"What We Have In Common ..."

Cardinal Johannes Willebrands, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity from 1969 to 1989, noted that Vatican II accepted many of Luther's demands. Thanks to Luther, he said, many good ideas have been introduced into the Roman Catholic church, such as the use of the vernacular in liturgy; offering of both species in holy Communion; need for constant reform; priesthood of all believers; and more attention to Scripture and preaching. What we have in common is more important than what divides us.

Source: Thomas Ryan - National Catholic Reporter, "Lutherans and Catholics chart path to unity", 16 Nov 2016, https://www.ncronline.org/news/theology/lutherans-and-catholics-chart-path-unity

Hans Urs von Balthasar

But resistance comes from Pope Peter II, John the Elder, leader of the Orthodox and Professor Ernst Pauli, representing Protestantism: under the pressure of persecution the three churches in this eschatological situation at last unite. Peter's primacy is recognized, and the Pauline and Johannine churches come into the Roman fold. The spokesmen of Christianity are persecuted and killed, but they rise again; the last Christians journey to the wilderness, the Jews raise a revolt and the Christians join with them. They are slaughtered; but then Christ appears, robed in the imperial purple, his hands outspread with the marks of the nails upon them, to rule for a thousand years with those who are his own.

Source: Hans Urs von Balthasar - From an article by Hans Urs von Balthasar on Soloviev in the Third Volume of "The Glory of the Lord"

Stiff-necked Ancestors

16 “But they, our ancestors, became arrogant and stiff-necked, and they did not obey your commands. 17 They refused to listen and failed to remember the miracles you performed among them. They became stiff-necked and in their rebellion appointed a leader in order to return to their slavery. But you are a forgiving God, gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love. Therefore you did not desert them, 18 even when they cast for themselves an image of a calf and said, ‘This is your god, who brought you up out of Egypt,’ or when they committed awful blasphemies.

19 “Because of your great compassion you did not abandon them in the wilderness. By day the pillar of cloud did not fail to guide them on their path, nor the pillar of fire by night to shine on the way they were to take. 20 You gave your good Spirit to instruct them. You did not withhold your manna from their mouths, and you gave them water for their thirst. 21 For forty years you sustained them in the wilderness; they lacked nothing, their clothes did not wear out nor did their feet become swollen.

Source: Nehemiah - Nehemiah 9:16-21 (NIV)

Layers of Forgiveness

My view of the episode was a bit different. I saw the Lord giving me grace among these brethren as something of a first step in my progression toward forgiveness. I knew that if I was to have any success at all with what the Lord had directed, if I was to be able to forgive the old main line churches, I had to first forgive these Pentecostal brethren, and bring them to a point of understanding one another.

Source: David du Plessis - From "A Man Called Mr. Pentecost", as told to Bob Slosser, Ch. 18, p. 170

Source of Paul's Joy

(6) But God, who comforts the discouraged, comforted us by the coming of Titus from Corinth (probably meeting up with Titus in Philippi), (7) and not only by his coming but also by the comfort you in Corinth had given him. He told us about your longing, deep sorrow, and wholehearted concern for me, so that my joy increased all the more.

Source: The Apostle Paul - 2 Corinthians 7:6-7 (IEB)

TJCII in Prague

From October 8 to 10, 2015 a group of TJCII leaders and intercessors gatheried in the Czech Republic to confess and grieve for the sins committed over the centuries relating to the Eucharist / the Last Supper / the Table of the Lord, which created obstacles in the way of a shared celebration. The journey was discerned to be necessary by the TJCII international leadership who were convinced that the obstacles could be removed only by confession of sin and repentance - something which had never before to our knowledged explicitly been done.

Source: Peter Hocken - TJCII Communique, 2016-1

Setting Aside Other Identities

So if you're listening to this, I want to encourage you to examine your life. Think about the things that actually get in the way of your relationship with others - issues, doctrines, practices, gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, culture. All those things are important, God has given us those things as gifts. But there's one thing that brings us together. As the Apostle Paul said to a church that was filled with divisions, the Apostle Paul said, "I am determined to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ, and Him crucified." So we come to the cross, we deny ourselves, we set our identity aside, and we cling to our identity in Christ, and that brings us into perfect, transcendent, supernatural unity.

