Little Things?

The appeal goes out.  2^nd National Church is doing something they would like to have the other churches in town involved in.  Sounds good!

Somewhere in the appeal, though, is a statement like, “Let’s gather around what unites us rather than what divides us!”  That sounds like a good idea, but what does it mean?

In theory, it means that what unites us—one God, one Jesus who is our savior—is bigger than all the things we tend to squabble about.  It’s a wonderful thought and one we (speaking as Christian) ascribe to happily, whole-heartedly even.

Too often, though, what either the person saying it means or the person hearing it hears is, “Unite around what’s important to me rather than what’s important to you.  (Because what’s important to you isn’t very important and, really, is kinda stupid.)"  Of course, no one is crass enough to say that, but …

I was part of a ministerial alliance once wherein someone proposed that we—the churches of the town—get together and put on a “Christian parade.”  The route was going to be from 1^st Methodist to 1^st Baptist—which would wend throughout downtown—and the floats were to be presented by the churches of the town.  It was going to be a chance for Christians to show off that we can a] have fun and 2] come together.  At the church where the parade was to end, there would be a picnic and all the churches would get together and fellowship and maybe sing and it’d be a great thing.

The ministers were on board, until …

It started to unravel when someone suggested that, in the parking lot where the parade was to end, they were going to put up a horse trough and baptize anyone who wanted to be baptized.  Someone objected to this because they believed that no one should be baptized without extensive counseling.  Another person objected because the church he represented sprinkled rather than immersed.

The parade never happened.

To the person(s) who doesn’t see baptism as that big a deal, it probably seems like a silly thing to torpedo an idea over.  Maybe it was, but the people on both sides of the issue saw baptism as part of the larger picture of salvation.  Some said it was necessary for salvation, some said it wasn’t, but they all had a definite opinion on the matter.

Baptism.  Immersion.  Sprinkling.  Wine.  Grape juice.  Hymns.  Praise music.  Preaching.  Teaching.  Prophesying.  Gifts.  Tongues.  Healings.  Women.  Men.  Children.

I agree that the Lordship of Jesus Christ, and the fact of his being the only begotten Son of God, is bigger than any of these issues.  But can we at least stop pretending that what someone else believes about these things isn’t a big deal?  Maybe it’s not as important as Jesus (I can guarantee it’s not as important as Jesus) but it’s important to whoever brought it up.  Instead of an elephant in the room, maybe we’re elephants and we need to deal with the mice in the room.