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The Art of Bickering Versus the Witness of Unity
Posted on December 12, 2011
Filed Under The Church | 17 Comments
“The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me…” John 17:22-23
A few years ago, I had the blessing of traveling to Israel. Part of that trip included a visit to Bethlehem where we met with a group of absolutely awesome brothers and sisters in Christ. They know the deep cost of being a disciple.
While there, we visited the Church of the Nativity, where tradition holds that Jesus was born. It is built over a cave…a stable cut into the rock. Both Justin Martyr in the 2nd century and Origen in the 3rd, attested to this site as well as the birthplace of Christ being in a cave. I suppose our modern nativity depictions of a stable are easier to construct than caves.
As best we can tell, the original basilica was built in 333AD by Constantine’s mother, Helena, destroyed in the Samaritan Revolt of 529, and then rebuilt in the 6th century by Emperor Justinian I.
To enter, one must stoop and squeeze through “the Door of Humility”. Nobody really knows who made that small doorway or why. Once inside, any thoughts of finding anything close to your imagined “nativity” quickly evaporate. The church is heavily iconic. Winding stairs on either side of the sanctuary lead down to the “Grotto of the Nativity”, the supposed cave. But it doesn’t look anything like a cave. It is primarily an altar covering a marble alcove. The alter has lots of gold gilding, candles, rich tapestry, etc.
Quite honestly, I’m not into the gaudy, iconic structures that characterize many of Christianity’s historic places. I would rather walk through a quite shepherd’s field and look at THE cave…a plain, humble cave where Jesus was born.
However, all that being said, the Church of the Nativity is a very old and historic place.
It is also deteriorating. The roof leaks and the timbers are rotted. It has been 150 years since the last major renovation.
Why?
Lack of money?
Lack of professional restorers?
Security problems?
No.
It is the bickering of Christian sects.
You see, the Church of the Nativity is claimed by Catholics, Greek Orthodox and Armenians and they don’t really get along. They are suspicious of each other and if one tries to make any repairs to the building, the other two see that as an aggressive claim to total ownership…gaining an upper hand, so to speak.
In 1927, an earthquake inflicted heavy damage on the church. That sparked 60 years of bickering before things finally got repaired.
The church was in the news last week, because the renovations are finally going to be made. But not because of the Christians. No. Because of the Palestinian Authority that had to step in to make it happen and save the biggest tourist attraction in Bethlehem…to save the church from the people who claim to follow Jesus who said that the world would know that they were His disciples because they loved each other.
(Is this where the world holds up the sign “Laughter!”)
When we were in Jerusalem, we visited the Church of the Holy Sepulcher. I have written about this earlier. The bickering there got so bad that Saladin, in 1192, assigned control of the church key to a Muslim family that has since passed the responsibility to lock and unlock the church down from generation to generation. In 1852, because the hostility between the Christian sects became so contentious, outside authorities divided up the church into little domains for each faction. It was like the teacher sending the quarrelling students to separate corners of the classroom. Go back and read my description of how a Coptic Monk, moving his chair to get some more shade, sparked a territorial fight that sent eleven people to the hospital. Or the time a burned out light bulb and who had the right to replace it provoked a fight that the police had to break up. Or why nobody can remove a ladder leaning against a second floor window.
Are we crazy?
We are certainly a bazillion miles away from the vision of Jesus.
When He was praying to His father, in John 17, Jesus asked, four times, that we “might be one” so that the world would know that the Father had sent Him.
I wonder why the world doesn’t know that the Father sent Jesus?
Could it have something to do with our constant bickering?
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17 Responses to “The Art of Bickering Versus the Witness of Unity”
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How incredibly sad. Satan got on the job from the start and has divided the church from its inception and until we become true followers and do as Christ told us it will continue (or until He comes again).
[It is sad...but we can't think it is just these churches. We can all work on the unity part. Thanks, Melissa! dt]
I have fallen, Father, the woman you game me tripped me. “It was the serpent…” And so it continues. To say we can agree to disagree is folly. “Am I my brother’s keeper?” Yup, the Bible is full of sound-bites of God’s children lying and bickering since pride bent our hearts. Pride, it ruined a third of the heavenly host, and it reek’s havoc with every son of Adam and daughter of Eve. Pride stains our heart, like gilded tapestry over what once was a humble cave.
[Amen, Curtis! dt]
Del,
In 1985 I had the privilege of going to Israel with a group at the church where I was a member at the time. I had the same reaction as you express in this posting with regard to the nativity setting. It was hard for me to picture what the real setting might have been.
