Healing a Divided Church
A few years ago, I went to a new chiropractor. He was a nice fellow, and as we got to talking, I told him that I am a priest, and he wanted to know all about Anglicanism. He was raised Roman Catholic and attended parochial schools. Throughout our conversation, he mentioned several times that he is “very interested in religion and likes learning about it.” At one point in our conversation, he mentioned that it is hard to believe how many divisions there are in religion, especially in Christianity: “How can they come from the same foundation and splinter in so many ways?”
A clear way to see this division is to look at Christians in the West and the East. Something as profound and simple as the day on which Easter is celebrated can’t even be agreed upon. Now, I know the reasons why we celebrate Easter on different days and follow different Church calendars, but this year, it has me thinking, shouldn’t this be what unites us? I digress.
The two general ways to respond to a question about church division are reflected in the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector in Luke’s Gospel. The more common response I hear revolves around the idea that “It is the other person who has sinned” and “Isn’t it good that we are the one true church.” We are right, they are wrong. They are in sin, and I am righteous. This response begins to look very quickly like the Pharisee. Maybe we are a little better and at least pray like the tax collector, only to go and think like the Pharisee. It would be easy to respond to a question about the church’s division by dismissing the other side as heretical and assuring ourselves that we are the true Church. Yet, it was the tax collector who left justified, not the Pharisee.
The other way to respond is much harder. It is the way of the tax collector. This other way requires us to wrestle with our own sins and sit within the tension of Jesus’s High Priestly prayer in John 17, where Jesus prays, “[I ask] also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” If the Church’s unity shows the person of Jesus as the Messiah, it is no wonder that the Church’s division is a common objection from non-Christians about Christianity. If the body of Christ is divided, how is it to stand?
I said “sit within the tension” of Jesus’ words, not because the words of Christ are unclear, but because we find ourselves in an already perforated and divided Church. How then do we wrestle with the tension of a call to be unified, to be undivided, while acknowledging that there are already insurmountable divisions and oftentimes over important and unalterable views, like orthodoxy?
Scripture has more to say to us about this than we often think, but we must begin in the Old Testament. After the death of Solomon (926-922 BC), Israel was divided into two kingdoms. The split occurred, from a social perspective, due to taxation. From a theological or divine perspective, however, the division was due to idolatry. The northern kingdom was called Israel (sometimes Ephraim), while the southern kingdom was called Judah. Israel, largely, had bad kings and did not follow God’s commands, but worshiped other gods. Judah, however, had many more good kings and often followed God.
In fact, during the Continental Reformation, both the Roman and the Protestant sides claimed to be in the place of Judah, while the other side was the wicked kingdom of Israel. What both sides failed to see was that both kingdoms were under judgment. In the book of the Prophet Hosea, God accuses Israel for a whole chapter, then in the next two chapters, while speaking of God’s punishment upon Israel, God starts throwing Judah in with them and claims that both Israel and Judah are unrepentant. And yet, God calls his people to repent and proclaims his faithfulness despite their infidelity.
The prophets are riddled with division and judgment, but judgment is always for the sake of redemption, that the people of God might repent and turn to God. And God remains faithful to his people, promising to bring unity: “He will raise a banner for the nations and gather the exiles of Israel; he will assemble the scattered people of Judah from the four quarters of the earth. Ephraim’s jealousy will vanish, and Judah’s enemies will be destroyed; Ephraim will not be jealous of Judah, nor Judah hostile toward Ephraim” (Isaiah 11:12-13). The hope that is promised to God’s people is found in the Messiah.
So, how is it that Christ Jesus healed the brokenness of the people of God, and how does he heal our brokenness today? I’ll give you a hint: we spent a whole week recounting and reliving the answer. Christ’s body was broken for us, to heal the brokenness of the Church. Yes, he saves us from our own sin, but he is saving his Body, the Church, from its sin, too. He allowed his clothes to be divided, his face to be spit upon, and his flesh to be torn and pierced as a way of redeeming his pierced and divided Body. Not only did he suffer the judgment of our sin, but Christ rose from the dead to bring his kingdom near and knit his people back together as the Body of Christ.
If Christ has redeemed our brokenness and division, how should we live in the light of the risen Lord amidst a divided Church? First, we must become like the tax collector and repent, for the judgment of division touches us, too. Second, we should live as the people of God, following His commands. And, lastly, we should live as people of the Resurrection and proclaim the work that Christ has accomplished, working in us, and is bringing among us as his kingdom draws near. I will leave the ecumenical dialogue to the bishops, but I encourage all of us in our daily lives to enter all things with humility and set our hope on the risen Lord, for we are a people of the Resurrection.
Let us go forth in the Name of Christ. Alleluia, alleluia.
Fr. Aaron