Where I want to be Wrong

 

            This really happened. I was 25. I was a seminary student eager to learn as much as I could, and then go pastor a church. I was in church history class and the professor was detailing all the schisms Baptists have endured over the centuries. This was 1995. At that time, in America, there were over 30 different Baptist groups.  Given our propensity to split over the smallest thing and given that 27 years have passed, I wonder how many distinct Baptist groups there are now.

            Our tendency to split over trivial matters. Our professor told us about a group of backwoods Baptists who were committed to simplicity in their expression of faith; this meant no adornments, no instrumentation with the hymns, and no artwork in the small clapboard church buildings. Then that church called a pastor who, out of necessity, nailed a peg in one of the walls. He needed a place to hang his coat. This was seen as an adornment and half the people left the church and started a new one. The other half loved the pastor enough to allow this extravagance, and they stayed. Those who started a new church came to be known as the “No-Peg” Baptists. Writing this, I wonder if our church history professor was bored one day and told the story just to see how gullible we were. There were no questions about the “No-Peg” Baptists on the final exam.

            Churches have split over whether the members should dance or not. In my most recent sermon, I mentioned occasionally having a beer with congregation members. Churches have split over alcohol consumption. And the place of divorced persons. None of these issues, dancing, drinking, or peg-hanging are found anywhere in the New Testament as marks of faith or indicators of the lack of faith. Yet, churches split over these and other second (or third or fourth) level matters.

            I always thought that if we were united on our need for God’s grace and our faith in the crucified, resurrected Lord Jesus, we could withstand all other divisions. United in the declaration that “Jesus is Lord,” other matters fade to lesser importance. I have been wrong! I have seen Christians who agree in their faith in Christ divide over lesser matters.

I am not above this. It would be hard for me to participate in a church that limited the leadership opportunities for women. I would absolutely not be in a church that practiced any kind of racism regardless of what they claimed about Jesus. I don’t believe someone can truly s submit to the Lordship of Christ and at the same be a racist.

Even so, I continue to hold onto the unity we have in Christ. I continue to insist if we meet one another at the cross and at the empty tomb, we can overcome any difference. Maybe our politics stay antagonistic; maybe our stances on certain issues continue to be at odds; maybe our tolerance for difference is sorely tested; regardless, I believe the unity in the crucified, resurrected Lord Jesus is more important that division over lesser matters. I have been wrong about this before and will gladly be wrong again if it means I come down on the side of believing in the unity Jesus gives. Jesus Christ crucified-resurrected matters more than any stance on any issue. There’s nothing bigger than this truth.