April 17, 2015

“Jesus said, ‘While I was with them, I kept them in thy name, which thou hast given to me; I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the scripture might be fulfilled. But now I am coming to thee…I do not pray that thou shouldst take them out of the world, but that thou shouldst keep them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.” John 17:12ff

“Today we face an entirely different situation: church and nation can and indeed dare no longer be regarded as one. Through the whole nation runs the dividing trench, with the Christian community on one side and on the other–the “world”. And the side to which the individual belongs is no longer determined–as it was up till now–by his attitude toward his nation; it is determined only by the Lord Jesus Christ and by our attitude toward him…the world and the Christian community are parting company even in the church. No one really wanted it but nobody is able to prevent it… When it happens–that members of the church attend service in order deliberately to leave the room very noisily during the reading of the scripture lesson and insult the preacher in the open street after the service, then the rift as it touches the church itself is merely becoming visible.” Martin Niemoeller (1892 – 1984) A sermon preached in June, 1934, in Here Stand I “For All The Saints” volume I (p. 1024-1025)

We have to look at this sermon preached by Niemoeller in 1934 and wonder, “If this was a concern for the church in his day, imagine what the state of the church must be like today.” If you have spent time in the church for any substantial length of time, you will have experienced some kind of divisive action on the part of some members. In the church to where I am currently called, we had a division quite a few years ago. It involved the payment of a pastor, and whether the congregation could afford two pastors or one pastor. There was a division. The older members believed they could not – the younger members believed they could. The arguing turned from financial to attacking the pastor for his personal habits: “He would go home and smoke a cigarette on his porch and read the Sunday news.” In the end, a small but influential faction left to attend another Lutheran church.

In another congregation I attended, the fracture involved a hymnal: “Do we embrace the new Green hymnal, or do we hold on to the nostalgia of the familiar Red hymnal.” In the end, the congregation passed a resolution for the church council to cease and desist purchasing the new hymnal, and the fallout involved a small faction leaving.

Jesus prays for his disciples, knowing they are in the world and will experience the ugliness of the world. He does not ask the Father to remove them from the world, but that they will be protected and sustained while in the world. What is unfortunate for all is that the ugliness of the world is always going to infringe upon the church, because the church is filled with imperfect and sinful people. As Niemoeller wrote in 1934: “the world and the Christian community are parting company even in the church. No one really wanted it but nobody is able to prevent it..” We may not be able to prevent the divisions that happen in the church, but we can be mindful of the possibility, and pray that the Holy Spirit continue to be present in everything we do. It is only with the help of the Holy Spirit that we will be able to rise above all division and continue to strive for unity in the church.

Pastor Dave