Bruderhof Vow

Incidents like these are a chance to have contact with other people; one of our membership vows is the explicit promise to hash out our problems with people face to face. It is also true, though, that we sometimes just need to joyfully clean up a mess we did not make, or take on a task in addition to our normal work load. Last week one of the other families couldn’t manage their barn chore day and asked us to cover.

Source: Ian Barth - "Why I teach my sons about hard work", Voices blog entry on Bruderhof.com, 25 Jan 2017, http://www.bruderhof.com/en/voices-blog/2017/january/why-i-teach-my-sons-about-hard-work

Reconciler Or Part Ways

I think every small business owner like myself can relate to that story. I think of my brother, my brother-in-law, and my current partner Greg. In each case (three different businesses) I can still picture the moment of conflict that nearly ruined us. We had a choice, either reconcile or part ways. By God’s grace we reconciled in all three cases. I cried because while reading the story I flashed back thinking through the conflict and then reflecting on all the good of these men. So I could totally identify with this story. Years of business have a way of tiring us out and our filters get clogged and we snap at things we shouldn’t. It was a good reminder to clean out my filter with God’s Word.

Source: Ken Sande - "Reconciled by a Baby Moose", Relational Wisdom Blog, http://rw360.org/2016/10/03/reconciled-baby-moose/

Is It Only Pleasant Truths That Set You Free?

"Some would like to see us bury the past and move on," Thornton said. "Until we have a full and complete acknowledgment of the past we can never heal."

As one elected official after another took the pulpit, delivering moving apologies to the African-American community and pledges to do better, the tone evolved from somber to reverent to hopeful.

As Troup County State Court Judge Jeannette Little proclaimed to applause and cheers, "Ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free."

Source: Mayor Jim Thornton - Jim Thornton, Mayor of LaGrange Georgia, as quoted in "'Justice failed Austin Callaway': Town attempts to atone for 1940 lynching", Emanuella Grinberg, CNN, 28 Jan 2017, http://www.cnn.com/2017/01/26/us/lagrange-georgia-callaway-1940-lynching/index.html

Churches in Germany

The churches in Germany have not yet overcome all their differences, but they have learned to work together. During the rule of the National Socialists there were Christians who collaborated with the government. Others, however, offered resistance and were even imprisoned or sent to a concentration camp. The common experience of living and suffering under the dictatorship of the Nazis brought Christians of different traditions closer together. Today, German churches do a much better job of cooperating in order to fulfill the mission of the Church and witness to the Gospel in word and deed. Because the Roman Catholic Church and the EKD each have many members, they also make up a large part of the ecumenical cooperation that takes place in Germany.

Source: Council of Churches in Germany (ACK) - "The Ecumenical Situation in Germany", http://geii.org/week_of_prayer_for_christian_unity/prayer_worship/ecumenical_situation_in_Germany.html

The Eucharistic Table

Briefing reporters at the Vatican, the Rev. Martin Junge, general secretary of the Lutheran World Federation, said the question of sharing the Eucharistic table — or interfaith communion — is of prime importance.

"I really hope the joint commemoration gives us a strong encouragement to be faster, to be bolder and to be more creative," said Junge, "and with a very strong focus on where people feel lack of unity the heaviest, around the table."

Source: Rev. Martin Junge - As quoted on National Public Radio, 28 Oct 2016, "The Pope Commemorates The Reformation That Split Western Christianity", http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2016/10/28/499587801/pope-francis-reaches-out-to-honor-the-man-who-splintered-christianity?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=2054

Reformed Churches Join the Joint Doctrine of Justification

“A new phase of friendship and cooperation, said Pope Francis, on welcoming the adherence of the World Communion of Reformed Churches (WCRC) to the ecumenical consensus on the Doctrine of Justification, on July 5, 2017 at Wittenberg in Germany, where Luther’s Reformation began in 1517.
...
Monsignor Brian Farrell, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, represented the Catholic Church at the signing. He read a message of Pope Francis who welcomed it as “an eloquent sign of our commitment to continue together, as brothers and sisters in Christ, on the path from conflict to communion, from division to reconciliation.”

Source: Anne Kurian - "Pope Welcomes Adherence of the Reformed Churches to the Declaration on Justification", Zenit, 14 July 2017, https://zenit.org/articles/pope-welcomes-adherence-of-the-reformed-churches-to-the-declaration-on-justification/

Divisions Within The Unity Movement

The further, tragic irony is that this same group, a unity movement, experienced its own divisions. In addition to the doctrinal and social reasons for the eventual divisions, it should be observed that later divisions reflected an ideological tension laid out in Thomas Campbell’s original vision. Unity and restoration, as an enduring pair of principles in the subsequent Restoration Movement, came into tension with one another. This conflict between the two values hinged on the inevitability of differing interpretations of Scripture.

