May we overcome indifference

Another year has kicked off to a flying start and today marks the first Sunday of the year that everything kicks back into full swing. We have all returned to our work, study and play routines, and we’ve all returned back to worship after a period where many of us have been away. Welcome back everyone!

Let us not be too comfortable in routines however but let us expect the Spirit of God to take us on an adventure. Let us expect new things to happen to us and around us as we continue to participate in the church of Christ. I’m not just taking about the denominational version of Churches of Christ we may lovingly dedicate our loyalties to, I’m talking about our participation in the broader movement of Christ.

I have enjoyed some of the conversations myself and other clergy in the area have been having about our outlook on 2008 and our participation together in the kingdom of God. There is an energy swirling as we prepare to also invite our congregations into the conversation with one another through post-Easter ecumenical studies. However it seems that not everyone is looking forward with the same enthusiasm. I was saddened to see an email land in my inbox last week that made my heart sink. It was from a clergy member in our network who began by encouraging me for my enthusiasm about ecumenical studies which lifted my spirits. The email then went on to read why their congregation probably won’t participate. Apparently the church already have small groups who are comfortable ‘sharing and having fellowship’ among themselves and are reluctant to give this up. They suggested that maybe they’ll grab their own copies of ‘ecumenical’ studies and do it among themselves (which defeats the purpose of what our SA council of churches are trying to achieve).

The spirit within me groans deeply and the inner voice once again reminds me that the church was never intended to be a group that existed for fellowship among ourselves, nor was it intended that we would separate out into communities (denominations) of like minded people for our own comfort for fear of someone having difference of theological opinion.

We only have everything to be gained from participation in dialogue with our friends from other Christian traditions. It must be a task at the front of the agenda of every Christian church that we go out of our way to embrace one another in guided conversations such as these. Our commitment to embracing one another in love is imperative for making meaning of the movement of Christ. Maybe then, that which gives us meaning may be known to the wider world through the language of unity, grace, hope and love. Hopefully by understanding one another we may learn something more about what it means to embrace the other. Then ‘fellowship’ with Christ wouldn’t be confined to the groups of people we know and are comfortable with but would be shared as it ought to be, with others.

Shalom
Mark