2 Samuel 7:1-11, 16
John 1:26-38
“If we have no peace, it is because we have forgotten
that we belong to one another.” Mother Teresa
“Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God, and
each invokes His aid against the other … The prayers of both could not
be answered. That of neither has been answered fully ... With malice
toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God
gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish
the work we are in, to bind up [our] wounds, to care for [those] who shall have
borne the battle … to do all which may achieve and cherish a just and lasting
peace ...” A. Lincoln, 2nd Inaugural Address, 4 March
1865
President Lincoln was addressing the nation as the War
Between the States was about to come to a close, but the address was also an
honest reflection of how easily a people who have so much in common can be so
easily at odds with one another. And
given that President Lincoln most likely meant the veterans of that terrible
War as those "who shall have borne
the battle", I wonder if he was not also referring to those who were
harmed because of the War; that which we now refer to as "collateral
damage" - innocent bystanders.
Even before the Council of Nicaea when the Church was
established as an institution, writers and elders of all stripes have written
volumes about the state of the Church in reflecting on the many problems we
face as the Body of Christ, and we are no closer to a solution than
before. As many have determined the Church is in “crisis”, we have
created for ourselves a new church “office”; that of a consultant ... an
"outsider" looking in.
While this is not a problem in itself, it may be denying
the one problem the Church knows we have, but we put all emphasis on trying to
figure out what will bring new blood in while perhaps denying the one thing
that may be keeping “outsiders” out: there is no peace in the House.
The
Lord revealed to the prophet Nathan that as much as King David desired to build
a house for The Lord, The Lord had every intention of building a house for
David (2 Samuel 7:11). David surely
meant well, but he was focused on his own ideas and his own will. Of
course we know that a physical structure was not what The Lord had in mind. There would be something much more enduring
than a physical structure. It is incredibly ironic that the disciples
approached Jesus so many generations later in asking if Jesus had a place to
stay (John 1:38). It would take time before they came to realize Jesus
Himself is the "House" The Lord intended to
"build" - the Covenant into which all are invited to reside.
Without
fully realizing it, the problems we face today are the same problems ancient
Israel faced before the Exile: the curse of "every man for himself".
And the problem may have been made worse as the post-exile generation
overcorrected itself by heaping rule upon rule to make even more rigid those
simple but profound Commandments upon which the entire Law rests: “You
shall love The Lord your God [with all you have and with all you are]” …
and “You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
I submit to you
that in all the extra "rules", they forgot to fully define
"love".
The
Word existed before the foundation of the world, the Word was revealed at
Sinai, and then that Word became
flesh in Bethlehem. Same God, same Word. Yet since the birth of
Messiah Christians in every generation have tried to create an even “newer” and
more “improved” Word that makes more sense to us and accommodates us
individually “just as I am”; a “new” word separate - and distinguishable – from
the “old”.
A
secularized culture has invaded and infected the Church to the point that we
often “cast pearls before swine” in the name of holiness, and we insist
that in order for something to be “right”, someone
must be wrong … and all within the Church, all within the Body of which Messiah
alone is the Head.
Trying
to maintain a delicate balance between this opinion and that is
necessary … not strictly so we can get along but, more importantly, so we may
rediscover – or perhaps find for the first time - our missional
voice. Without that Voice we lose an essential component of our being;
that of Messiah who was born not to “rule” – but to serve (“I came not to
be served, but to serve”, Mark 10:45). We
have lost our sense of peace because we have lost our sense of self.
Worse than this, perhaps; we have lost our sense of Messiah’s Presence. And without Christ at the Head, then it's
anyone's game.
It
is an easy thing to say all we have to do is pray (and we should!), yet an
earnest prayer life is very hard for some. It is not because they do not
try hard enough or believe deeply enough, but it may be perhaps because they
try too hard. Like many of our well-intentioned efforts, we put our best
foot forward with the firm belief that “this” will work or “that” will work so
much so that we will have to add new space to our churches to accommodate all
the new folks who will come crashing through our doors - all because
"someone" had a great idea!
It’s
a nice idea, of course, but our efforts are often misguided because we confuse
what we want (even with the best and most noble of intentions: bringing new
souls to The Lord) with what The Lord has designated for us to do. Same
with prayer; we often go to The Lord with all our own desires (and sometimes,
our demands), but too often we forget that after we search for just the right
words to say and put all our energy into finding all the right phrases, trying
to get it "just right", we forgot to “be still”.
The
Lord spoke to the prophet Jeremiah: “Am I a God near by … and not
a God far off? (23:23)” Speaking to the people of
Judah, The Lord further stated, “I know the plans I have for you … plans
for your welfare and not your harm, to give you a future with hope” (29:11).
"I
know MY plans I have for you ... but do you have a clue? Do you even care?"
While
we often try to individualize this passage for our personal use, we fail to
realize that the Word is much bigger than any individual. Thus when one
individual tries to capture that one passage for oneself, others who also
embrace that passage for themselves find conflict – especially within the
Church!
It
is a wonderfully fulfilling passage and very comforting especially when we have
doubts, but “the prayers of both could not be answered. That of
neither has been answered fully.” Because we do not think as "The
Church"; we think individually.
This may be our greatest curse.
Mother Teresa had it right when she observed that "If we have no peace, it is because we
have forgotten that we belong to each other." That is to say, when we take a single
passage from the Scriptures to be applicable to only "me", we ignore
the greater context that involves "us". So then not only do we create a conflict, we also give that conflict teeth!
We do, in fact, "belong" to one another - and we
should thank The Lord for this reality - because we need each other more than
we are willing to admit. Especially when
it comes to the mission of the
Church, should any single component matter more than that which proves to our
neighbors we really do care about THEM, that we are willing to engage in their
lives, that we are not so concerned about kitchen colors, flooring samples, and
other equipment that does not change lives in a meaningful way?
"There stands One among you whom you do not know
... the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." He is among you ... and you do not
know it. Is this the mystery of the
Incarnation? Or has it become an
indictment against the people of The Lord for whom this should not be such a
mystery?
The peace we want, the peace we desire, the peace we so
desperately need is that peace which will be found only when we as The Church
submit to Christ as His Body. Just as
our bodies will submit to the will of our minds, so must the Church submit to
the Mind of Christ. And there - there
alone - we will find peace. Amen.
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