In other words, if even the people who were willing to follow only the Bible could agree on its interpretation and application, then unity would indeed be the inevitable result. Such uniformity of interpretation and application, however, was not to be. This problem was evident during the Reformation and was a source of Roman Catholic polemic against Protestants. Taking the responsibility for biblical interpretation out of the hands of church leaders or the pope and putting it into the hands of all Christians simply made little popes out of everyone. The outcome of endless divisions, so the Roman Church argued with some justification, was predictable.

Source: Keith D. Stanglin - "The Restoration Movement, the Habit of Schism, and a Proposal for Unity", by Dr. Keith D. Stanglin, in Christian Studies, Volume 28, August 2016, http://austingrad.edu/Christian%20Studies/CS%2028/Proposal%20for%20Unity.pdf

Judaism is Intrinisic, not Extrinsic to Us

During his visit to the synagogue in Rome, the pope developed this thought: The Jewish religion is not 'extrinsic' to us, but in a certain way in 'intrinsic' to our own religion. With Judaism, therefore, we have a relationship which we do not have with any other religion. You are our dearly beloved brothers, and in certain way, it could be said that you are our elder brother.

Source: Fr. Peter Hocken - Pentecost and Parousia, Peter Hocken - p. 77 / Rome, April 13, 1986; see Fisher and Keinicki, Spiritual Pilgrimage, 63.

Prayer from Brother Roger

Reflection
When I was in college I had several confusing and painful experiences with Christians from a particular tradition that caused me to be judgmental and closed off to this tradition. It took some time but God has redeemed these painful experiences and I now have wonderful friends who are part of this tradition and have received the gifts and strengths of this tradition I once rejected

Action:
Think of an experience in your life when you had an encounter with a brother or sister from another Christian tradition that you dismissed in your heart because they were ‘different’. Ask God for forgiveness for any critical and competitive attitudes towards other Christian traditions and other brothers and sisters. Ask God whom He might want you to receive that until now you have kept at a distance.

Prayer:
O God the Father of all, you ask every one of us to spread love and reconciliation where people are divided You open this way for us, so that the wounded body of Jesus Christ, your church, may be leaven of communion for the poor of the earth and in the whole human family. Amen
-Brother Roger (founder of Taize)

Source: A2J Community - Apprenticeship to Jesus Community, Phoenix, Blog Post "Unity Week Devotion - Day 1", 18 Jan 2016, http://www.a2jphoenix.org/blog/unity-week-devotion-day-1

Churches that Suffer with Each Other

What kind of churches do we at Theopolis dream of? Churches like these:
....
Churches that take the pedophilia scandal, or the upheavals of the Anglican Communion, or the persecution of Orthodox believers as crises among our people—not problems for someone else over there. If one suffers, all the members suffer.

Source: Peter Leithart - Theopolis Institute blog, "Reformational Catholicism, A Wish List", 20 October 2016, https://theopolisinstitute.com/reformational-catholicism-a-wish-list/

Cleansing, then Power

First comes cleansing, then comes power, as Joshua related: "Sanctify yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do wonders among you" (Joshua 3:5) We cleanse ourselves by repentance, which is to humble ourselves and acknowledge our sin, then we go to the cross for the forgiveness and power to turn away the sin. The Scriptures teach repeatedly that we cannot only do this for ourselves, but for the entities that we identify with. This is one of the great lessons of the lives of Joseph, Moses, David, Ezra, Nehemiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, and most of all - our Lord Jesus Himself. Is this not what Jesus did for us on the cross? To bear our sins He had to become one of us.

Source: John Dawson - What Every Christian Should Know About Reconciliation, p. 22

Neither Unanimity nor Uniformity nor Union

The vision Armstrong offers, however, perceives by exegesis that the unity of Christians, which Jesus prayed that the world might see, is neither unanimity nor uniformity nor union (as he neatly puts it) but loving cooperation in life and mission, starting from wherever we are at the moment and fertilized and energized by the creedal and devotional wisdom of the past. Thus the internal unity of togetherness in Christ may become a credibility factor in the church's outreach, just as Jesus in John 17 prayed that it would.

Source: J.I. Packer - Forward from Your Church is Too Small, by John Armstrong, p. 11

Daughter of a Serial Killer

In August 2012 at her church, Northridge Church in Plymouth, Mich., she publicly announced that her father is a serial killer and told her story to a women’s ministry.

“I have not forgiven him,” she told them.

