C. Kutz-Marks

The Third Sermon in the Series: We Call Ourselves Disciples

Embracing Another's Views

Pentecost 19, b, Oct. 15, 2006
Romans 14:1-10

'In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity,'" might first have been uttered in Europe about the time that Pilgrim’s arrived at Plymouth, but the spirit that spoke it never really burned across the conscience of America until the early 19th century, 200yrs. later.  You recognize them as words emblazoned in the hearts of members of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ).  It is the importance of that spirit of Christian Unity– not unique to Disciples – but uniquely the center of our life, going back now nearly 200 more years, that we highlight this morning.


Kenneth Teegarden, former General Minister of the General church once said, “The ideal of Christian unity is to Disciples of Christ what basketball is to Indiana, hospitality is to the South, and nonviolence is to Quakers.”1 In other words, Christian unity is near the very heart of our identity.

You may know that in the early 19th century in America a commitment to Christian unity was rare and strange thinking.  Recall that they were only a few years removed from victory in the American Revolution that had secured for them their religious liberty.  Christians in general understood that the abundance of denominations then available in this new country of America, was a good thing .  Like many food options at a cafeteria, they thought lots of religious options must beneficial, too.

But our ancestors in faith, those early Christians and Disciples of Christ, saw the rampant spreading of denominationalism – separating Christian from Christian - as a first-class affront to Christian unity, and clearly opposed to what God wanted.  They found in their Bibles scriptures to support their position:

Eph. 4: 4:1  I therefore, the prisoner in the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of the calling to which you have been called,
2  with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love,
3  making every effort to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.
4  There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to the one hope of your calling,
5  one Lord, one faith, one baptism,
6  one God and Father of all, who is above all and through all and in all.

Rom 15: 5  May the God of steadfastness and encouragement grant you to live in harmony with one another, in accordance with Christ Jesus, so that together you may with one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.

There are different ways to look at the issue of Christian unity.  Some Christians emphasize the "spiritual unity" of the church.  For them it is enough to know that on the spiritual plane all Christians are one because Christ has reconciled us together to God.  But for us Disciples, such a claim has never been enough.  We have always been looking for something more  more tangible.  We have been looking for the unity of the visible Church and will, I suppose, never be satisfied, never really rest until that kind of visible unity is manifested. 


So it was Barton Stone who along with others wrote in the Last Will and Testament of the Springfield Presbytery in 1804 did something very visible  when they willed their presbytery to "sink into union with the body of Christ at large," and a few years later, Thomas Campbell in his famous Declaration and Address complained that "division among Christians is a horrific evil.” It was the " bitter jarring and janglings of a party spirit"  They could not escape their belief that a fragmented church was really no church at all.   Barton Stone famously captured the spirit of Disciples when he said, "let the unity of Christians be our Polar Star."


The great change in vision in the 20th century was that the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) begrudgingly came to understand itself as another denomination.  This was a humbling admission.  We never wanted to become a denomination.  We never wanted to replicate the errors of others by becoming one more splinter group from what should be one church, one body of Christ.  We had wanted to be a revolutionary movement towards unity, and at that we were successful at the beginning.  Only after several decades of failed attempts to attain some further visible unity with others did we finally admit we had joined them. We were another denomination.


Now, no longer able to claim some moral high ground of being able to escape denominationalism, we still carried faithfully through the whole 20th century that central burning message, calling all churches, all denominations out of our brokenness to strive to find the unity that Christ provides.
Speaking from the position of broken honesty was one more justification for the whole-hearted pursuit of Christian unity.  We then discovered that there were other elements of the Christian tradition that other denominations brought to table of Spiritual Wholeness:

 Methodists bring a thoughtful piety. 
Presbyterians bring an orderliness, a carefulness. 
Baptists bring a fervency and passion.
Roman Catholics bring a deep-seated commitment to the poor and to social justice. 

Reading through the history of these developments, one recognizes in 20th-century Disciples a certain humility that was absent in the Campbells and Stone, who often acted is if they had the whole truth encapsulated in purity and that they didn't need to be in conversation with others, they just needed to convince others of their way.  20th century Disciples knew better.


The 20 century brought into being what we now look back and call the ecumenical movement.  Ecumenical comes from the Greek word [oikoumene], which means "the inhabited the earth" Disciples of Christ were in all things ecumenical that century:

  1. Disciples in the early  20th-century charter members of the American ecumenical organization known as the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America, the FCC. 

  2. They participated in the famous 1910 Missions Convocation in Edinburgh, Scotland. 

  3. In 1948 when the World Council of churches was formed, Disciples had a hand and an influence and an interest in seeing to it that this new world body embodied the drive towards Christian unity.

