3rd
Corinthians (1st Jerseyans)
Dearest Sisters and Brothers,
I have heard that those communities I
planted so long ago have spread and changed and popped up all across the globe.
I have heard that they’ve spawned
divisions now called denominations, and movements that I would have never
imagined.
When I brought Jesus’ message from
Jerusalem to Rome
—I traveled 1434
miles
—that was an
unbelievable length.
It was as if my
gargantuan effort to bring the Gospel there
—through shipwrecks
and beatings and all kinds of disasters…
It was as if that
effort which, the Holy Spirit moved me to do, had brought the Gospel to the
entire world.
Now the Gospel is
firmly entrenched in such far off places as South Plainfield New Jersey in the USA—which
is over 4 times farther away from Jerusalem than my impossible journey was from
Jerusalem to Rome.
I suppose, thinking of my image of the
Church as the body of Christ, it is as if the child has become an adult
—the Church has
matured. What was once small, has grown large.
But brothers and sisters, let me be
clear
—you are still
the body of Christ
—each
congregation, each denomination, each piece of you, and all of your gifts, is
part of a larger whole.
In your diversity and in your wide
reach, this grand stretching out of the body of Christ
—in this you are
still members one to another. Some
are eyes, others ears or toes, elbows or nose
—Understand me,
you are not a horror show, a bunch of disembodied body parts
—not a crime
scene, but a church!
How we are connected one to another, is
extremely significant!
How we foster
that connection in love, that is of ultimate import!
And so, it distresses me when I hear of
the recent rending of the body of Christ taking place within the Anglican
Communion, dividing the Episcopals, the American manifestation of that
denomination, from her English and African siblings. Can you not bear with one
another? Are not arm and body connected by ligaments?
At the same time, I am astounded by the
speed by which the Roman Catholics and Lutherans are remembering that they are
of one body
—re-membering the
body,
membering again,
making what was once dis-membered re-membered!
making what was once dis-membered re-membered!
That the Roman
Catholic Pope will commemorate the 500th anniversary of the Lutheran
Reformation alongside world Lutheranism
—that is
astonishing! It is as if the Ear has heard the Mouth and the Mouth realized the
Ear is just a few inches from him!
Or, there are the latest tales of merger
from those two Lutheran Seminaries in Pennsylvania who have been feuding like
the Hatfields and McCoys since the American Civil War. Out of two, will come
one.
Is that not the
story of the body,
of union,
of our hope,
being one
together
—the creation of
something new,
being reconciled
to one another and in so doing showing forth the body of Christ?
And then, there is the work of Christ
done in this particular piece of Central New Jersey
—that five
churches would recognize one another for each of their unique gifts, seeing
them all as gifts of the Spirit in their particular neighborhoods, and at the
same time recognize the connections they have to one another!
It’s like the
eyes see that the body’s got feet for walkin’ and the ears hear that the arms
are useful for more than just picking out earwax!
What I’m saying, to shift the metaphor,
is that God has rooted each congregation in a particular community, and God is
calling these congregations to share the burdens and the joys of ministry with
one another… I thank God for that!
As I stated earlier how you live out
these connections are significant—if it is done without love, it does not
matter.
If I adhere to all proper doctrine, but
do not have love, I am myself excluded.
If I connect to my brothers and sisters
so quickly and fully that every slight either of us ever committed is erased
then and there, but do so without love, I have whitewashed myself.
If I create something new, birth the
Christ Child himself, but do so without love, the whole project is stillborn.
If I dig deeply into a community and
the branches of our mutual ministry together reach out and touch the sky, but I
have not planted in love, take a chainsaw to me!
Love is
patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude.
It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth.
It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures
all things.
For at the end of the
day, love alone will remain.
When the fire has cleared out the forest floor, the tiny seeds of love
will be all that is left.
Purity and Division. Merging, Partnership, Community
—that’s all fine and dandy.
But the one place I hang my hat,
the only ground I can stand on, the only place I can put my trust
—is love.
A+A
