04/23/2018
As Christians, do we love one another, or do we divide ourselves so completely in our perceived love of Jesus, that we distance ourselves from each other? I look around Christendom and see one head and many bodies, one bread, and one table, being bitterly contested and claimed by each to the point of refusing to serve another family member at the table they prepare. Is this the way Jesus meant us to behave?
“A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."”
John 13:34-35 ESV
We have convinced ourselves that we are the sole owners of the truth in Christ, and this has prompted our divisions to deepen into broad chasms over the years. One Word, which is the same Canonized Bible, One God, One Jesus, One Table, and yet all the chairs but our own have been pulled away from that table. We have succeeded in doing the very thing that Jesus commanded his disciples not to do... we have taken the one bread of Christ and divided it into portions... and then refused to admit it was ever the same loaf as we serve it.
“Because there is one bread, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one bread.”
1 Corinthians 10:17 ESV
We divide ourselves as individuals within our own churches, and we do this as churches, and denominations within Christendom. We teach our children of our entrenchment, and write our intransigence into church doctrine and documents... we do this to such effect as to so divide ourselves that I wonder if Jesus would recognize His bride if He were to come right now? I read Andrew Murray as he wrote of this division within a church... listen...
“This thought is often forgotten at the Lord’s Table to our great loss. How often have guests at Jesus’ table sat next to each other for years without knowing or loving or having fellowship with one another? Many have sought a closer connection with the Lord and not found it because they have the Head without the body!” - Andrew Murray
I live in the United States, and it is a large country which was settled over the years by many different people from around the world. We are one country with the many accents and nuances to our language. In traveling from region to region you hear the uniqueness of the speech, and see the diversity in local customs, but all of these people are citizens of the same country. Our differences in practice yield to our being one as a country. They provide character and interest that serve to make us better.
In Christianity our cornerstone is Jesus Christ, but we tend to forget that foundations are not comprised of just one stone. They are oriented, and founded based on the corner, but there are many stones... this is what Jesus was communicating... we must all love one another, we must all claim each other as family, we must all acknowledge that we are the same structure, the same building, the same bride which Jesus wishes to claim as His own.... many disciples, but one love.
I love my wife, and I remember the sight of her coming down the aisle in her wedding gown on the day we were married, but I also remember the jeans, the blouse, the sweater, and the jacket she was wearing the day we met. I also know that she has many outfits, and ways of dressing, and that they each make her interesting and beautiful... and yet she is still the same woman. I know her and love her regardless of how she is clothed...
As Christians we need to be able to see the person and not so much the clothes. We need to hear the dialect we each speak with interest and appreciation, and stop using it as a border guarded by our lives. One day we will stand before God, and we will look to our left, and to our right to see those who are there with us... do we want Jesus to say then what we are saying today about His other disciples... “I never knew you”?
“"Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'”
Matthew 7:21-23 ESV
I ask that we consider today which of the commandments we choose to obey? One of them? Two? All of them, or all except this one? Do you wish to obey them as a person; how about as a church? How many do we turn away from our table? How many do we refuse to acknowledge as our kin at the family feast because they still speak the language of the old country, or have the customs of another locale? How many rest alongside the same cornerstone that we do, and yet we deny that they are part of the same building as ourselves? We tend to see the cuts in the stone resting next to us and instead of acknowledging that they were made by the same mason, we judge that they aren’t as beautiful as ours, and deny that stone.
“Jesus said to them, "Have you never read in the Scriptures: "'The stone that the builders rejected has become the cornerstone; this was the Lord's doing, and it is marvelous in our eyes'? Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a people producing its fruits.”
Matthew 21:42-43 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the diversity in your creation, and thank you for the uniqueness we see in your Church. Thank you Father for being able to look around as we sit at your Table and see the many who are partaking of your Son with us. I thank you Holy Father for the many roads that lead to you from around the world because they are all paved with the stones of the disciples of Christ, and they each bear the marks of His chisel. Help me Merciful Father to step back and see the magnificence of your completed work, and not my nearsighted view of my own stone and perhaps the one on either side of me. Let me see your perfect will for me, and understand that although you have called someone else to a different mission, we are both called by you... one head, one body, but two hands, and many fingers. Acknowledge me on the day of judgement Merciful Father, and May Jesus know me on that day saying this is my brother, my joint heir. Help me in my obedience to all of your commandments, and love me as I love you and my neighbors. Great is your love, and open are your arms... Holy, Holy, Holy, are you!
Rich Forbes