By Roland Wrinkle
“We have become a nation divided against itself…” says columnist Colleen Britton, echoing Lincoln, who was echoing Matt 12.25. No doubt. But followers of Jesus don’t have that luxury! Jesus gave his life for us on the cross so that we could be reconciled, not only to him, but reconciled to each other. Not that we would all agree on all thorny issues, issues that serve to divide the rest of the nation. But that we would persevere in our reconciliation to each other notwithstanding our differences.
(“God… reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ…And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation.” 2 Cor 16).
We cannot fulfill that mandate and proclaim Christ’s “message of reconciliation” to the world if we can’t first be reconciled to our own brothers and sisters with whom we sometimes disagree. Paul said, “Follow my example, as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor11.1). We’re not a social club, held together only by our common interests. We’re not a book club, held together only by our love of literature. We’re biblically stuck with each other, disagreements and all, held together by the commission to “go and make disciples of all the nations, teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.” (Matt 28) Unlike nonbelievers, we don’t have the indulgent option of hating each other because of our divisive opinions.
A mid-size church is big enough to harbor every side of every political, social, cultural and economic issue, yet small enough so that those differences can rub up against each other. Black Lives Matter/All Lives Matter…Open up the economy/Stay home and stay safe…Restart physical worship gatherings/Stay online until things are better under control…Trump/Biden. These divisions aren’t as much of a challenge for the audience sitting in the theater seats at a mega church. Or the small church formed with like-mindedness in mind.
If we really want to call ourselves followers of Jesus, then we have to say to each other, “I disagree with you on [this or that issue], but you are, and have been for ____ years, my brother/sister and I love you as a brother/ sister in Christ even though you hold some views I just can’t get my head around. I may not come to your way of thinking and you may not come to see things as I do…but we are family and I won’t leave you.” If we can’t do that, we are “no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired servants.” (Luke 15.19)
Are we really so fragile that, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness”? (James 3.9) This awful virus has metastasized divides among our fellow citizens and brought them bubbling up to the surface and out into the open. But none of that changes our cruciform obligations to love those with whom we just can’t agree.
When my family was hunkered down 30 years ago at the UCLA Neuropsychiatric Hospital in the throes of 20 years of a terrifying journey through the hell of psychiatric disorders, this church was there to support us every step of the way. We and they didn’t care if our bent or theirs was progressive or conservative. When one of my kids was catastrophically injured in a horrendous car accident (requiring my wife and I to move to Arizona for six months), this church supported us actively and fulsomely. We and they didn’t care if we leaned towards big government or limited government. When I finally was able to bring my daughter to church in a wheelchair and halo traction, we didn’t dive into political fissures. Whether we marched for or against this cause or that cause, it just didn’t matter. We have always been a church “family” in every sense of the word. Families disagree on a lot of things…but they don’t turn their backs on each other. They don’t let their controversies and debates tear at the fabric of communal ties. Families don’t do that… let alone the Body of Christ
The Church is called “one body in Christ” in Romans 12:5, “one body” in 1 Corinthians 10:17, “the body of Christ” in 1 Corinthians 12:27 and Ephesians 4:12, and “the body” in Hebrews 13:3. The Church is clearly equated with “the body” of Christ in Ephesians 5:23 and Colossians 1:24. After His bodily ascension, Christ continues His work in the world through those He has redeemed – the Church now demonstrates the love of God clearly, tangibly, and boldly. In this way, the Church functions as “the Body of Christ.” Disagreements, differences of opinion and debates be damned. To paraphrase Paul’s famed exhortation in Romans 8, neither dissention, political identification nor squabbles “shall separate us from the love” of each other. To paraphrase Paul one more time, “The left ear of that body can no more say ‘I’m a Democrat and, because our right kneecap is a Republican, I’m going to amputate myself and attach myself to another body whose parts are all Democrat’ than I can graft my nose to my wife’s hip.” (Perhaps that’s a tad more than paraphrasing.)
Now, let me tie this rant into Bill’s sermon series on Reading Romans Backwards, inspired by a book by Scott McKnight. McKnight also recently edited another book, Preaching Romans. One reviewer writes:
[The book] takes a productive step in the direction of … reconciliation by creating a space for a range of scholars to present their perspectives as complementary rather than oppositional. The book offers a method for listening to and learning. If churches can become sanctuaries for this kind of honest, introspective conversation, they will be model communities that exemplify how to love one another as we seek the truth. As McKnight puts it, Paul’s vision encourages us to “mix everyone together, let each person be who she or he is, let each group throb with its natural diversity, but let’s all sit at the table and indwell the unity we have in Christ.” Amen?