Hi Seeker,
That interchurch meeting sounded wonderful. But isnt that the exception rather than the rule?
Depends on what you mean by "the rule". It is a regular event. And is just one of several such regularly scheduled events that we have not just in this community, but in every community in which I have ever had the privilege to live and serve. In fact, where I am now, we get together at least once a month. But if you mean is it every Sunday? No it is not. I'm afraid that Sunday morning remains one of the most divided day of the week. And that is something that needs to be changed.
Im not a Bible expert but just the fact that there is the NIV, NAS, RSV, LB, NLT, and NKJV Bibles among others is a direct cause of controversy and hence disunity.
I thought that might be what you were referring to, and this is not the big deal that people outside of the faith think that it is. (BTW, it isn't just Muslims who are confused by this abundance of translations.) Most Christians would actually see this as a plus. I can go into it further is you want to understand more of why I see a multiplicity of Bibles as a plus. But in short I just encourage you to think of the value of having more than just one English translation of the Qur'an available for those Muslims who don't speak Arabic. If you had only one translation, then any mistake in the translation of the text would be magnified by those who were dependent on it not knowing that there was another way that the passage could have been translated and perhaps getting the wrong idea. For instance, think how some misunderstand those passages that say that a Muslim should not be friends with non-Muslims. Multiple English translations of the Qur'an help those who speak English but not Arabic understand that the meaning behind the translation isn't identical to what most people think of when they see the word "friend" in English. Therefore, based on all that I have read, as most Anglo-phones perceive the connotations of friendship, it is OK for a Muslim and a non-Muslims to be friends, even though it seems at face value to be in direct contradiction to passages like 5:51 "O you who believe! do not take the Jews and the Christians for friends; they are friends of each other; and whoever amongst you takes them for a friend, then surely he is one of them; surely Allah does not guide the unjust people." If this was the only translation available in English those who only spoke English would be actually misguided by reading it. In similar ways having multiple English translations of the Bible is helpful to those who wish to understand it, but only speak English and not the native tongues in which the Bible was written.
The more similar a community is, the more unity, right? Various churches even have different forms of service.
I submit that there is also value in diversity. For instance, though I got through school with just a basic 8-pak of Crayola crayons, those who were true aritsts wanted the 64-pak so that they could have access to many different shades. It wasn't enough to draw an orange sun at sunset, they also needed multiple reds, pink, magenta, violets and colors inbetween to express what they saw of God in just a single simple sunset. So, too, we in the church often offer up worship in different forms, but it is all to the same God and we who utilize one style in my church don't pretend that it is better than a different style used in another congregations. Differences don't occur just between denominations, they can occur within a single denomination as well. And this is not bad, this is a good thing as it allows people who are each made differently to find the a place that most closely fits the way that God has created them to offer him the praise he is due. Does that make any sesne to you?
I see our diversity in styles and forms of worship as an expression of the bigness of God, so great is he that no one form can capture all that there is to say and do to praise him. So let there be many forms, just as God created us each as a unique individual. In my community, there are not only many different denominations, there are many different congregations of my own United Methodist Church. Some are small family type churches, some are larger congregations, mine is large enough we actually have 3 different services and each of them has a different style to it, and yet we are just one church. So, are we experiencing disunity or diversity? Well, actually there is a little bit of both. Having more than one service makes it difficult for our congregation to know each other as well as if we only had one larger service, but it also give opportunity for those who do better worshipping in a more formal environment to attend one service and those who are better able to worship using informal forms to worship in another. And yet all understand themselves as belonging to just one church.
That's all I was getting at really, Alot of Christians I talk to immediately identify themselves as Catholic, or Lutheran, or Presbyterian. Why not Christians first? Off the top of my head I cant remember ever meeting another Muslim who immediately said " I'm Sunni".
I lot of New Yorkers I talk to immediately identify themselves as from the Bronx, Brooklynn, or Staten Island. Why not as New Yorkers first? Does that mean that they really aren't all part of one city? I note that you list your location as New York and I list mine as USA. Does that mean you are less American than I am? I hope you get my point, and actually I do get yours. I wonder if that experience which you shared changes depending on whether or not Christianity is or is not the dominant religion in the culture. See, I know that in the US what you say is exactly true. But I have been other places in the world where the reversed is true.
I recently interviewed with a church in Hong Kong, and there they didn't distinguish between the various branches of Christianity, accepting them all as one and the same. In Mexico where Catholicism is dominant, all of the Protestant churches share so much with each other, that I had been there for a couple of weeks before I realized that of the 3 people leading the service at the Methodist church I was attending only one was actually a Methodist the others were Presbyterian and Lutheran and they shared all things with one another.
Even in the USA denominationalism is dead. The new people who come to my church don't bother to read the label on the building. They care more about their own personal relationships with the people they meet on the inside. Several years ago the Catholic church in the small town I served closed down, and because my people at the Methodist Church had done so many things cooperatively with them over the years, they actually gave us some of their most precious objects which we continued to use in our church's worship life.
So, while I do accept your point that there is a lot of brokenness in the Christian Church, I do so with modifications that there is also a lot of unity. Certainly more than might be apparent to you at first.
