Unity

I felt the urge to be more deliberate about memorizing Scripture today. I had no specific place to start so I just turned to 1 Corinthians since it's a pretty all-encompassing book as far as the Christian life goes. The first passage I saw underlined was 1 Corinthians 1:10, which says "Let there be no divisions in the Church. Rather, be of one mind, united in thought and purpose." After writing it down several times I felt I had a good grasp on it, and the fact that I just wrote it out again from memory proves that it just might be creeping into my long-term memory. That's one verse down, 31,102 to go!

Anyway, after memorizing it I started to wonder how relevant that statement still is almost 2,000 years since it was written. Paul is often credited as the "Founder of Christianity." That sounded almost blasphemous to me the first time I heard that phrase, but then I thought about how much of the New Testament was written by Paul and how much he was responsible for building up the early church. It is the instruction of Paul that guides so many of the ways we preach, teach, and live to this day as Christians. To put it in other words, if Jesus is the blue-print then Paul is the contractor. With that said, it gives me pause to look at the "Church" around me here in America today based on this one simple piece of instruction Paul wrote to us several thousand years ago.

"Let there be NO DIVISIONS in the church." That's a simple enough statement with which we can evaluate our current condition. The only question is which "church" do we evaluate first? Should we focus on the Catholics or Protestants first? Or what about the Calvinists and Lutherans? I used to think it would be such an honor to have a sect of Christianity named after me like Luther and Calvin did, but not only do I think Simmonthian theology would never catch on, but I wouldn't want to be remembered for creating another huge division in the Church. Sadly the divisions go on and on thanks to the Baptists, Presbyterians, Methodists (who call themselves United Methodists but I spent a year interning with them and this certainly isn't the case), Pentecostals, Orthodox, Reformed, Reformed-Orthodox, Eastern Orthodox, Episcopalian, Anglicans, and finally the Non Denominational church who is indeed closest to Paul's instruction from an organizational standpoint.

Ok, so clearly we failed to listen to Paul's point about not making any divisions in the Church. Furthermore, we failed to live up to Jesus' prayer in John 17:23 that we "May experience such perfect unity that the world will know that you sent me and that you love them as much as you love me." Martin Luther King Jr. once said that the most segregated hour in America is 9am on a Sunday. The church was supposed to be the one place in the world where a person could find a true example of unity and instead it's become a symbol of our inability to coexist with people who are different than us.

The second part of Paul's statement gives us an even more challenging mission, to be of "one mind, united in thought and purpose." How could he ever expect people from varying economic and ethnic backgrounds to be united not only in thought but purpose as well. I can't even say that me and my own brother are united in thought or purpose so how could I hope to be united with strangers from all over the world in the way we think and the goals we pursue in life? Paul gave the church a goal that could only be accomplished with complete and utter reliance on the work of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit to move in people and pull off a miracle in human interaction.

We preach love, acceptance and unity all the while there's another church across the street that has a different name and congregation because we couldn't agree on how to take communion, or whether or not drums can be played in church or if people can have tattoos or not. We split up over the stupidest stuff and it makes us loose credibility with the secular world around us. C.S. Lewis once wrote that "what we disagree about most is the importance of our disagreements." I find such wisdom in that quote whenever I voyage into a theological dispute with another believer. If only the founding church fathers of yesteryear would have had the wisdom of C.S. Lewis to advise them then I believe we may not be in such a profound mess today.

I could go on and on about the reasons why we lack unity in the Church but I'll end it here with more of a positive note. I do believe we can attain the level of unity that Paul called us to, and the reason I believe it's possible is because Jesus prayed for it to be so. If it was important enough for Jesus to pray out loud and have recorded for us to read thousands of years later then I believe it must be a central part of every believer's life mission to unite the church. I don't know how we do it, but I can guess that it's going to take a whole lot more humility than we have in the church presently. We've got to come to the table thinking less about "You" and "I" and more about the greater "We". I believe it's possible. I believe I've seen a glimpse of this unity at Mosaic and it's the reason why the church attendance there is exploding. If Jesus can get all the crazy people that live in Hollywood to come together under one roof and move forward with a common mindset and purpose than it's possible to do anywhere!

2 years and 30 miles west

It's funny how our world is in perpetual motion. Things never stop changing; they never stop moving forward. I look back just two years ago when my life was completely different and see a kid who has no idea what's about to come his way. I feel like if I ran into him at a coffee shop we would have hardly anything in common. There's nothing I would really be able to relate to him about because he wouldn't have these past two years. My every response would sound like "Yea, that's cool but then....happens." I don't know if I was innocent back then or just naive. No one could've ever imagined that two years and thirty miles west would change a life so much.

It's sad how many people say they were raised Catholic. They spend so much of their childhood doing something, then as soon as they have the freedom to choose for themselves they left it all behind. Maybe it's the institutions fault for not creating something that stands the test of time or prepares their followers for new experiences in life. I once spent 4 years building my life around an institution and the minute it was taken away from me I hardly knew where to go next or what to do with my life. I was like a toddler who was taught how to walk and talk then was left on the street corner to start his own life. It's hard to value something that you can't take with you and certainly doesn't stand the test of a lifetime in this world.

However, I can't knock my institution too much because it did reveal to me the one foundation that can help anyone survive the roughest of journeys that span at least 30 miles and last at least several years, and that one foundation is Christ. The only thing that me and that 2 years younger version of myself have in common is the understanding that no one makes it through this life unscathed and the only way to make it through the gauntlet of life is with the love, guidance, and support of our Father. While the me 2 years ago doesn't exactly understand why this point is so crucial, he will soon find out. As I think back I'm reminded of how blessed I was, and still am, to be so sheltered by His love. Things haven't been easy but I simply can't deny that I'm alive and well today because our Father loves to take care of His children. Some days that's easier for me to comprehend than others, but today I feel it ever so clearly.