A House Divided
King William IV of England wrote this memorandum concerning the prospect of national prosperity to his newly-installed government in November 1830:
In order to attain this desirable end, the King deems it very essential that endeavours should be made to prevail upon the Members of the Two Great and Influential Parties in the Country to lay aside the feelings which have so long produced a Spirit of Political Hostility between them … and to unite in the Service of the State those of both Parties whose general character, abilities, experience and Patriotism would offer to the Country the happy prospect of a Government founded upon a secure and permanent Basis.”
Those Whigs and Tories were always going at it! Some things never change. Today’s Republicans and Democrats add fuel to the notion that the more things change the more things actually stay the same.
The divisions are rampant, whether between our two major political parties or the fissure that runs betwixt the sexes, the races, the generations and the classes. We can debate which ones are the most egregious examples of unnecessary isolation.
The same exists in the Christian Church. Protestants and Catholics are still hard-pressed to enter on another’s churches, and Protestants don’t even seem aware of Orthodoxy, even as they divide amongst themselves. It is the underside of the Reformation.
Methodists assume themselves to be special. Baptists believe themselves to be special. Anglicans know themselves to be special. Presbyterians perceive that they have been specially-appointed to be special. Pentecostals flamboyantly declare just how special they are.
You will pardon a few stereotypes, utilized for the sake of making a point rather than for any editorial vendetta. Our distinctives were meant to be distinctives of description, not of hierarchical value.
I have never forgotten, Baptist preacher that I am, being in a meeting where a gentlemen vociferously declared that we were all “good Baptists.” It was left to me to wonder whether we were faithful followers of Jesus Christ.
Similar attitudes arise amidst the theological frameworks. Each would be hardly caught dead visiting another’s church, let alone be invited to speak from one another’s pulpits.
Let me get this off my chest right now: We are children of the Most High God if we are washed in the blood of Jesus and filled with the Spirit of God. Period!
I have had enough of the foolishness and renounce it all in the name of Jesus. The ultimate question, whatever our differences of opinion, remains whether I can discern and encounter Jesus in you. Period!
But we should all be aghast at the divisions that abide beyond the political and theological realms. Racial and ethnic divisions continue to haunt and stalk the globe, our own American soil notwithstanding.
It doesn’t take a genius to reckon with the fact that the local church remains the most segregated place throughout all of America. Hispanics are denigrated, ostensibly because many of them illegally cross our borders, but I fear such concerns are mere cover.
The rise of the so-called Global South bears witness to the explosion of the Gospel, and it is abundantly clear that a very fresh and vibrant Christianity accompanies our Hispanic arrivals. My home-town of Everett, MA knows the power of the Brazilian church!
Our Lord and Savior commissioned us to take the Gospel into the entire world, making disciples of all the nations (Matthew 28:18-20). Nowhere in Scripture is it suggested or implied that Caucasians are superior or have the approval to remain aloof from the rest.
People from every tribe and nation will bow before Jesus. There is no exception to the rule of the New Jerusalem, that to it “The glory and honor of the nations will be brought” (Revelation 21:26). We should practice now what we will be doing later and forever!
The generation gap and class distinctions are an ever-increasing blight on our national landscape and, however repugnant and grievous to God’s Spirit, within the boundaries of His church. Where are we given such license in the Scripture? I have never found it.
An earlier generation insensate to contemporary expressions has given way more militantly youth-oriented assemblies. Evangelicals have spent huge sums of money and time catering to flesh-riddled youth devoid of wisdom, however genuinely ardent.
And I myself have heard with my own ears on too many occasions a tone of derision on the part of educated and comfortable Christians regarding their blue-collar brethren. Let it be remembered that Peter would have spoken with a “cockney” accent!
The Apostle Paul encountered such divisiveness at every turn of his apostolic and traveling ministry. He shot this volley across the bow of every encrustation of sinful flesh wherever it is to be found:
“You are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise” (Galatians 3:26-28).
Hallelujah!
Bradley E. Lacey
January 29, 2012