The Greatest Thing

I do wish the spiritual family of the Lord -- that is, the church -- were closer together than it is. The New Testament is clear that those of us who follow Jesus Christ are one family. Yet we often treat one another as strangers, feel uncomfortable in each other's presence, and are occasionally judgmental when our Christian brothers and sisters have different views than ourselves. In fact, we can become downright nasty over matters of doctrine, even to the point of refusing to eat together at Holy Communion. If we take a good look at the current denominational system we find more confusion than clarity, more partisanship than fellowship, and more jealousy than humility.

St. Paul said that love is the greatest thing (in 1 Corinthians 13). I doubt that any person reading this would disagree, on the face of it. Who does not value what they consider to be love, even in its warped forms? Love is "what makes the world go round" in terms of sex, of family, of faith. But what about business, government, and economics? Paul, of course, was talking about love as the essence of our relationship with God and with one another. This love is a gift of the Author of love, God Himself.

Perhaps if the Church, that is, the whole thing in all of its parts, could honestly love itself, in all of its parts, then some great force for good might be unleashed in the world. I think the Church tolerates all of its parts, at least most of the time. We live together, with our separate buildings, creeds, and bookstores, in a kind of quiet restlessness. We rejoice when one of them becomes one of us, as though that were a kind of triumph of rescue.

Perhaps the reality of it is that we Christians cannot live together with mutual respect and a desire to be true brothers and sisters, regardless of our labels. Maybe being human erects too many barriers to be overcome in this world. I do not know. I do not like to think that is simply the way things are and that need to get on being as Christian as we can be under the circumstances. I would rather think that Paul's ideal of love over all, binding formerly discordant threads together into one working order, is what the Church actually is. Maybe that is true, and maybe I just need to look deeper. I hope so.

What do you think? What do you have to protect at the expense of love? What for you is "the greatest thing?"

Jerry Mercer