A new people. On the day of Pentecost, the Spirit came down from heaven, in the form of “divided tongues, as of fire… [that] rested on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak in other languages” (Acts 2:3-4). This is how the word of God describes the working of the Spirit: first he rests on each and then brings all of them together in fellowship. To each he gives a gift, and then gathers them all into unity. In other words, the same Spirit creates diversity and unity, and in this way forms a new, diverse and unified people: the universal Church. First, in a way both creative and unexpected, he generates diversity, for in every age he causes new and varied charisms to blossom. Then he brings about unity: he joins together, gathers and restores harmony: “By his presence and his activity, the Spirit draws into unity spirits that are distinct and separate among themselves” (Cyril of Alexandria, Commentary on the Gospel of John, XI, 11). He does so in a way that effects true union, according to God’s will, a union that is not uniformity, but unity in difference.
Source: Pope Francis - "Santa Messa nella Solennità di Pentecoste, 04.06.2017", Vatican website, 6 April 2017, http://press.vatican.va/content/salastampa/it/bollettino/pubblico/2017/06/04/0387/00862.html
Real Battle - Political?
But the real battle we're fighting isn't political; it's the spiritual battle of division in the Church, the root-cause of the most visceral polarization our nation has ever experienced.
The simple truth is that our nation is only divided because we, the Church, are divided.
An overflow of brotherly love.
Along with a few stalwart pastor-friends, I'm heading to Philadelphia tomorrow (Monday) to partner with some local/regional pastors as we prayerwalk throughout the city and its environs, believing for a breakthrough according to its holy namesake...that "brotherly love" would overtake this spiritual epicenter, that ripples of revival-unity would flow out from Philadelphia to the ends of the earth, acording to Christ's High Priestly Prayer:
I do not pray for these alone, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word; that they all may be ONE, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be ONE in us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. (John 17:20-21, emphasis added)
No matter who we elect, unless we repent and come together as friends, our nation will never be ultimately healed. Jesus says so: Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand. (Matt. 12:25)
Source: Tom Demaree - Pentecost Walk e-Newsletter, 6 Nov 2016, http://campaign.r20.constantcontact.com/render?m=1101890603611&ca=06af368b-6e1c-4580-9e3b-690d5b14c240
White, Welsh ... and in South Africa
Rhiannon knows that her very appearance [white, Welsh] reminds many Africans of rejection and unjust dominance, but instead of disclaiming all association with the colonial past by such statements as … "It was all in a past generation" or "My people have been oppressed too", she volunteers to stand in the gap as an intercessor. The Bible reveals that God is looking for such people. Not just people who will stand in the gap before Him, but people who will repair the breeches in human relationships. God does not put guilt on the intercessor. We are not individually guilty for what our group or our parents did, but He is waiting for a "royal priesthood," which is the redeemed in Christ, to openly convess the truth of a matter before Him and before people, just as the ancient Hebrew priests did once over the sins of Israel. You see, it is very difficult to forgive if you have never heard an open acknowledgment of the injustices that wounded you or your people. On the other hand, such grace for forgiveness is released when we are asked for forgiveness by those who identify themselves in some way with the identity of those who contributed to our suffering. Identification, as used in this sense, signifies the act of consciously including oneself within an identifiable category of human beings.
Source: John Dawson - What Every Christian Should Know About Reconciliation, p. 9
Jewish kindness
Jewish people in a small Texas city handed Muslim worshippers the keys to their synagogue after the town's only mosque was destroyed in a fire.
The Victoria Islamic Centre burned down on Saturday and had previously been burgled—the cause is being investigated by federal officials.
...
One of the mosque's founders, Shahid Hashmi, said: "Jewish community members walked into my home and gave me a key to the synagogue."
Source: Jon Sharman - "Jewish people give Muslims key to their synagogue after town's mosque burns down", Independent, http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/victoria-islamic-centre-mosque-fire-texas-jews-give-key-synagogue-muslims-worship-gofundme-a7556331.html
New Ecumenical Challenges to the Mainline Churches
Paragraph 14 - For more than a hundred years, Pentecostal and other charismatic movements have become very widespread across the globe. These powerful movements have put forward new emphases that have made many of the old confessional controversies seem obsolete. The Pentecostal movement is present in many other churches in the form of the charismatic movement, creating new commonalities and communities across confessional boundaries. Thus, this movement opens up new ecumenical challenges that will play a significant role in the observance of the Reformation in 2017.
Source: Lutheran - Roman Catholic Commission on Unity - Conflict to Communion: Report of the Lutheran - Roman Catholic Commission on Unity, p. 14
Forgive Past Errors
Pope Francis urged Catholics and Lutherans on Monday to forgive the "errors" of the past and forge a future together, including sharing the Eucharist, as he marked the 500th anniversary of the Protestant Reformation by traveling to secular Sweden with a message of Christian unity.
Francis and the leaders of the Lutheran World Federation presided over an ecumenical prayer service in the Lund cathedral, the first time a pope has commemorated the anniversary of Martin Luther's revolt with such a symbolically powerful gesture.
