In Christ Now Meet Both East & West

“We must face the sad fact that at eleven o’clock on Sunday morning when we stand to sing ‘In Christ there is no East or West,’ we stand in the most segregated hour of America.” —Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr

Today, this is still our reality. I am not asking or proposing for individuals to betray their own spiritual insights or theological doctrines. But I want to challenge the church to acknowledge and address this reality.

In today's chaos, brokenness, violence, anger, and injustice the church has a powerful gift to unite. Under ONE God, we are created. Under ONE Savior, we are saved. Under ONE Spirit, we believe. Under ONE, we become ONE.

What would it look like if the church took this world's hurt and brokenness as an opportunity to display the unity Christ Jesus gives the church?

"I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me." —John 17:23

We have what the world is unable to offer - Jesus's universal, forgiving, and life-changing love.

In Christ there is no east or west,

in him no south or north,

but one great fellowship of love

throughout the whole wide earth.

In Christ shall true hearts everywhere

their high communion find;

his service is the golden cord

close-binding humankind.

Join hands, disciples of the faith,

whate'er your race may be.

All children of the living God

are surely kin to me.

In Christ now meet both east and west;

in him meet south and north.

All Christly souls are one in him

throughout the whole wide earth.

—In Christ There Is No East or West; John Oxenham