As I read your thoughts further, I wondered how much the bickering within Christian sects has had an effect in the history of our country. Though there were significant religious disagreements in the founding of the United States as Charles Coffin the 19th century journalist has documented, among others, there was still a fundamental unity around morality and religion, with religion being defined as the basic, fundamental Christian faith.
I have seen in my own sphere of observation, cases of one Christian church refusing to work with another in ministry to the poor and the refuge because the other church does not hold to exactly the same doctrinal beliefs. Could this loss of fundamental unity in Christian circles be a factor in the loss of Christianity from the marketplace of ideas, the media, the elite intellectual institutions? Also, I ask myself, where have I contributed to this? Have I perpetuated the divide by being Unchristian in taking a stand against evil in the way that I have? Just thoughts.
I need to draw closer the triune God every day, to desire that HE mold me, daily to find and know the part He has for me in HIS story and then play it out. The Truth Project and your “Truth Observed” postings constantly remind me of this. Thanks!
[First, thanks for your encouraging words. Soli Deo Gloria! Yes? I agree with you. I think we would be rather shocked to find the depth of the consequences due to our failure to love one another as believers and our neighbors. I also agree that we have to make a commitment to change that, starting with ourselves. This is going to be one of the main thrusts of the Truth Encounter. Blessings, Don! dt]
not to be picky but if a 1529 revolt destroyed the church how could a 6th century Emperor repair it?
thanks for developing the Truth Project, wanted something like that every since my ancient history prof went book by book from Genesis to Revalation with a plow.
[Ugh! 529 not 1529. Fat fingers on a small keyboard! Grateful for the Lord's hand being on the Truth Project. Blessings! dt]
Generally, when something like that happens, the US press screams hypocrisy. Not a good thing.
I can also say it happens here in our different denominations.
[How true and how sad, no? This must make our Lord weep. But we are going to change this, through His grace and mercy and strength. May the Truth Encounter be a part of that. Blessings to you, Bryan! dt]
Just a quibble about the word: I don’t think “iconoclastic” is the right term (and I’m pretty sure the Catholics wouldn’t like
the opposite term “iconic”, either). Maybe “embellished”, “decorated”, or “ornate”?
[Oops! Must have been the auto fill! Thanks. I meant "iconic" and don't think that is an offensive description. dt]
Hi Del, We were blessed to be in Israel in May of this year. A guard explained the small door we had to duck through to see the Nativity. He said that Arabs rode their horses into churches to desecrate them so Christians made the entrance too small for horses to enter.
[I have heard several explanations for that door. This one does sound plausible. I think the reality is that we have no record of the reason, so we have to guess. Thankful your trip was a blessing to you. It certainly was for me! dt]
Leave it to MAN to ruin a perfectly humble birthplace and make it into what we think should be befitting a KING! I’m with you Del…on the birthplace of Christ…our Lord and Saviour…being a modest, humble, unassuming place..not like what we in this world have been taught. Bickering has no place in the heart of a follower of Jesus Christ…so why are so many professed followers of Christ so full of contempt, malice and bitterness? I think it’s pretty evident..let us all pray for PEACE within the body of Christ! What a terrible example we set…..
[Reading John 17 and Jesus' grand design for us, it makes me weep to see the Body of Christ in such an anemic and impotent state. Yes, we need to pray for her. Thanks, Dawn! dt]
Lessons often have broader applications than the examples used. The sects fighting over the Church of the Nativity have lost sight of what their PURPOSE is and instead have focused on THEIR purpose. It suddenly becomes about them as opposed to the purpose – His Glory.
One of the greatest men ever to live warned us of this. George Washington in his Farewell address directly confronted the issue of “factions”. He feared our division into parties would only drive us to serve the party rather than the obligations of the office.
I fear our nation has slid deeply into a mindset where our individual focus is on our individual need or desire. Only by setting ourselves aside, and accepting Christ can we return to glory.
[Thanks, Bob. The satanic mantra of our culture is "it's all about me". That leads only to personal and cultural destruction. The reality is "it is all about Him". We, unfortunately, believe the lie and the consequences that we see all around us should be breaking our heart. dt]
Are we perhaps being too picky as to having to “belong” to a church in the first place? The walls of my church then becomes a barrier to someone not belonging to my church. Similarly, another believer “belongs” to another church, thus creating another set of walls! By then we have two sets of walls dividing us! How about calling in a demolition crew?
