Tuesday, May 29, 2007
I read ahead in church on Sunday. The pastor was preaching on John 11:1-44 (raising Lazarus from the dead). I read to the end of the chapter, verse 57, where it talks about the plot to kill Jesus. Something struck me that I’d never really noticed before. Here, let me put it here for you. See if you notice.
Then one of them ["them" being priests and Pharisees], named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up. "You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation, but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
WOW! Here it is, so right on (his quote and his prophesy) and then, the next sentence, in stark contrast "so from that day on they plotted to take his life." Can you blame him, really?
I started to think how we are no better than this high priest. Then I started to think about this "bringing together and make them one" that the high priest prophesied. One church? But I am not in "communion" with somewhere around two thirds of my fellow Christians. We share our faith, we share the same hope, but we do not share the body and blood of Christ together. That has always saddened me. This is why I rejoice when church factions reunite as happened recently with two branches of Eastern Orthodoxy.
Ah, the Russian Orthodox Church. Now that’s a church culture I had a rough time understanding! I attended so many services when I studied abroad, but I just couldn’t see the link between what they did in their services and what my Christian experience was. That is, not until the last Sunday I spent there. Easter Sunday. Midnight service that Saturday night. I was in St. Petersburg. I held a candle. We were having a vigil for the crucified King. When my candle blew out, I had a stranger next to me help light it for me. Just before midnight the priests walked in circles around the church with as many of the congregation as could follow. As they walked back in, I looked across the human aisle we had formed to let them pass. A woman across the aisle looked into my eyes, with a joy and a love and a peace that I knew well and craved often. The peace of Christ. Then I understood. She was my sister. The man who lit my candle, my brother. This woman followed Christ’s story during passion week, and the power of it all changed her life, just as it had mine. "He is risen. Indeed he is risen" the church chanted (in Russian) over and over again. "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tomb bestowing (or is it "restoring?") life." Over and over. "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tomb..."
I am in the tomb. We all are. He gives life. The priests’ prophesy. The Holy Spirit shining through the Russian woman’s eyes. We are indeed one. But not of our own accord or through decrees passed by church officials. We are one because He has made us one. Amazing.
Then one of them ["them" being priests and Pharisees], named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up. "You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish." He did not say this on his own, but as high priest that year he prophesied that Jesus would die for the Jewish nation, and not only for that nation, but also for the scattered children of God, to bring them together and make them one. So from that day on they plotted to take his life.
WOW! Here it is, so right on (his quote and his prophesy) and then, the next sentence, in stark contrast "so from that day on they plotted to take his life." Can you blame him, really?
I started to think how we are no better than this high priest. Then I started to think about this "bringing together and make them one" that the high priest prophesied. One church? But I am not in "communion" with somewhere around two thirds of my fellow Christians. We share our faith, we share the same hope, but we do not share the body and blood of Christ together. That has always saddened me. This is why I rejoice when church factions reunite as happened recently with two branches of Eastern Orthodoxy.
Ah, the Russian Orthodox Church. Now that’s a church culture I had a rough time understanding! I attended so many services when I studied abroad, but I just couldn’t see the link between what they did in their services and what my Christian experience was. That is, not until the last Sunday I spent there. Easter Sunday. Midnight service that Saturday night. I was in St. Petersburg. I held a candle. We were having a vigil for the crucified King. When my candle blew out, I had a stranger next to me help light it for me. Just before midnight the priests walked in circles around the church with as many of the congregation as could follow. As they walked back in, I looked across the human aisle we had formed to let them pass. A woman across the aisle looked into my eyes, with a joy and a love and a peace that I knew well and craved often. The peace of Christ. Then I understood. She was my sister. The man who lit my candle, my brother. This woman followed Christ’s story during passion week, and the power of it all changed her life, just as it had mine. "He is risen. Indeed he is risen" the church chanted (in Russian) over and over again. "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tomb bestowing (or is it "restoring?") life." Over and over. "Christ is risen from the dead, trampling down death by death, and upon those in the tomb..."
I am in the tomb. We all are. He gives life. The priests’ prophesy. The Holy Spirit shining through the Russian woman’s eyes. We are indeed one. But not of our own accord or through decrees passed by church officials. We are one because He has made us one. Amazing.
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