July 15, 2008
Ripple Effect
Last Sunday right after Communion had been served to the congregation, the servers were quietly restacking the trays when the top to one of them slipped off the table and cling-clanged to the floor. No doubt those who were just finishing their time of self-examination said a quick Amen so they could look up and see what was going on. Whispers of relief rippled from the front of the chapel and to the back with, “It’s the lid…It’s only the lid…It’s just the lid.” Translation: Thank goodness a tray of grape juice didn’t get spilled all over the light beige colored carpet. I love it when the body of Christ comes together in one thought and one mind. There’s no more appropriate time to be of one accord than when we’re gathered around the Table of the Lord.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----”Being of one accord” can itself be suspect. That, in fact, is my first reaction to any who have come together in one accord, even though Paul tells us to be it. Jehovah’s Witnesses have approached me out of necessity to JW’ize me, a necessity they hold in accord among themselves. But they have left, having nothing in accord with me, when I have told them that according to their calling upon Jesus Christ, the Crucified and Risen One, I considered them my spiritual brethren and would be willing to study with them if they were willing to consider me their brother. That is when I would find out their accord did not include me. The Seventh Day Adventists have healed some from this same spiritual illness. The Church of Christ folks are more than a bit that way as well. The Pentecostals, Baptists, Christian Church folk, etc. will all recognize the brotherhood of the others, but there consistently seems to be asterisks involved when actually touching them.
-----Your anecdote is a wonderful example of the “one accord” Paul wrote about. The new nature brought to life in us by the Spirit incites concern. When the lid dropped, the new minds were directed to a concern for the possibility that the symbols of the Lord’s flesh and blood had been spilt, and to a sympathy towards the one who possibly spilt them. This concern for and bond to the Lord and those who also call upon His name are the accord. The accord is not about a shared doctrine, a shared service to the Lord, a shared place of worship, or a shared way of worshipping. Those things can not have anything to do with the accord, because no two people think alike, desire alike, and are inspired to the same ambitions. These points of difference we use for division are actually the diversity God uses to fill out His body of believers unto completion.
-----Although He needs us to accept each who calls upon His name, He does not need us to memorize another’s theology or philosophy. He does not need us to obey another’s commands for what to do in the Lord. Nor does He need us to worship by another’s demand for the latest, spiritual fad. None of that causes accord. What causes accord is respecting one another’s theology or philosophy, and honoring their place of spiritual growth in having it, and respecting one another’s ambitions in the Lord and mannerisms of worshipful expression, and honoring their Biblical right to have them. That is accord with your brethren. Then add to that honor and respect for His written Word, and you have as much accord as is humanly possible.
-----It was a common concern that brought those minds of common care to one thought about the symbols, the carpet, and the spiller. I have no suspicions about that kind of accord.
Love,
Steve Corey
Post a Comment