Source: Gary Kinnaman - "Unity in Diversity", YouTube video by LightBalloon, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d1HXZlgjSTQ

A Rare Official Acknowledgement

LaGrange's event is a rare official acknowledgment of a dark period in the history of the South.
The Equal Justice Initiative in Montgomery, Alabama, has documented 4,075 racial terror lynchings in Southern states between 1877 and 1950, few of which have been publicly acknowledged.
CNN found four instances of apologies for lynchings, including one in 2005 in Abbeville, South Carolina -- site of the 1916 lynching of a black farmer named Anthony Crawford at the hands of neighbors. White ministers apologized for racism, church burnings and lynchings, including Crawford's murder.

Source: Emanuella Grinberg, CNN - "'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

The Facebook Killer

The family of Mr Godwin - a father of 10 and grandfather of 14 - said on Monday they forgave the suspected killer.
His daughter, Tonya Godwin-Baines, had urged Stephens to surrender.
"Each one of us forgives the killer, the murderer," she told Cleveland TV station WJW. "We want to wrap our arms around him."
"I forgive you and love you, but most importantly, God loves you. God can heal your mind and save your soul."
The victim's son, Robert Godwin Jr, said: "Steve, I forgive you... I'm not happy what you did, but I forgive you."

Source: BBC - "'Facebook killer' Steve Stephens found dead after car chase", 18 April 2017, http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-39634681

John the Beloved

(5) My beloved friend Gaius, you are faithful in what you are doing for the brothers and sisters (possibly representatives or missionaries from the church in Ephesus), even though they are strangers to you. (6) They have told the church (in Ephesus) about your love. Please send them on their journey in a way that honors God. (7) They went out from us (the church in Ephesus) for the sake of the name of Jesus Christ, taking no help from the unbelievers. (8) Therefore, we should always provide hospitality to such people, so that we may work together for the truth.

Source: John the Beloved - 3 John 1:5-8 (IEB)

Buenos Aires - This Is The Church

Long before he became pope, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio was practising this “ecumenical ecumenism” in Buenos Aires, giving his support to huge joint Catholic-evangelical meetings in Luna Park stadium.
Two of them were attended by Cantalamessa, who was deeply impressed by the Archbishop of Buenos Aires’s extraordinary openness to the current of Grace. “I’ve never seen a bishop in front of an interconfessional audience declare, ‘this is the Church’,” he told me during a break on Thursday.

Source: Fr. Raniero Cantalamessa - Quoted by Austen Ivereigh in "Jubilee in Rome highlights charismatic fruits in Francis’s Pentecost papacy", Crux, 3 June 2017, https://cruxnow.com/vatican/2017/06/03/jubilee-rome-highlights-charismatic-fruits-franciss-pentecost-papacy/

A Catholic Encouraging Evangelicals

So when I encourage my evangelical brethren to extend their ministries among Catholics, I hope to be adding to the number of people who say “Yes” to God. I do hope they say it also to Christ’s Body the Church in all the dimensions Christ intended for his Church; but, above all, I hope that they say it. Many evangelicals are good Christians, many Catholics are bad Christians, and if some bad Christians become better Christians through the influence of evangelical Protestants, Deo gratias . If I pray that there be more workers for the harvest, I shouldn’t mind when they show up, even if they are not exactly what I expected. And, as the animosities between Catholics and evangelicals subside, as Catholics and Protestants come to realize that they are already in communion, however imperfectly, I am confident that many Christians who live in the Marian dimension of the Church will continue to discover the fulness that the Holy Spirit bestows in the ministry of Peter, who is called by the Good Shepherd to feed all the sheep.

Source: Daniel P. Moloney - "Evangelicals in the Church of Mary", First Things, December 2000, https://www.firstthings.com/article/2000/12/evangelicals-in-the-church-of-mary

CS Lewis - "How can we do it?"