In all these developments the Disciples were influential far beyond their numbers because of their passion around unity.
Through the course of the 20th century we Disciples talked the talk but only toward the end did we effectively walk the walk.  In the 1990's with forged an Ecumenical partnership with the United Church of Christ.  Over time we engaged in all sorts of joint efforts together.


 Being a dedicated ecumenist myself, I even went so far as marrying a UCC minister in 1979.  Seriously, Becca and I have cheerfully spent much of vocational life serving joint UCC and Disciples congregations and ministries.


This UCC / Disciples ecumenical partnership has been especially successful in the mission field.  We had already made a "deliberate commitment to engage in mission together, wherever and whenever possible." That led to the formation of the Common Global Missions.  Did you know that everywhere in the world to that Disciples of Christ send a missionary that we do so in jointly and in partnership with the United Church of Christ? We don't have separate mission endeavors anymore, but together we reach out to share the gospel and so many places and in so many ways.. more effectively, more efficiently, and most of all, better expressing that longed for visible unity in Christ.

And it seems to me that we are a long way from really expressing Christian unity.  To this day, the witness of a fragmented Church undermines the evangelistic message that all Christians wish to share with a wider world.  “Who’d want to be a Christian?” you hear outsiders say. “They can’t even get along with each other!.”


 But here at the beginning of the 21st century, I perceive the challenge is even greater and more urgent than reaching out to other Christians. Do you remember:
Rom. 12:16  Live in harmony with one another; do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly; do not claim to be wiser than you are….

  1. If it is possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

And in a world so much smaller than ever before, where we work side by side with Hindu & Buddhist, where our economic well being and our social networks alike include Jewish and Muslim, Paul’s admonition do not be haughty… do not claim to be wiser than you are….  Rings a big, loud theological bell.


A hundred years ago we started learning that other Christian denominations had some truth to share, that we didn’t know it all.  Already this new century, many Disciples are learning that the best of all these other great religious traditions have aspects of Truth to share with us, as well, if we are open enough to hear it:


Buddhists can teach us the depths of meditation and a wider compassion than Christians ever dared;
Jews can teach how a religious tradition can be kept vital and relevant through millennia of changes;
Muslims can teach us how inescapably communal authentic religious life is;
Hindus can teach us that all religious pilgrims can honor the one another without abandoning their own faith, and in doing so, praise the God that all pilgrims serve.


Open, humble, dialogue is the vehicle for this new century of our journey.  Being willing and eager to dialogue with others of such different faiths is a gut check for Disciples of the 21st century.  Can you find the inner strength to claim your own experience of God, your own approach to faith, your own theology, without belittling another?  Can you really Embrace Another’s Views and learn from them?


Two years ago now, I’d just returned from a sabbatical where I had lived on the south edge of Jerusalem. Outside my bedroom window I watched the construction of the immense 25ft high wall the Israel is building to keep Palestinians out.  You saw in yesterday’s paper the Herculean attempts some of those Palestinians are making now to scale that wall so that they may worship at the Al Aqsa mosque in Ramadan. 


One of the great sorrows of my visit was learning that though the Israelis and Palestinians have shared that land over 3,000 years, for the most part, far too many there don’t even know each other.  Instead, they feed on stereotypes that are fueled by hate and fear and a sense of injustice done.  It is the rare one that stretches herself, that invests himself, in even an attempt to seriously hear what the historical so called “enemy” has to say from the heart.


In the century ahead, there are many challenges to unity looming, indeed.  But it clear that it is not time for walls to go up between the world’s religious peoples.  It time for the walls to come down!  As we enter into sincere dialogue, we are proceeding from a humble position, an open learning and listening position. 


I’m betting my life that God will bless this, just as God blesses every effort of God’s children to respect and to love each other more.  How about you?
Then let us find our point of entry into the dialogue, and trust God for the blessing that will surely follow.

Amen.

1.) Romans 14:1  Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions.
2  Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables.
3  Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them.
4  Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand.
5  Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds.
6  Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God.
7  We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves.
8  If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord's.
9  For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.
10  Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God.
11  For it is written, "As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God."
12  So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
13  Let us therefore no longer pass judgment on one another, but resolve instead never to put a stumbling block or hindrance in the way of another.
14  I know and am persuaded in the Lord Jesus that nothing is unclean in itself; but it is unclean for anyone who thinks it unclean.

2.) J. H. Garrison, “CHRISTIAN  UNION:A Historical Study”, Christian-Evangelist., date unknown.  Found on internet.

