In Matthew 12 Jesus tells the Pharisees that a kingdom that is divided cannot stand because it will eventually self-destruct. This concept seems to be self-evident. The example that (predictably) comes to mind are the Boston Red Sox. If Papelbon (P) blames Pedroia (2B) who blames Francona (Coach) who blames the outfield, etc, etc, etc, how could I ever expect this one unit to work together for the common goal that they all share?
As I read Jesus' words, I also couldn't help but think about the Church. What is the testimony of the Universal Church when one can drive down 39th street in Independence, MO for 1.5. miles and pass a United Methodist, Mormom, 'Unitarian Universalist, Baptist, Church of Christ, Assemblies of God, another Baptist, Lutheran, and a Roman Catholic Congregation? We are a Church that is divided. We are a people who have taken the living organism that is the Body of Christ and cut it into 1,000 pieces.
So often when we think of God's great plan for the world, the first thing people think of is 'my individual and personal salvation.' However, if we look back to the book of Genesis, God made a covenant with Abraham that he would be the father of a people that God would ultimately use to redeem the creation. When we enter into Christ, we have entered into the great historic covenant that God made with Abraham that continues to this day. We are God's sons and daughters.
And so the question again, if we truly are one unit, one body, one family... Why and how is it that we are so divided? What is the solution?
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You asked this question some other time on FB & it threw me. At the time I thought-how can I be in the same congregation-listening to the same pastor as a Mormon, Catholic, Lutheran, with such different beliefs than me? How can I sit week after week listening to a different doctrine than I believe in? It seemed preposterous yet now that I have taken a look at some church history & history books, it's occurred to me that the way out of this will probably not come from a religious leader as we know them.
ReplyDeleteSince you used the analogy of sports, I'll use what I know-politics! :)
It was not the political leaders that created the Tea Party. A group of people, like myself, took a look at what's happening to our country & decided we are taking it back! We're not going to sit around waiting for politicians to tell us how to be good little R & D's b/c they've been doing that all along & look at the mess we're in! I believe the same thing will happen with the church.
I see tons of ordinary people fleeing church buildings. Why? because we're realizing buildings and denominations do not, a church, make. They restrict people to a certain way of thinking-regardless of what the Bible says. Many denominations deny the gifts of the spirit, others believe once saved always saved or in predestination etc.
So you factor in the Gnostic, Judaizer & Pagan influence right off the bat-Paul warned the churches to throw these people out, but they didn't listen. Then you have the Roman persecution of the Elders, which made them martyrs & become saints in the eyes of many of the people who had blindly gone astray (due to the influence of the Gnostics, pagans etc.) but were still attending these early churches. Then the establishment of the clergy/laity system & all of this was a recipe for disaster & we still aren't getting it right despite all the history at our fingertips if we'd just crack a history book or read our Bibles.
But some have awakened. Some are realizing this system is failing. What we need is a system where the Bible is the ultimate authority, not the denomination or the pastor or the old lady who doesn't like change. (I've been guilty of this)
None of us should have to weaken our belief system in order to "find common ground". I don't need to find common ground with a Catholic in order to do this. We should come to the table TOGETHER-ready to be broken & poured out-understanding that some things we think we know just might be wrong. We need to understand that most of our influence has come from the church or a pastor or someone who told us how we ought to believe and we need to scrap all of that and read our Bibles and start listening to God and letting the Holy Spirit guide us.
DO I hope pastors and the hierarchy of denominations like superintendents, Elders, priests, Pope & whoever else in a position of power or profit within the church will jump on board-of course, but for many of them, that would be putting themselves out of work or biting the hand that feeds them & for obvious reasons that would be a lot to ask of someone.
So revival is coming at the hands of the lay people-it appears that way anyway, but that might take 100 yrs or more-we may not have that kind of time.
Oh-BTW-please do NOT mistake "Position of power or profit" to mean that all pastoral leaders are power/profit hungry-that is NOT what I am saying and certainly you are one of the least power/profit hungry pastors I know. I imagine you'd do it for free if you could.
ReplyDeleteAfter I read that-I think that will be the conclusion of some, but I am saying that because of the system we have allowed to be created-all denominations, we have given authority over doctrine and the Bible to men and not God and in order to take that back, we will have to understand that we should not ASSUME we can look to our current leaders to get us out of this, we should look to God and if pastors WANT to be part of that, that's great but they may be giving up their position as pastors or their wage in some cases so that's a difficult decision.
I'm basing this on several verses in the Bible on the leadership of the church by the elders, the evangelists such as Peter, Paul etc, and the history of how clergy was originally established. I am currently reading "A Summary of Christian History" by Baker So that is where some of my info on the new Testament church is from and verses in Titus, Ephesians, Peter, Timothy. I am willing to be wrong in my thinking...