Fri,
Jun 9, 2017 at 9:59 AM Dana wrote:
Hi
John,
Did you ever see Mel Gibson’s movie
“Braveheart?” There was a scene in which
the main character, William Wallace meets Robert the Bruce, a man born of noble
blood, and at the top of the short list of those in line to become the King of
Scotland.
Wallace’s
message to Robert the Bruce was to “unite the clans.” Wallace believed that if
all the clans of Scotland would band together under a strong leader, then
England’s tyranny over them could be ended, and the Scottish could be an
independent nation under a native king instead of the cruel and treacherous
King Edward the Longshanks.
Things didn’t play out quite the way
Wallace hoped, as the movie depicts, and the selfishness, cowardice, and greed
of some of his own people assured his capture and gruesome death. Now I don’t intend this to be a critique of
the movie regarding either its historicity or its artistry, but the idea of
uniting the clans, has stuck with me since I first saw the movie back in 1995. How might this apply to the Church today was
one of the things I was pondering on my ride to work today.
How might history and the movie have been
changed if Robert the Bruce had united the clans? How might the Church affect the goings on in
our country if it were united, as one, under the banner of Christ? I’m tired of labels, which so glaringly advertise
just how divided the Church is. I’m
tired of thinking about Christians as Protestant or Catholic, Arminians or
Calvinists, Baptists or Methodists, Episcopalians or Pentecostals. When it
comes right down to it, there are people who know, love and serve Jesus, and
there are those who don’t. That’s all that counts. Period.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating
trashing all our theological distinctives or ecclesiastical traditions in favor
of becoming one big homogeneous (and quite one dimensional, if not downright
boring) happy entity. My own theological
beliefs are quite important to me, because I believe them to be the closest to
what the Scriptures teach about God, faith and life, than do other persuasions. And, I didn’t just read a book and come to my
conclusions. At various and sundry times
I held some of the other theological persuasions, although as my knowledge of
God deepened and the experiences of this life’s journey helped me to see, I
reserved the right to change my mind on a few of them.
A revolutionary thought that I acquired in
Bible College was that I would no longer believe what someone was telling me I
should believe, or how I should think about God and the Bible, just because
they said it, no matter their title or position. No, I purposed to study it out and make sure
what those who were trying to tell me actually could be verified and justified
by the Scriptures themselves. While some
of those who so assuredly tell us what and how to think may be quite sincere,
at the same time they could be sincerely wrong.
And as well intentioned as said instructors or preachers may be…well, as
we say here in the South, “the road to hell is paved with good intentions.” Let the buyer beware.
But the hard won theological leanings I’ve
gathered to myself have been tools in the Master’s hands to shape my walk with
Him, and they proved to be anchors to solid ground when the hurricanes of this life
threatened to capsize my little boat afloat on this world’s great big sea. So
I’m not inclined to say that we should abandon our personal theologies, or the
church affiliations and practices to which we’ve been accustomed and have come
to love.
However on the other hand, do we reckon
that God is pleased with our hanging on to said beliefs and traditions so
ferociously that we remain divided, and all but enemies with other believers over
them? The Lord has graciously allowed me
to participate in a number of different church denominations, all holding
different theological views and church practices.
In other words I’ve had both wine and
grape juice served to me during the sacrament of the Lord’s Supper. And, you know what? The very instant that I start being concerned
with the composition of the red liquid in either the silver chalice or the
little plastic, half ounce, communion cup, and stop being concerned with the
Lord’s blood shed for someone so unworthy as me, I’ve missed it altogether.
My point to all this is perhaps it’s time
for the Church to be more concerned for the blood of Christ, than what
represents that blood in the cup.
Whether one believes in transubstantiation or not, at least the
Catholics keep the emphasis on the blood.
What if all the church did that? We sing hymns about being Christian soldiers,
but that’s a joke. We’re not even a good
social club. What might the country and
the world be like if we were a united, organized army, that is, the Church. How much might things change if we were
willing to repent of idolizing all our sacred particulars, and just agree not
to argue and fight over them with our brothers and sisters, in pursuit of the
greater mission of showing God’s grace, mercy, forgiveness, redemption,
kindness and charity to a society and world that has been blinded, eviscerated
and maimed by evil?
Let me offer a quick illustration. I come from tobacco country. Many of the hospitals, educational
institutions and civic improvements and advancements which we have enjoyed in
my neck of the woods, were paid for with tobacco money. Now I’m not advocating
tobacco use, or trying to say that the tobacco companies acted above board in
their promotion of their own product. Don’t miss the point here—this isn’t about the
merits or demerits of tobacco.
When the government cracked down on big
tobacco, and tried its best to restrict, penalize and destroy them, I thought
what would happen if the tobacco industry united together, and said to all its
critics, “OK, you’ve made your point; starting tomorrow we will voluntarily
pull every pack of cigarettes, every cigar, and every pouch of pipe tobacco off
of every shelf in every store in the US of A, and will not sell another
molecule of tobacco,” and then followed through and actually did just that?
Can you imagine the chaos that would have
ensued? First of all there would be a
whole lot of really angry smokers who would be as ill as wet hornets because of
nicotine withdrawals--violence might even erupt. Think of the economic disaster that would
come from the billions and billions of dollars of tax money that would no
longer be available to Federal, State and local governments. Think of the black
market nightmare that would have been unleashed—it would have been worse than
when the gangsters were selling liquor during Prohibition.
The fallout from such a united action
would have caused the government (who would most likely be facing insurrection)
to back off of big tobacco totally, and let them do whatever and however they
wished…forever. They would have agreed
to put R.J. Reynolds’ and Phillip Morris’ heads up on Mt. Rushmore if so asked
by the tobacco companies.