Francis quoted Luther and praised him for having restored the centrality of Scripture to the church.
"The spiritual experience of Martin Luther challenges us to remember that apart from God, we can do nothing," Francis said.
Source: Andrew Medichini, Jan M. Olsen & Nicole Winfield - Associated Press, "Pope on Reformation: Forgive 'errors' of past, forge unity", 31 Oct 2016, https://www.yahoo.com/news/reformer-pope-heads-sweden-mark-luthers-reforms-050227744.html
Repairing the Great Schism
Since Vatican II, efforts to repair the [Great Schism of 1054] have continued, with John Paul II talking of the Church ‘breathing with two lungs’, the more rational Latin temperament complementing the mystical and contemplative Eastern spirit.
Pope Francis and Patriarch Bartholomew have called for a new Council of Nicaea in 2025, the 1700th anniversary of the first council. Francis has declared that church unity does not come through theological agreement, however, but through relational unity; and that unity does not come through other churches ‘returning to the Mother Church, but when we all move closer to Jesus’.
Source: Jeff Fountain - Weekly Word eNewsletter, 8 April 2019, "The Creed That Unites And Divides"
https://us9.campaign-archive.com/?e=0b86898e11&u=65605d9dbab0a19355284d8df&id=0e080f28cf
Near-Death Experience
Rene hydroplaned on the streets of Sydney, Australia, hit a piling, and "died":
"I arrived in an explosion of glorious light into a room with insubstantial walls, standing before a man … He stood beside me and directed me to look to my left, where I was replaying my life's less complimentary moments; I relived those moments and felt not only what I had done but the hurt I had caused. Some of things I would have never imagined could have caused pain. I was surprised that some things I may have worried about, like shoplifting a chocolate as a child, were not there whilst casual remarks which caused hurt unknown to me at the time were counted."
Source: John Burke - "Imagine Heaven", Ch. 17, p. 245-246
Peace, not Contempt
(10) Now when Timothy visits you in Corinth (sent from Ephesus), make sure that he has nothing to fear while he is with you, because he is carrying on the Lord’s work just as I am. (11) Therefore, make sure no one treats him with contempt. Instead, send him on his way in peace so that he can return to me, because I am waiting for him along with my other ministry partners.
Source: The Apostle Paul - 1 Corinthians 16:10-11 (IEB)
Declaration on the Way
Why now? Because through 50 years of theological dialogues, Catholics and Lutherans have shown repeatedly that we have the resolve and the capacity to address doctrines and practices that have kept us apart. Through our dialogues, we are renewed in our commitment to continue together on the way to full communion, when we will experience our unity in sharing the Eucharist, in the full recognition of each other’s ministries and of our being Christ’s church.
An outstanding fruit of these dialogues was the Joint Declaration on the Doctrine of Justification. Here Catholics and Lutherans demonstrated how, through sustained theological dialogues and prayer, a major doctrine once deemed to be church-dividing can become a teaching in which we find our unity through reconciled diversity. The JDDJ provided an ecumenical breakthrough in distinguishing divisive mutual condemnations from diversities in theology and piety which need not divide the church, but which can in fact enrich it.
Source: Declaration on the Way - Declaration on the Way: Church, Ministry and Eucharist, Evangelical Lutheran Church in America with the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, http://www.usccb.org/beliefs-and-teachings/ecumenical-and-interreligious/ecumenical/lutheran/upload/Declaration_on_the_Way-for-Website.pdf
Together for Europe
My wife and I have just returned from such a time of dialogue and mutual listening in Vienna, a three-day gathering of 120 representatives of Christian movements, Orthodox, Catholic, Protestant and Charismatic, from Portugal to Russia, and Ireland to Greece. This Together for Europe (TfE) umbrella began with a pact of love 18 years ago between leaders of several movements, including the YMCA, a Lutheran sisterhood, the Focolare movement and the St Egidio community. It has grown to embrace over 200 movements all professing Jesus Christ as Lord.
Source: Jeff Fountain - Weekly Word, 13 November 2017, "Time to Listen"
https://us9.campaign-archive.com/?e=0b86898e11&u=65605d9dbab0a19355284d8df&id=d1f03dd3fc
Chris Carrier, Left for Dead
Quoting Chris Carrier, who forgave an assailant who left him for dead:
There is a very pragmatic reason for forgiving. When we are wronged, we can either respond by seeking revenge, or we can forgive. If we choose revenge, our lives will be consumed by anger. When vengeance is served, it leaves one empty. Anger is a hard urge to satisfy and can become habitual. But forgiveness allows us to move on.
There is also a more compelling reason to forgive. Forgiveness is a gift - it is mercy. It is a gift that I have received and also given away. In both cases, it has been completely satisfying.
