why can’t we all just get along?: part 3

April 4, 2007

Here is the third installment of my presentation on worship at Missouri Baptist University last month- Why Can’t We All Just Be Reconciliators: A Third Way. It’s looking like there will be four parts overall. Here is Part 1 and Part 2.

Up to this point, we have mainly looked at categories. Part 1 looked at the preservationist and innovationist camps. Part 2 looked at the traditional, contemporary, and emerging church contexts. Part 3 brings us to a biblical description of what being a reconciliationist looks like:

So how does this put us in a better position to talk about what being a reconciliationist means?

As a way into this, I would like to look at a couple of scripture passages together in the Gospels of Luke and John. In these two passages, the setting is the Garden of Gethsemane, which sits at the foot of the Mount of Olives just east of Jerusalem. You know the scene. He is about to be arrested, flogged, and crucified in the next 24 hours.

What is interesting about these two passages is that Luke and John record the same event through very different lenses and words. But because both of these passages describe the same story and fit together harmoniously, we need to read both passages to help us as we understand this idea of reconciliation.

Chronologically, Luke 22, comes first in the story. Starting in verse 39, Luke says:

And he came out and went, as was his custom, to the Mount of Olives, and the disciples followed him. And when he came to the place, he said to them, “Pray that you may not enter into temptation.” And he withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, saying, “Father, if you are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done.” And there appeared to him an angel from heaven, strengthening him. And being in an agony he prayed more earnestly; and his sweat became like great drops of blood falling down to the ground And when he rose from prayer, he came to the disciples and found them sleeping for sorrow, and he said to them, “Why are you sleeping? Rise and pray that you may not enter into temptation.”

So in Luke we see Jesus praying twice before he rises to find the disciples sleeping.

In John 17, we see a more complete version of one of Jesus’ prayers, called the High Priestly prayer. Now I don’t know if this was Jesus’ first or second prayer, but nonetheless it is a more expansive account of one of those prayers.

Starting in verse 1, He prays for himself. Then, he prays for His disciples. And then, starting in verse 21, He prays for all believers, that would include us. This is what He says:

My prayer is not for them alone [he is talking about the disciples here]. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me. “Father, I want those you have given me to be with me where I am, and to see my glory, the glory you have given me because you loved me before the creation of the world. “Righteous Father, though the world does not know you, I know you, and they know that you have sent me. I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them.”

So we see in Luke’s account that Jesus, in his humanness, did not want to take the cup that He had been given. What was the cup? The cup was the mission He was on to serve as mankind’s representative by dying on the cross, serving as a substitute on the cross, thus satisfying the wrath of God and reconciling man back with God.

Haven’t you been there? We say, God, I know you want me to do the right thing, but if it possible, can you spare me the trouble, the stress, the anxiety, the work I have to do to pull this off? In fact, can I just skip this altogether? This is what Jesus is saying, in his humanness, in his flesh.

But quickly, Luke shows us that Jesus placed himself under God’s authority and submitted himself to God’s will.

Now look what happens in John. We see a considerable shift in Jesus’ prayer. He goes from praying for himself to other people. I think this is significant. Jesus shifts the focus from his circumstance and shifts it to the people who will be impacted by the real implications of the cross.

Jesus knows that his death and resurrection will be the pivotal point in history where things change forever. That for the next two millennium, this act of sacrifice will impact believers all over the world. He also understood, in a very real way because not only was he fully God, but he was fully man, that we humans will wrestle with our own flesh and we are going to wrestle with one another.

And what does he pray? He prays for oneness. He prays for unity.

Now our world is wrought with conflict. Just turn on the nightly news or step into a church committee meeting. Come on Jesus, isn’t unity and oneness just wishful thinking?

What is interesting to me in these passages is that Jesus does not leave us guessing about how to achieve this. It is one thing to say, “Can’t we all just get along?” to “Here is how you can get along.”

The first thing I want to look at is Jesus says “…not my will, but Yours”

We know what God’s will was for Jesus was as he prayed in the Garden, but how would we model this behavior today? One way to say the same type of thing is this, “God, I want my will to be Your will.”

So what is God’s will? More specifically, what is God’s overarching will for us? Simply put, I think God would say, love Me and love others. Now how we go about doing those things is God’s more particular will for our lives, but as an umbrella, I would say generally His will for us it to love God and love others.

I think that all believers would agree that loving God is God’s will for us. But the second part of God’s will, the loving others part, gets a little more dicey.

This brings me to my first point of reconciliation with one another. Love is the motivating factor for harmony in all matters of ministry. If you can’t bring yourself to love other people, you aren’t in a position to be a minister of reconciliation.

We have to submit ourselves under God’s authority and God says we are to love one another. Really love another. Not a surface, showy, “gritting teeth” love, a real love that comes from a heart that loves God.

I think what God is saying is that you can’t love Me and not love others. Or another way to say this is, if you don’t really love other people, you really don’t love Me.

Creps illustrates this by talking about how the two big computer manufacturers manage to coexist. Basically, his impression is that they simply arrive at some common technical standards [identical keyboard layouts] and then proceed to do business to reach their market.

He says these companies never seek or achieve unity, but they exemplify a certain form of harmony that contributes to the overall benefit of computer users. Survival depends on never losing sight of the person working with the machine.

Did you catch that? The computer manufacturers’ main concern is about the one using their computer. Sounds simple but this is a profound thought.

In other words, the motivating factor for what they do is for the sake of the end user. They have realized something that we in evangelicalism have yet to: harmonious relationships possess the common feature of serving someone else. And for us, what is the motivation for serving someone else? Love.

Second, Jesus says, “I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one…”
I believe what Jesus is saying here is, “I have communicated to all those who believe, or shall believe in me, the glorious privilege of becoming sons of God; that, being all adopted children of the same Father, they may abide in peace, love, and unity.” Also, I think these words can be used to describe the glory which believers were to share with him in heaven.

So what does this have to do with reconciliation? Everything.

We work at reconciliation because Christ has reconciled us to him. He has adopted us as His children. His cross frees us up from having any excuse not to. It’s what keeps us from unnecessary debating and alienating one another.

How can we not do the hard work of reconciliation when that is exactly what Christ did it for us? That is the least we can do for Him. So if see, we at back to the first part of God’s will for us: Love Me. Even if they have different opinions on what worship should look like, they look different than us, or they meet in an untraditional setting.

We have one installment left. Stay tuned…

Posted in Bible study, Gospel, community