So
That...
By
Donald F. Hinchey
The
two of them were notorious for their arguing. Husband and
wife, they would argue before and after church, and there were
even reports that heated debates would break out in stage
whispers in the pews during church! In meetings
he would proclaim, “Contrary to my wife’s ill-advised
point of view, I feel that...” and she would counter, “I,
of course, will fight to the death for my husband’s right to
be wrong, but his lame opinion must not be allowed to
prevail!”
As
a young pastor with a fresh doctorate in clinical pastoral
counseling, I had to confront this dysfunctional marriage! I
took them aside and expressed my concern that this marriage
was doomed unless they sought immediate therapy. They looked
at me like I was insane. “Relax, Pastor, it’s just the way
we relate,” he said. "We’ve been doing this for 27
years.”
“Yep,
I’d rather fight with Alan than with anybody else,” she
smirked, and gave ol’ Al a pat on his butt.
“We’d
Always Have a Beer”
Dr.
Oswald Hoffmann once said that Missouri Synod Lutherans have
always fought hard with one another. “Wherever two or three
Missouri Synod Lutherans are gathered,” Ozzie would laugh,
“there shall be a fist fight!” He quickly added, “but
then we’d always go out and have a beer.” Things are
different now, Dr. Hoffmann sadly observed. “We don’t go
out for that beer anymore.”
What
makes all the difference for the unity of the church is trust
rooted in the love of Christ for the sake of the mission of
the church. That we shall argue and debate is not particularly
alarming. That we would scheme, plot, slander and organize for
another’s demise is tragic!
The
Source of Our Unity
In
John 17, Jesus’ great “high priestly prayer,” Jesus
prays three times that His disciples and those who believe in
Him through their word would “be one.” The model for that
unity is not a scrupulous keeping of law or even
point-by-point doctrinal agreement, but the unity which Jesus
and His Father share. “I in them and you in me, that they
may be completely one, so that the world may know that you
have sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.”
To argue, as some do, that we cannot have unity in our Synod
until we reach precise doctrinal agreement on all matters of
faith and life not only exceeds confessional boundaries, but
makes a mockery of Jesus’ prayer. It is God who gives unity
to the church! It is the church’s task to celebrate and
maintain that unity. Why? Not because, (in the immortal words
of Major Frank Burns on M*A*S*H) “It’s nice to be nice to
the nice.” Not so that we can all get along, and nobody has
their feelings hurt, but according to our High Priest, “so
that the world may know we are one...so that
the world may know you have sent me and have loved them...”
(John 17:22,23).
So
That…
Those
two words“so that,” (just two letters in Greek)us out of
ourselves and frame the matter of our unity squarely in our
mission. Can we sense the urgency? We are to “be one” so
that a world alienated from God may know of Christ’s
lordship and love for them! Mother may have told us it was not
nice to fight. Jesus tells us we don’t have time to fight!
“The hour is waxing late!”
At
the 2001 synodical Convention the great “Jumbotron”
screens in front of us showed the image of a young delegate in
the vast hall, dressed in clerical garb, balancing a Bible in
one hand, a copy of the Confessions in the other, passionately
delivering his vehemented version of the truth on some fine
point of debate. Behind him we saw a rather portly delegate in
a checkered shirt slowly lift a hand-written sign: “John
3:16” it read in large letters. The convention broke up in
laughter! For a moment we were all one. Then it was back to
debate.
If
we cannot be one for the sake of our Synod, might we not try
for the sake of our Lord and the world He loves? We are one so
that…
And
let’s not forget that beer (or coffee) afterwards.
Rev.
Donald F. Hinchey is Senior Pastor of Our Father Lutheran
Church, Centennial, CO.