Source: Johann Christoph Arnold - Why Forgive?, pp.85
Abbé Paul Couturier
In 1935, Abbé Paul Couturier, a priest of the Archdiocese of Lyons, sought a solution to the problem of non-Roman Catholics not being able to observe the Octave of Prayer for Christian Unity. He found the solution in the Roman Missal as the Association for Promotion of the Unity of Christians had done seventy-eight years earlier in England. Couturier promoted prayer for Christian unity on the inclusive basis that “our Lord would grant to his Church on earth that peace and unity which were in his mind and purpose, when, on the eve of His Passion, He prayed that all might be one.” This prayer would unite Christians in prayer for that perfect unity that God wills and by the means that he wills. Like Fr. Paul Wattson, Abbé Couturier exhibited a powerful passion for unity and had sent out “calls to prayer” annually until his death in 1953.
Source: Abbé Paul Couturier - Quoted by Rev. Thomas Orians, S.A. in "BACKGROUND: Brief History of the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2017", by Rev. Thomas Orians, S.A., Associate Director of Graymoor Ecumenical & Interreligious Institute, http://geii.org/week_of_prayer_for_christian_unity/background/brief_history.html
Molly T. Marshall
As a staunch Baptist I, too, long for catholicity. In many respects the future of Christianity depends upon a greater ecumenicity. Regular prayer with Benedictines has kindled a burning desire in me for Christ’s church to be one. When worshiping with these Christian brothers and sisters, I feel acutely the separation when the Eucharist is celebrated. While I understand the linkage of the meal to the larger sacramental system of the Roman Catholic Church, it reminds me that the unity for which Jesus prayed in John 17 is not yet realized. My spiritual friend, Abbot Gregory of Conception Abbey (a nearby monastery), shares this longing “that they might be one.”
Source: Molly T. Marshall - "Can a Baptist be a Catholic?", Baptist News Global, 13 September 2016, https://baptistnews.com/article/can-a-baptist-be-a-catholic/#.V-VcYZMrKu7
Austrian Round Table
This consortium – calling themselves the Round Table – of Protestant Free Church and State Church leaders, Evangelical mission leaders, leaders of Catholic movements meets approximately twice a year for three days at a trot under the chairmanship of Catholic Diakon Mag. Johannes Fichtenbauer, the Deacon of Vienna and Cardinal Schönborn’s assigned representative to the non-Catholic Christian groups of Austria. Their theological basis can be found in the German original at the website Weg der Versöhnung, http://wegderversoehnung.christen.at/ .
Source: Paul Miller - Footnote 25 of "Evangelicals Cooperatively Evangelising & Discipling with Catholics in Faithfulness to Evangelical Distinctives", by Paul Miller
Pope Francis
Second, he comes with no fear or suspicion of Lutherans but decades of fellowship. In his interview with the Swedish Jesuit journal Signum he spoke of many friendships with Argentine Lutherans -Danish as well as Swedish - with whom he has had sincere exchanges. Traveling with him on the plane today will be one of his oldest non-Catholic friends, the evangelical pastor Marcelo Figueroa.
Source: Austen Ivereigh - Crux, "How a restless reforming pope can help heal Reformation rift", 30 Oct 2016, https://cruxnow.com/analysis/2016/10/30/restless-reforming-pope-can-help-heal-reformation-rift/
Washing Judas' Feet
Love washed the feet of His betrayer just before he was to do his deed of betrayal, with the full knowledge that His betrayer was amongst His closest friends (John 13).
Source: Clinton L. Scroggins - Posted on FB 12 May 2017
Mateo Calisi
"Mateo Calisi…developed contacts in Argentina with local Evangelical and Pentecostal leaders, with whom a new body was formed; the movement known as CRECES (literally, Renewed Communion of Catholics and Evangelicals in the Holy Spirit). From the beginning, Catholic archbishop of Buenos Aries, Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio, SJ, now Pope Francis, supported CRECES. Cardinal Bergoglio played a regular part in CRECES gatherings, and was prayed over by leading Pentecostal pastors.... Pope Francis is the first bishop of Rome to have had regular and warm relationships with Evangelical and Pentecostal leaders. This closeness is reflected in the welcome given to Cardinal Bergoglio's election as bishop of Rome by a leading Argentinian Pentecostal, Dr. Norberto Saracco: 'Bergoglio is a man of God. He is passionate for the unity of the church—but not just at the institutional level. His priority is unity at the level of the people.'"
Source: Fr. Peter Hocken - Pentecost and Parousia, p. 69
Father, I Have Sinned
When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired men have food to spare, and here I am starving to death! I will set out and go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against heaven and against you. I am no longer worthy to be called your son; make me like one of your hired men.’ So he got up and went to his father.
Source: Bible - Luke 15:17-20
Dreaming of Cities Where ...
What kind of churches do we at Theopolis dream of? Churches like these:
....
Cities where all the churches pray and worship and labor together, where the pastors serve the interests of the city, speaking with one voice to civic leaders. Pastoral associations that include representatives of every church—Evangelical, mainline, charismatic, Catholic, Orthodox. Local pastoral associations that discuss theological differences, and do so honestly, vigorously, charitably, striving toward a common confession of the faith.
Source: Peter Leithart - Theopolis Institute blog, "Reformational Catholicism, A Wish List", 20 October 2016, https://theopolisinstitute.com/reformational-catholicism-a-wish-list/