A SEED-TRUTH TAKING ROOT.

    With the dawning of the nineteenth century there began to appear evidences of a reaction against the spirit of division, and of the incoming of a period of reunion in the Protestant era. It was within the first decade of that century that, for the first time in the history of the world, there was a distinct, organized movement, having for its aim the unity of the Church. Prophetic voices had, indeed, been heard here and there, for centuries, decrying the evils of division, and sounding some true note of catholicity, but these were drowned in the discord of contending factions. Such a voice was that of Rupertus Meldenius, who, during the fierce dogmatic controversies and the horrors of the Thirty Years' War, "whispered to future generations the watchword of Christian peacemakers, which was unheard in a century of intolerance, forgotten in a century of indifference, but resounds with increased force in a century of revival and reunion: 'In essentials, unity; in non-essentials, liberty; in all things, charity.'"[16] The tract containing this remarkable statement is believed to have appeared in the year 1627 or 1628. Fifty years later, Richard Baxter quoted it from another author in the preface to his work on "The True and Only Way of Concord of all the Christian Churches."
    "Here, then, is an admirable illustration of the indestructible vitality of an important truth, which not only persists in living through centuries of opposition and neglect, but which manifests increased power over each succeeding generation. How few there were to recognize in this statement the germ of a great religious reformation, when it was first formulated and uttered by Meldenius! In Baxter's day it attracted more attention as offering relief from the interminable strifes and divisions with which all pious, truth-loving souls were weary. But it was not until more than a century later that it gained practical recognition in an organized movement having for its end the unity and peace of the church.
    "Indeed, it is quite certain that neither Meldenius nor Baxter perceived all that was involved in this memorable motto. What they did see, evidently, was an utter lack of discrimination, in the popular mind, between the things which are vital and those which are incidental, and the consequent effort to enforce uniformity at the expense of unity. As a remedy for this state of things they proposed the foregoing statement which had in it the seed of a reformation yet to be. But the seed must wait for genial soil and favorable surroundings. If either of the men named, or any of the theologians of that period who accepted this motto, had been asked to state more specifically what were the 'things essential,' and what the 'things non-essential,' their answer, doubtless, would have borne the marks and the limitations of the religious thought of their times. It was for another age to develop, more clearly than was possible at that time, the right application of this principle to the religious problems upon which Christendom had divided into hostile camps."[17]
    Early in the beginning of the last century there were heard at different places in the United States, voices crying in the wilderness of our denominationalism, protesting against the evils of divisions, and calling upon the Church to close up its divided ranks in harmony with the prayer of our Lord. One of these was Barton W. Stone, who, in a great revival at Cane Ridge, Ky., in the year 1803, raised the cry for Christian union by forsaking all creeds and party names, discarding all ecclesiastical authority, and taking the Bible, and the Bible alone, as the only rule of faith and practice. The movement spread with great rapidity throughout that state, and in some of the western states. Mr. Stone was a man of commanding ability, of profound piety, and of deep moral earnestness. Under the influence of a great spiritual revival in which all hearts flowed together it seemed utterly inconsistent to perpetuate party names, or to acknowledge the authority of human creeds, and these partition walls went down with a crash before the invincible earnestness of these men of God who had been awakened to a new consciousness of unity and of fellowship in Christ. In a "Last Will and Testament," which Stone and his colaborers made out and formally signed, they bequeathed their party names, their creeds, and their ecclesiastical associations to those who valued such trifles, and, disencumbered, they set out in quest of that long lost unity for which many earnest souls had been yearning.
    In the year 1809 there was issued a "Declaration and Address" by Thomas and Alexander Campbell, father and son, in western Pennsylvania, whither they had but recently migrated from North Ireland, in which they set forth the evils of a divided Church, and pointed out the way to union through a return to the simplicity and catholicity of New Testament Christianity. Thomas Campbell was a member of the seceders' branch of the Presbyterian Church, an able and educated minister and a deeply religious man. His son had been reared in the same Church, but developed an independence of thought, a wide knowledge of and reverence for the Scriptures, which, with his extraordinary ability as a preacher and writer, fitted him in an eminent degree for the work of a religious reformer. Looking upon the same evils which Meldenius, Baxter, and others had seen and deplored, Thomas Campbell uttered a not less remarkable saying in the memorable words which he made the battle cry of reform: "Where the Scriptures speak we speak, and where the Scriptures are silent we are silent." The clear import of this striking motto was, What is enjoined upon men by divine authority we shall insist upon being observed; and where the Word of God has left men free, we shall not bind them. The phrase, "things essential," had now been interpreted to mean the things required by the Scriptures, and the "things non-essential" were those where the silence of the Scriptures left men free to follow their best judgment. In both these mottoes there is a clear recognition of divine authority and an equally distinct rejection of human authority in matters of religious faith and practice. In each of them there is a solemn emphasis of loyalty to God, on the one hand, and of freedom from the tyranny of opinion, on the other."[18] Like the movement of Stone, that of the Campbells discarded the authority of human creeds, abandoned the use of all party or denominational names, and urged a return to the faith and practice of the apostolic Church, as approved by the New Testament. It went further than the movement of Stone in the re-discovery of what was the creed of the apostolic Church, namely, the Messiahship and divinity of Jesus of Nazareth, upon which Christ declared he would build his Church. To believe on Christ as the Son of God, and the world's Redeemer, and to obey him as the supreme authority in all matters religious--that, it asserted, is the way to unity. It is not strange that after the lapse of a few years these two movements--that of Stone and the Campbells--met and coalesced, forming a Christian union movement that has mightily affected the religious thought of our times.