Marijo Swanson, another church friend, talked to her about forgiveness. How we handle betrayal is on us, she told her.

“If we choose not to forgive or not work at healing from the betrayal,” she said, “we continue to give the other person power to control us and our feelings.”

In the fall of 2012, while working out in a gym, Kerri suffered a stress fracture in her tibia. She was laid up for weeks, with time to think.

One day, the forgiveness just poured over her. She sobbed so hard that she had to pull the car over. The anger was gone, the hurt was fixed, the holding out against Dad was not there anymore.

But forgiveness did not mean she’d made peace with murder.

Dad belonged in prison.

Source: Roy Wenzl - "When your father is the BTK serial killer, forgiveness is not tidy", The Wichita Eagle, 21 February 2015, http://www.kansascity.com/news/state/kansas/article10809929.html#/tabPane=tabs-b0710947-1-1#storylink=cpy

Dreaming of These Kinds of Pastors

What kind of churches do we at Theopolis dream of? Churches like these:
....
Pastors who form friendships with, pray with, learn from, and study the Bible with local Catholic and Orthodox priests, as well as other Protestant pastors. Pastors who take the time to cross the street to befriend a pastor from another denomination. For we are one body.

Source: Peter Leithart - Theopolis Institute blog, "Reformational Catholicism, A Wish List", 20 October 2016, https://theopolisinstitute.com/reformational-catholicism-a-wish-list/

Luisa Hugosson from Colombia

Her friend Luisa Hugosson, 67, a native of Colombia, chimed in. “The pope’s visit is good for Lutherans and Catholics,” Ms. Hugosson said. “We are living in a new time, and we must be open and show respect.”

Source: Luisa Hugosson - As quoted by Christina Anderson, New York Times, "Pope Francis, in Sweden, Urges Catholic-Lutheran Reconciliation", 31 Oct 2016, http://mobile.nytimes.com/2016/11/01/world/europe/pope-francis-in-sweden-urges-catholic-lutheran-reconciliation.html

Pentecostals & Orthodox, Protestants & Catholics

Then, on Saturday afternoon, over 800 people from a broad spectrum of denominations came to a Catholic church to meet and talk over lunch, share faith in workshop discussions, join their hearts and voices in a prayer service, and after, to participate in a mission and volunteering fair in the church hall. The variety of music served as a symbol of the richness of gifts within the Christian family, led in turn by a Pentecostal worship team, an Orthodox Byzantine choir, a Coptic Orthodox choir, a Taizé chant group, along with regular Catholic/Protestant hymnody. The service was co-presided by eight church leaders, and in his homily Cardinal Sean O’Malley reminded those present that we are all members of the one body of Christ through our common baptism, and that “our divisions are an impediment to our announcing the gospel and prevent people from accepting the good news.”

Source: Thomas Ryan, CSP - "Keep the Fire Burning", Paulist Fathers blog post, 6 February 2017, http://www.paulist.org/the-conversation/keep-the-fire-burning/

How Can We Make Progress as a Nation?

Nancy Leschke: Thank you for sharing this. So disturbing. As someone who has always lived in the upper Midwest, I have little familiarity with how history is presented in the south. We definitely have systemic and personal racism up here too, but this type of simultaneous celebration and omission of huge swaths of southern history is important for every US citizen to know about. How can we make progress as a nation if we don't even publicly acknowledge the harm that's part of our history?

Latasha Morrison: Exactly... admitting the harm is part of the process of healing, solidarity and reconciliation.

Source: Nancy Leschke - Posted on Facebook as a comment about the "So This Is America" post, https://jemartisby.com/2017/07/05/so-this-is-america-my-visit-to-the-jefferson-davis-presidential-library/

The Repentance Project - An American Lent

I AM SORRY that our nation has prospered at the expense of African Americans for 400 years through slavery, slave codes, Jim Crow, segregation, and lingering inequality in many systems in America.

I RECOGNIZE that many of the most devastating social problems in our country and local communities are direct results of these deeply-rooted injustices.

I KNOW that there is nothing I can do to change what has happened or to fix everything, but I can say that I am truly sorry. I acknowledge this legacy and its effects and I grieve.

BECAUSE OF WHAT I RECOGNIZE, I repent and I will respond by seeking to build genuine relationships with those who bear the brunt of this legacy.

I WANT TO listen, learn, and better understand how the perpetuation of systems that leverage benefit for some and pain and disadvantage for others, continues today. I will also do what I can to promote communities of equality, justice, reconciliation, and love for one another.

Source: Repentance Project - An American Lent, Week 7, Day 6
https://mailchi.mp/b17d3704f85c/an-american-lentstatement-of-repentance-502107?e=4afc552e4b