So why didn’t they? When asked why indeed they hadn’t joined
forces and taken that approach, as opposed to dying the death of a thousand financial
cuts, ruinous litigation, and being painted as the devil himself, a big tobacco
spokesman said that it was because they just could not trust each other to
follow through. So, if I pull my
cigarettes out of the stores, then you might not, and would then corner the
market, so I won’t either. And the rest
is history, and as a consequence, many of the tobacco companies have found more
fertile financial ground off shore.
Again this is not about the morality of tobacco production or consumption;
it’s about how united they could have stood, and divided they all fell.
Might we learn something in the Church by
that illustration? We will have all of
eternity with all our brothers and sisters in Christ, with whom we disagree to
get things straight (will there even be such a thing as theological debates in
heaven? I think not.) So why do we let
our religious particulars divide us down here, and render us
so ineffective as far as impacting our culture and the world? Are we, like the tobacco companies, afraid
that Church X, Y, or Z could clandestinely get more members than our church?
Our resources and manpower are vast, and
if joined together could change more in one year than all the politicians could
in a lifetime. There’s an old fable
about the person who is given a bundle of sticks and the mandate to break them
all in half. Finding that the breaking
of the bundle of sticks was an impossibility, the light eventually went on
overhead, and said person found that by taking the bundle apart, each stick
could be broken individually. We need to
pray and work towards uniting the clans.
Otherwise we face being broken, individually, out of existence.
That was the ride in today,
Dana
++++++++++++++++++++++
On
Sat. 6/10/17 John added
Hey
Dana
Carol and I are praying for Trish
and you during this coming week. Hopefully the doctors will finally be able to
figure out why she is so short of breath.
We spent last weekend at
Chincoteague, VA, and the Assateague Island National Seashore. Carol and I went
there on our honeymoon and early in our marriage made frequent return trips to
that quiet island, home of some of the finest waterfowl carvers and carvings in
America, as well as Assateague Island
National Seashore. That is a long barrier island off the coast of Maryland and
Virginia. It’s known for its native, Atlantic beaches and for trails that wind
through marshland, dunes and pine forest. In the south, Chincoteague National
Wildlife Refuge is home to wild Chincoteague ponies, bald eagles and migratory
seabirds. As a part of the refuge, is
the working, 19th-century Assateague Lighthouse. Also, some of the best oysters
in America come from its waters.
We passed Dover International
Speedway (Delaware) and it was NASCAR race weekend. The stadium (oval track)
seats almost 100,000 fans. But the thing that stuck me the most (other than
NASCAR’s second only ranking to the NFL <in 2013> among pro sports) was the
thousands upon thousands of campers, trailers, and RVs camped for miles around
the stadium on everything from paved parking lots to farmer’s fields. I’ve
never seen anything like it—just to watch a few cars dizzily going around a
round track. (If you didn’t guess, I’m not from the south and I prefer
baseball.) Speaking of driving....
I’m glad you were doing a little
more thinking in your car while driving to work. I saw “Braveheart.”
Unfortunately I missed the point that you are making. It was too “period” a
period movie for me. However, thinking about it now in light of your thoughts
from the car, it makes a lot of sense. But....
Back in 1978, I remember a message
Lowell Harrup, my first pastor, at the Assembly of God church in Alexandria, VA
preached one day. While I can’t remember if the message was specifically about
unity in the church, at least a portion of the message dealt with it. He was
skeptical that unity could happen because not even the disciples were always
unified. Remember what happened in Mark 10:35-45 when James and John wanted
special privileges? In verse 41 it says the other 10 became “indignant” over
their request.
Matthew, in Chapter 20, looks at it
from a mother’s perspective. While it could be argued James and John’s mother
was just trying to look out for her sons, as would any other mother, I believe
it shows the selfishness (sin) of man (and woman); the pride, the selfishness,
the hubris of people .
So, anyway, Pastor Harrup (His
father was Rev. Obie L. Harrup, Sr., the A/G pastor, visionary and man of faith
who, as president of Northeast Bible College, had the courage to move the Bible
school from its sleepy location in Green Lane, PA to Phoenixville, PA to become
our alma mater, Valley Forge Christian College, which is now University of
Valley Forge.) made the point of saying
that even amongst the men, Jesus’ disciples, who walked with, lived with, ate
with, and watched Him minister, they still, at times, were not unified. I think
Pastor Harrup used the phrase that even in Jesus day since the people didn’t
always agree with Him, there was the 2nd Church of Jesus and the 3rd
Church of Jesus, and so on. (Or consider
Luke 9:43-50)
I would agree with you when you
said, “Don’t get me wrong, I’m not advocating trashing all our theological
distinctives or ecclesiastical traditions in favor of becoming one big
homogeneous (and quite one dimensional, if not downright boring) happy
entity. My own theological beliefs are
quite important to me....” But I can
also see how if the Church in America, while accepting each other’s
differences, were able to put aside the differences and work together at the
important things, what might America be like?
As you can see, I added an
additional photo this week. The amassed candles, of all different sizes,
together, unified, are throwing off a bright light. While there would be light
with just one candle, look how the mass of candles brightens the area. If the
Church were to unify as you are stating, how much more would the Light of
Christ be shining not only in the Church, but also into the darkness around it?
Hey, don’t stop thinking while
you’re driving to work. J You’re giving
me a lot to think about, and challenging me to make changes where change is
necessary.
Yours
for the Harvest
John
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