3.) Mark G. Toulouse, Joined in Discipleship: the Shaping of Contemporary Disciples Identity, (St.Louis: Chalice Press, 1992), p. 73.

 

4.) These understandings are based on  Mark Toulouse, Joined in Discipleship: the Maturing of an American Religious Movement, 1992, Chalice Press, p. 79-104.

5.) http://www.globalministries.org/index.php

6.) I am thinking here of the Buddhist teachings to honor the lives of all sentient beings.

7.)  "The encounter of a pluralistic society is not premised on achieving agreement, but achieving relationship. Unum does not mean uniformity. Perhaps the most valuable thing we have in common is commitment to a society based on the give and take of civil dialogue at a common table. Dialogue does not mean we will like what everyone at the table says. The process of public discussion will inevitably reveal much that various participants do not like. But it is a commitment to being at the table -- with one's commitments."
Dr. Diana L. Eck of Harvard University's Pluralism Project in her paper "The Challenge of Pluralism."

"One should not honour only one's own religion and condemn the religion of others; but one should also honour others' religions for this or that reason. In so doing, one helps one's own religion to grow and renders service to the religions of others too. In acting otherwise, one digs the grave of one's own religion and also does harm to other religions. Whosoever honours his own religion, and condemns other religions, does so indeed through devotion to his own religion, thinking: "I will glorify my own religion". But on the contrary, in so doing he injures his own religion more gravely, as concord is good. Let all listen, and be willing to listen to the doctrines professed by others."
Emperor Ashoka's  "golden rule of ethics regarding evangelism" from the World Council of Churches of Christ's  study "My Neighbor's Faith and Mine."
 characterize encounters between persons and groups with different religions or ideologies, is something quite new under the sun. When different religions or ideologies met in the past, the main purpose was to overcome an opponent, because each was completely convinced that it alone knew the secret of human life.
In recent times sincerely convinced persons of different religions and ideologies have slowly come to the conviction that they did not hold such a secret entirely unto themselves, that in fact they had something very important to learn from each other. As a consequence they approached their encounters with other religions and ideologies not primarily in the teaching mode but the learning mode--seeking together to find more of the meaning of life. That is dialogue."
from "Islam and the Trialogue of Abrahamic Religions"
by Dr. Leonard Swidler
of the Global Dialogue Institute
Dialogue is a conversation on a common subject between two or more persons with differing views, the primary purpose of which is for each participant to learn from the other.
 - Dr. Leonard Swidler 
"Dialogue Decalogue"
"Civility has two parts: generosity, even when it is costly, and trust, even when there is risk." 
 Stephen Carter, Civility
" No more than "community" can "dialogue" be precisely defined. Rather it has to be described, experienced and developed as a life-style.... Now and then it happens that out of our talking and our relationships arises a deeper encounter, an opening up, in more than intellectual terms, of each to the concerns of the other...which reaches across differences of faith, ideology and culture, even where the partners in dialogue do not agree on important central aspects of human life. Dialogue can be recognized as a welcome way of obedience to the commandment of the Decalogue: "You shall not bear false witness against your neighbour". Dialogue helps us not to disfigure the image of our neighbours of different faiths and ideologies. It has been the experience of many Christians that this dialogue is indeed possible on the basis of a mutual trust and a respect for the integrity of each participant's identity."
From "Guidelines on Dialogue with People of Living Faiths and Ideologies" published by the World Council of Churches of Christ, 1979.

                    

 

 

 

 

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