Grace and peace to you from God our Father and our Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen
I think there is no greater joy for a Mother, than to be
able to gather her children, all her children, under her wings, like a hen
gathers her chicks, and in doing so celebrate being a family.
At least that’s the way it was for my mother.
For my mother, this gathering focused on the lake place that
Mom and Dad had purchased on Flathead Lake in Montana. They had purchased the “cabin” in the years
leading up to retirement. It was a small
two bedroom home, the first home that they had owned.
And in the years that followed Mom and Dad remodeled and
remodeled, adding a boathouse with three additional bedrooms above, and
expanding the cabin.
Driving all of this was not Mom and Dad’s personal needs for
more space, but their desire that the cabin would be the home to which all
their children would return. And their
hope was not only that we would return to visit them, but that we would
continue to return to the lake, long after they were gone, and that as we all
gathered at the lake, we would continue to be family.
In order to facilitate this dream, they set up their estate
in a trust for the family, with instructions on how the place was to be
managed, with a clear vision that this would be our gathering place.
40 years have passed since they bought the cabin, and a year
and a half ago, Mom died.
I wish I could tell you that the dream was fulfilled.
The truth is that logistics and personalities have largely
thwarted that dream.
It was one thing to envision the six of us kids all coming
home to the lake, but the “six” of us soon grew to include spouses, and
grandchildren, and now great grandchildren.
There simply is not enough room for us to all gather there.
Adding to that is the fact that of the six kids, two settled
out here in the west, two in the Midwest, and two in Florida.
In addition, my momma raised a bunch of kids that were
fiercely independent and strong willed.
And human nature being as it is, we experience all the
interpersonal issues that you might imagine.
Ours is not always “one, big, happy family”.
My best guess at this point, is that in spite of Mom’s dream
that the lake place would be a gathering place for us all, something that would
continue to bind us together as a family, it will become a divisive issue. Already there is talk of selling the place as
soon as Dad is gone, but there is not agreement on that.
In the end, I believe that Mom’s dream will be shattered,
and were she still with us, her heart broken.
All she wanted was that we would be One, and remain One. But that is more difficult to achieve than it
is to say.
A mother’s love.
__________________________________
Of all the things that Jesus could have prayed for on that
last night that he spent with his disciples, the one thing that weighed heavy
on his heart was that his followers would be one.
“I ask not only on behalf of
these, but also on behalf of those who will believe in me through their word,
that they may all be one.”
That this is what he prayed for,
(and the high priestly prayer from John, is the longest prayer that we have
from Jesus), is an indication that he knew this would be one of our greatest
challenges. His hope was that the love
and unity that we shared as his disciples, would be our witness to the
world.
Jesus,
Yes Jesus, our Lord and Savior,
must have experienced the pain of “unanswered prayer”.
While he was still with the
disciples, there were already conflicts.
They argued about such things as who would be the greatest.
In the book of Acts, and Paul’s
letters, we hear about another major disagreement: whether Gentiles could become Christian, and
if so, must they first become Jewish?
And in the centuries that have
passed since that time, Christian History has been written, not about the unity
that we share in Christ, but about all of the divisions that have shaped the
Church.
The early Church’s life was
dominated by wrestling with heresies.
Heresies, or false teachings, prompted the Church to adopt creeds which
defined “true Christians” from those who were not, and those whose faith was
not orthodox, would be banned.
Then there were disagreements
about who would lead the Church. Would
it be the Roman Bishop? As in the
Pope? Or the Bishop of
Constantinople? As a result the Church
was divided between the Roman Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox.
Adding fuel to that fire were
theological controversies such as the question of whether the Holy Spirit
proceeded from the Father, or from the Father and the Son. Those three words, “and the Son”, continue to
this day to be a source of division between the East and the West.
And then, near to our heart as
Lutherans, was the Reformation. The
Church was divided again, not just between the Catholics and Evangelicals, but
even those “reformed Churches” divided time and time again over such issues
such as the presence of Christ in Communion, when to baptize, and the role of
the Holy Spirit.
Nationalism also came into
play. Different countries formed
different Churches.
And Church government came into
play. Should the primary authority in
the Church reside with Bishops? Or
Congregations?
And how are we to interpret the
Bible?
And what should we do?
And who should we associate with?
Every time a new question arose,
the Church divided.
And Jesus prayed:
"I ask not only on behalf of these, but also on behalf
of those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one.”
There have been attempts at
restoring the unity of the Church. The
“ecumenical movement” over the last
century or so has seen some Churches come back together. So for example, in some cases, but not all, Lutherans have begun to set
aside their national differences and unite.
German Lutherans will even worship now with Norwegian Lutherans. But not always.
Our own Church has also pursued
ecumenical agreements with other churches that now allow us to worship together
with Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Reformed, Methodist, and the United Church
of Christ.
Bishop Wells once described this
movement within our Church as being like a river that over time had divided
into many different tributaries. Now,
those different streams are once again merging together, and slowly, we will all
be united again.
That vision of his sparked no
small amount of controversy. Rather than hope that this reconciliation of the differences that would divide us would be
a good thing, people heard Martin’s description of what was happening and
thought, “My God, he thinks that we’re going to become Catholic again!”
Perish the thought.
And then, also, in the years since
2009, when our Church decided that gay and lesbian people in committed lifelong
relationships could serve as pastors, we have experienced division again. When that decision was made, the hope was
that even though we disagreed on that issue, we could still remain one body.
But it
was not to be – most of those who disagreed with the decision left to form
another Church. And so the history of
strife and division continues.
Jesus loves me this I know,
For the Bible tells me so,
Little ones to him belong,
They are weak but he is strong.
Yes,
Jesus loves me,
Yes,
Jesus loves me,
Yes,
Jesus love me,
The bible
tells me so.
Karl Barth, one of the great
theologians of the last century once stated that the Gospel is simply this:
That
“Jesus loves me.”
And yet something is lacking if we
only sing “Jesus loves ME”.
Would that there were a second
first,
Jesus loves YOU this I know. . .
And a third verse,
Jesus love us, this we know. . .
You see, what makes all the
divisions within the Church so offensive, is that those people, those OTHER
people, with whom we have such profound conflicts and disagreements, are also
people that Jesus loved enough to die for.
If we could learn anything from a
Mother’s love, or for that matter, from a Father’s love, I would hope it would
be this, that they have the marvelous capacity to love ALL their children. All their children.
Perhaps that verse we are missing
is this:
Jesus loves us this we know,
For
the Bible tells us so,
Everyone to him belongs,
Brothers, sisters, we are one.
Yes, Jesus loves me,
Yes, Jesus loves you,
Yes, Jesus loves them,
The Bible tells us so.
As we look back over the history
of the Church,
And all the divisions, and strife,
and disagreement, there are two questions that we constantly asked which shaped
the debate.
What
then, should we believe?
And
how then, should we act?
Perhaps the history of the Church would have been different
if we asked only one question, and that is:
Who
then, does God love?
Dare we say “All his children?”
May this peace that passes all understanding keep your
hearts and minds in Christ Jesus, Amen.
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