| Last year the Pope suggested that Lutherans worshiping in Roman Catholic churches should be allowed to make up their own minds about taking communion. Shortly ago a group of Finnish Lutheran clergy were communed at a worship service in the Vatican even though they were willing to abstain from communing. The Catholic Priest offering communion would not consider not communing them and insisted. This represents a MAJOR shift in the way the Roman Catholics relate to us protestants. But, I suppose a lot of folks wonder if all that actually means anything. After all, does it really matter that the Pope is allowing protestants to commune? |
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Let me answer with a joke. Stop me if you've heard this one...
When is the Roman Catholic church like a watermelon?
When they are both square!
Don't get it? You will....read on. . |
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Many years ago, nearly thirty five years in fact, my father and I somehow became estranged. The how of it is a complex mixture of geography (he lives out west I live here in the east), circumstances of convoluted misunderstandings beyond our control, and the sheer weight of the years lived under the first two conditions. Looking back on it, it was a silly thing that we should have been able to resolve earlier, but life is what it is sometimes. On the whole, the loss of the relationship seemed easy to bear. My life had an embarrassing wealth of strong family relationships. I had an aunt and uncle that stepped in after my mother died to serve as my parents who took me in fully and deeply as their own child. I had grandparents who were as involved in my upbringing as any parent could be. I had a wealth of siblings... and cousins raised just as close as siblings. In the end I received, by the grace of God, one of the most perfect wives ever and was blessed with four amazing kids.
With my heart so full from all those amazing loved ones it was easy to miss the hole that was left where the father-son relationship should have been. Thanks to the concerted but not coordinated efforts of my amazing wife and my cousin Jim, my father and I reconciled a few years ago. It was an awkward and uncomfortable thing for both of us. Neither of us knew exactly how to go about it so we just sort of stumbled forward. I think both of us were wee bit surprised to discover that neither one of us held any bitterness or anger from the whole thing and turned out that the only thing we both felt was that we missed each other. It has been wonderful to have that relationship back again. Equally odd is that I have now discovered that the lack of that relationship had far more impact on me than I would have ever thought.
Since we reconciled I have been able to let go of some fears and angers that I was never able to really understand before. Now I can see that I had simply grown around the hole in my heart. And like anything that has to grow around something I had done so in some pretty sideways, crooked, and off kilter ways. I never knew how the loss of that thing had shaped me. This is where the watermelons come in.
Those watermelons are real, not photoshopped. They are a high priced desert delicacy in Japan where one square watermelon can cost up to $200. They aren't mutants. The baby watermelons are placed in square plastic cubes where they grow into the shape of their containers.
They do the same thing with tomatoes at Disney World, but of course with Mickey ears instead. Anything will grow into or around anything if it is forced to do so long enough. It works with watermelons, tomatoes, squash, apples, peaches, pears, and or course Roman Catholics. You knew it was coming back sooner or later...
| Yep. Let me ask the question again...and it really is less of a joke and more of a sad statement on human nature. |
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When is the Roman Catholic Church like a watermelon?
When they are both square! |
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The church has grown out of shape. Squished in the Roman Catholic box the Roman church has missed out on the insights of us Lutherans, Baptists, Charismatics, Presbyterians...the list goes on. We too our squished in our little boxes too and could have benefited from our Roman brothers' perspective.
Too many eyeballs decided to go it on their own without those dang feet hanging around. Too many hands decided to set off on their own to get away from those annoying earlobes. The Body of Christ that Paul assured the folks in Corinth was one whole and complete body decided to try to be more than one. We became estranged from one another. It happened first around the year 1000 AD when the church in the east split from the church in the west. It happened again (and again, and again) during the reformation. Now it happens so often we hardly notice. |
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Does that look like a green pepper to you? The problem is we have become so accustomed to the hole that the absence of unity leaves. The Christian church has grown into some odd looking shapes that make square look positively ordinary. So maybe the Romans communing the Lutherans is no big deal. Maybe the UCC church having Presbyterian clergy serve in their pulpits is no major thing. Maybe the Episcopalians bishops coming to Lutheran ordinations to share in the service is more of an empty gesture than anything else. But maybe, just maybe, it is all an effort to push the church back into it's right shape. Heal some old wounds. Right some old wrongs. Maybe we really do need each other and maybe Paul was right when he said that the toes ought to not run off on their own without the rest of the foot. Maybe the body of Christ is only really healthy when it is whole. Maybe we really do need each other.
Now, chances are you will never have the opportunity to take communion at the Vatican. Don't feel bad, neither will I probably. But how about the community of faith you are part of? Is it having to grow around your absence or are you active and vital in your community? Are there holes in that community where you have had to grow around the absence of others? In other words, are you square? Have you ever thought that your absence or the absence of others is harming the body of Christ where you live? After all, you will need those toes.
So look out on your fellow Christians spread across the world and for a moment imagine that there is no "Us" and there is no "Them". There is only the one unified body of Christ that needs all of its parts working together in unity. What does that look like when it is whole and healthy? |
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Coming Friday...
David Bowie movies and the Gospel...sort of. |
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