[I personally like denominations because they represent the "diversity" of the Body of Christ. What I don't like is the lack of unity between them. I can "belong" to a family but it doesn't necessarily mean I have to make that a wall. I can join myself to a family of believers and not make that a wall either. It comes back to whether or not we want to fulfill the grand design of Christ...that we love one another and are unified (despite our differences) so that the world will know that the Father sent the Son. Thanks, Ed! dt]
First of all, I believe we ascribe to Satan way too much credit for the sinful things men do. After all we all have a sin nature and that never leaves us while we are here on this earth. That nature naturally wants to worship the created instead of the Creator. Man also wants to exalt himself above all creation. As Del said I too want only to be able to walk on the dusty trails where my Saviors footprints were and sometimes where His tears fell because we keep allowing that sin nature to have the priority in our lives. We are not asked to remember Him by the places he walked but what He has done to save us from our own destruction; remembering we are fallen, hopelessly lost souls, whose only hope is through the death and ressurection of our Savior the Christ, Jesus.
[I certainly agree that my sinful nature is more than enough to account for all of the evil in my life. Satan has done enough damage without giving him credit for our own doing! Thanks, Keith! dt]
Del, for many yrs I have said, “if we quit fighting each other and join forces against our common enemy (satan)we would have a more positive affect on the world.
[Agree, Ken. That "unity" does not mean we all have to look alike or have the same preferences, etc. but we certainly don't look like the picture Jesus painted for us in John 17. We all need to be a part of moving it that direction. Thanks! dt]
I agree with what you said about your impressions. For some reason, people drift toward physical artifacts, to the exclusion of what Christianity is really all about. It is nice to have those places to visit, but we don’t need all that gilded glitz. We trace our roots to ordinary people, not to kings and wealthy merchants. I’ve often thought this is why we don’t have the Bible autographs. If we did, people would be standing in line to worship them instead of the God who inspired them. God, instead, chose to give us thousands of documents from which to reconstruct them to a high degree of certainty. I can imagine the originals in a glass case, surrounded by scowling guards, intent on watching each other more than anything else. I thank God for His wisdom in removing that stumblingblock.
[I think you are right on, Joe. I also thought of the wisdom of God to have timed the advent of Jesus and then the life of the apostles and the completion of His Word before technology was available to capture it on film or other means. Not only would we turn them into icons, but it would have negated God's design for us to walk by faith. We have been given plenty of evidence, for sure, but it is more of the indirect kind that allows us to life by faith...a faith that is the "assurance" of things hoped for. Blessings! dt]
I am Armenian(American) and will make an individual donation to the church, and see what I can do in my community. Thank you for the article.
[You're welcome, Ani. To some degree, we have the same kind of issues elsewhere. Let's all work toward the fellowship of believers that Christ desires. Blessings! dt]
When we were at the Church of the Nativity last April I noticed that the two lines of huge columns down the nave of the church looked two-toned. They were grayish/pinkish marble below. Above six feet they were black. I asked if there was a religious significance to the colors. The guide was embarrassed to explain that the sects with authority over the church can’t even agree IF THEY SHOULD BE CLEANED. And if so, WHO should clean them, HOW OFTEN, etc. They are filthy. The lower parts are rubbed by tourists, and so are a dirty pink. The upper parts show the dirt of centuries.
I was ashamed.
[I can add nothing to your articulate words. It is silly. It is sad. It is to our shame that we fail to testify to the world through our love and unity. Thanks, Ruth. dt]
If we can recognize we have in any measure fallen short, we can also choose to change, do something about it. I was just reading John 17 a couple of days ago, where Jesus prays for us to be one with him as he is one with the father. And I prayed, God, we need to change our ways, I myself recognize I have fallen short of this unity. The fruit of the Holy Spirit is definitely the answer, for it says that agains such things there is no law.
[John 17 is such a key passage for us. Jesus was so clear and so simple in His description of the design for us: love and unity and how that would be such a powerful testimony to the world. You are right. We can change that. Let it begin with me, through His power. Blessings! dt]
The one place I’ve seen these denominational walls come tumbling down is in working a Kairos prison ministry weekend. For example, although I am convinced regarding a number of issues espoused by Reformed Theology, any issue not held by all the denominations is not brought up. Issues like communion, doctrine of election and end-times theology have no place on a Kairos weekend. It’s the love of Christ that unites us and it is precisely that agape love we seek to share with the residents of the Institution. Only that love has the Power to transform a life.
[Thanks, Dick...and thank you for your ministry to prisoners. I have heard from many, many chaplains and others working in prisons that the Lord has greatly blessed the Truth Project inside the walls. Keep seeking that transformation! (Rom 12:2). Blessings. dt]