April 25, 2011
Easter Blend
Last Saturday my husband was helping another man fill the Communion trays for Easter Sunday when they ran out of juice. Bill made a quick trip to the grocery store where he started to pick up Welch’s Grape Juice, but then he noticed Grape Juicy Juice was $2.00 cheaper. Thinking he had a bargain he made his purchase and returned to the church. Right away the two guys noticed the juice was somewhat anemic. Reading the label they discovered that the Juicy Juice is mostly apple juice with a hint of grape juice. Although the meaning of the elements did not change, I couldn’t help but think about how there are times that we unintentionally water down the sacrificed blood of our Lord.
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Gail;
-----A well used metaphor can very effectively convey a complete concept. Treating your metaphor of watering down His blood as well used, I see in it truth that would bolster the church mission of not only convincing the lost to come home, but also of building them up into the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. I believe much of the church has finally begun to recognize over the last few decades how counterproductive to the gospel has been its fractured and splintered theologies. It was the unity of His followers Jesus implied would convince the world that He was indeed sent by the Father (John 17:23.) But seeing this desired unity amongst so many doctrinal differences has been as problematic as so many non-believers’ holding such for good reason to not believe has been obvious. Therefore, many fellowships have concluded in a sense that the Word of God can not be explicitly understood; so its message must then never rise above the subjective level.
-----Scripture rather agrees. It is the basic import of Romans 14; I Cor 8:1-3; Acts 15:19-20; I Cor 2:15; Philippians 2:12; Rom 15:1-7; and many more. But Scripture also rather disagrees. The basic import of Eph 4:14; I Tim 1:3; II John 2:9; Rom 16:17; Col 2:22; Titus 1:9; I Tim 4:6; Heb 13:17; II Tim 3:16 and many other Scriptures is towards an explicit understanding of the Word, and I Cor 4:6 implies that we should not go beyond it. The difficulty of correlating these two imports is no call to diminish the authority of the Word as being His Word. Yet that is in effect what has happened in much of the effort to regain a unity amongst His followers.
-----For example, the lesson of a recent Sunday school session I attended was about the scriptural basis, functionality, and good sense of the Presbyterian authority structure. Knowing certain Presbyterian tenants being misaligned with certain, explicit Scriptures and the high regard given to the Presbyterian book of order, I had committed myself to silence for this session so as not to distract the attention the whole group desired to maintain. I felt there were better venues for raising objections. But I did not quite make it fifteen minutes in as discussion of who should carry authority arose. I interjected, “Should it not be sufficient to allow the head of the church to be the actual head - Christ?” The clean slicing my offering suffered recommitted me to my silence. In one masterful swing of the blade, the class leader acknowledged both the fact that Christ is the head of the church and the practicality of men heading the church. How the actual headship of Christ can arise amongst a people co-operative with the Word and each other never arose in our discussion, nor was it offered where the Word explicitly states that men must head the church. So the glorious depths of the Word’s meanings arising from its own co-opting of various Scriptures was once again averted for the sullen shallows of a people obeying men co-opting Scripture to their own understanding. It isn’t like the blood thusly gets eliminated. That conclusion is a fallacy. It is like it gets watered down to a mixture more easily partaken with a lite understanding according to which the church at least remains effect, if not gloriously reflective.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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