Quoting CS Lewis:

To forgive the incessant provocations of daily life - to keep on forgiving the bossy mother-in-law, the bullying husband, the nagging wife, the selfish daughter, the deceitful son - how can we do it? Only, I think, by remembering where we stand, by meaning our words when we say in our prayers each night, "Forgive our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.

Source: Johann Christoph Arnold - Why Forgive?, pp.123

What Makes Us Bitter?

Pope Francis said his goal for the trip is to come “closer to my brothers and sisters” in the Lutheran community. The trip will include an ecumenical launch of a year of events before the celebration in 2017 of the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation.

“Closeness does all of us good,” he told Father Jonsson. “Distance, on the other hand, makes us bitter.”

Source: Pope Francis - Quoted by Catholic News Service in "Pope on why he’s going to Sweden: ‘Closeness does all of us good’", 28 Oct 2016, https://cnstopstories.com/2016/10/28/pope-on-why-hes-going-to-sweden-closeness-does-all-of-us-good/

NPR

There are still some doctrinal disputes. But Pope Francis says that while theologians iron out their differences, the two churches can work together on social issues like caring for the poor, migrants and refugees, and combating persecution of Christians.

Jens-Martin Kruse, pastor of the Lutheran Church in Rome, says Francis' approach has been dubbed "walking ecumenism."

"We are moving together, this is a new experience that we are together on this walk," Kruse adds. "Walking together, we find that we have lots of things more in [common than] we thought before."

Source: NPR - 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

Nehemiah

On the twenty-fourth day of the same month, the Israelites gathered together, fasting and wearing sackcloth and putting dust on their heads. Those of Israelite descent had separated themselves from all foreigners. They stood in their places and confessed their sins and the sins of their ancestors. They stood where they were and read from the Book of the Law of the Lord their God for a quarter of the day, and spent another quarter in confession and in worshiping the Lord their God.

Source: Nehemiah - Nehemiah 9:1-3 (NIV)

Honoring a Fallen-out Friend

Don admitted that when he first tried to write his list he had a hard time thinking of anything positive about Dave. But as he kept praying, old memories started coming to mind. Their crazy high school years together. Double-dating the girls they would one day marry. The graduation trip down the California coast. Launching a business and struggling to turn a profit.

The emotions triggered by these memories helped Don to see past the bitterness that had been clouding his heart for the past few months. As a result, he was able to describe some of the commendable, excellent and praiseworthy qualities Dave had displayed over the many years of their friendship, which included loyalty, honesty, diligence, fairness, integrity, patience, humor, perseverance, forgiveness … to name just a few.

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

Respect & Honor for Leaders

(15) You know that the household of Stephanas were the first believers in the Roman province of Achaia, and that they have devoted themselves to the service of the Lord’s people in Corinth. I exhort you, my brothers and sisters, (16) to respect (submit to) such people and to everyone who joins in the ministry and works hard at it. (17) I was very happy when Stephanas, Fortunatus, and Achaicus arrived in Ephesus from Corinth, because they supplied the fellowship that I lacked from you. (18) They refreshed my spirit and yours also. Men like this deserve to be honored.

Source: The Apostle Paul - 1 Corinthians 16:15-18 (IEB) - with inline notes by Dr. Andrew Jackson

Matt Maher

I think what I've come to realize in the past couple of years is that times of worship where no one knows what it is, it's because we're all together. It's just that simple. I mean, you could bring Christians from different denominations together and not say anything, and it would be the most powerful expression of worship - because it's a fulfillment of Jesus' prayer in John 17. God's not a liar. The things that He says, His word won't return null adn void. So when Jesus prays before Calvary that we would be one, whenever that happens, we are agreeing with the Lord, and whenever we agree with the Lord, there's a goodness about it, we're in right relationship. And so I think whenever the church worships together, it's going to be palpable ... it's not about the gifts and the talents, it's about the fact that we're all together. That's the gift. That's the anointing. The anointing isn't in a person, it's in the body of Christ, and when the body of Christ is reconciled by worshipping together, that's where the anointing is.

Source: Matt Maher - Worship Leader Q&A Panel, Catholic/Ecumentical Track, Onething 2016, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_pesyj1nVo