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The Unauthorized Homily By Bill Dunn A commentary on the Scripture readings from the Sunday Lectionary |
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(Scripture readings for Sunday, July 26th: 2 Kings 4:42-44; Ephesians 4:1-6; John 6:1-15) DESPITE DIFFERENCES, CHRISTIANS MUST BE UNIFIED A few weeks ago I wrote about the Catholic doctrine of the Eucharist, and in that essay I predicted that some of my Evangelical Protestant friends would get annoyed. I was right. A dear friend in Christ sent an email expressing disappointment that I focused so much on the differences between certain Christian denominations, and that my essay came across as “Catholics bashing non-Catholics.” The issue of doctrinal differences is tricky. On the one hand, if we completely ignore our differences we may end up like the wishy-washy moral relativists who are so afraid they might offend someone, they refuse to take a stand about anything, and they end up believing in nothing. On the other hand, if we focus too much on our differences and ignore what we have in common, we may end up causing a rift so great that we end up not even speaking to each other anymore. It’s tricky, but we have to put things into perspective. When it comes to the doctrines of Catholics and Evangelical Protestants, we are in complete agreement at least 90-percent of the time. And I would say we agree on 100-percent of the most important doctrines: God is our Creator; Jesus, the second person of the Holy Trinity, paid the price for our sins on the cross and rose from the dead three days later; the Bible is the inspired Word of God; and faith in Christ is what gets a person to Heaven. I’m not saying we should ignore our differences. I mean, I enjoy a lively debate as much as the next guy. (Although my email friend would clean my clock in a debate—I’m not nearly as quick on my feet as she is.) But we should not let our minor differences fracture the bonds of Christian fellowship. In my email reply to my friend, I wrote, “In this day and age, for Catholics and Protestants to squabble over differences in doctrines makes about as much sense as the Americans and British squabbling in 1944 over which side of the road you should drive on, while the real enemy, the Nazis, are enslaving half the world. Today, militant secularists are trying to wipe Christianity off the face of the earth. It doesn't make sense for two groups of people who express their love for Jesus in slightly different ways to be shooting at each other, does it?” I though of this situation while reviewing the Scripture readings for this week. The first reading and the Gospel reading have the same theme: God miraculously fed many people with a small amount of barley loaves. But it was the second reading, from St. Paul’s letter to the Ephesians, that jumped out at me. Speaking to all believers, Paul said, “I urge you to live in a manner worthy of the call you have received, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another through love, striving to preserve the unity of the spirit.” When it’s all said and done, a major goal is to “preserve the unity of the spirit.” Wouldn’t it be remarkable if this really happened? Wouldn’t it shock the world if all the people who love Jesus loved all the people who love Jesus? (Yeah, I know that last sentence is awkward, but read it again slower.) I suspect that’s not going to happen as long as we refuse to embrace the traits Paul lists: humility, gentleness, patience, and bearing with one another through love. Let’s face it, those particular personality traits are completely out of style in our modern world. Humility? How can we be humble when we’re focused on blowing our own horn and shouting from the rooftops, “Look at me!!!”? (What do you think MySpace, Face Book, Blogs, and Twitter are all about? The Internet age is a narcissist’s dream come true—and as my Web site demonstrates, I should know.) Being humble? Being non-self-absorbed? Not very likely in our individualistic, “the-universe-revolves-around-me” culture. Gentleness? Pul-lease! Ever try to change lanes on the Interstate during rush hour traffic? Good luck waiting for someone to slow down and let you in front of them. I didn’t think it was possible to get so many nasty looks and obscene hand gestures from so many different people in a span of two minutes (including people with Christian fish decals and “Pray the Rosary” bumper stickers on their cars). It’s safe to say coarseness is on the rise while politeness is on the wane nowadays. Patience? Are you kidding me? Who has time for patience these days?! We live in an instant gratification world. I want what I want, and I want it NOW!!! Know anybody who swears at his computer because a download takes five seconds when it should take two seconds? Know anyone who grumbles and fidgets while standing in line at Dunkin Donuts because there are—horror of horrors!—three people in line in front of him, and he might have to wait all of four minutes to get his precious coffee and glazed cruller? (Hey, what makes you think I’m referring to myself here? I only swear if the download takes more than eight seconds or if they’re out of glazed crullers.) And finally, bear with one another through love? Bear? You mean putting up with someone we don’t agree with? You mean enduring some mild discomfort for another person’s sake? You mean putting the needs of another person ahead of our own needs out of love for him or her? You mean having to agree to disagree with someone rather than telling him to his face he’s a flaming jerk? Forget that! Sophisticated modern people don’t put up with nuthin’. We don’t endure ANY discomfort. We don’t put anyone’s needs ahead of our own, Jack. We don’t do “bear”, capice? What do you think instant gratification means? What do you think “Looking out for Number One” is all about? It’s all about me, pal, and don’t get in my way! OK, well, that was kind of a rambling look at common attitudes in our culture today. (Next time I’ll try some decaf before sitting down at the computer.) More than ever, living the Christian life—in other words, embracing the traits Paul lists this week—is extremely difficult. To follow Jesus is to be as counter-culture as it gets. The basic attitudes of our popular culture today are about as anti-Christian as you can get. But the bottom line is, we simply have to do it. We have to be counter-culture and strive to live the Christian life, no matter how hard it is. But if we successfully do it, we will experience the following:
Wouldn’t it be nice if Christians stopped following the popular culture and instead rejected such things as pride, selfishness, rudeness, impatience, and sneaking off to Argentina to commit adultery? Wouldn’t that be a nice change of pace? Wouldn’t it be nice for once to shock the world with our goodness rather than our pettiness? Why don’t we give it a try? ©2009 |
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