?  Or is it merely the half-step, the cobelligerance?  It's not enough to spit out every vile taste in our mouth, we must drink deeply of the Spirit and be renewed.

“For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body and all were made to drink of one Spirit.  For the body does not consist of one member but of many.  As it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose.”(4)

(1) 1 Corinthians 12 v 26
(2) This term was first coined by Francis Shaeffer.
(3) Hebrews 3v13 
(4) 1 Corinthians 12 v13-18
Image: https://www.uwsp.edu/wildlife/ungulates/PublishingImages/White-tailed%20Deer/Deer15.jpg