Schismatic Sadness

Many PC(USA) churches are splitting from their denomination and joining other bodies. This makes me sad. Jesus prayed that we might be one... but we are unable and unwilling to accommodate God's will. Not even amongst the tiny fraction of Christians who describe themselves as Presbyterian can we agree to look beyond our cherished positions and seek the kind of unity Jesus prayed we may have.

How do people become entrenched in positions that cause them to be so judgmental of others that they can't be in fellowship with them any more? In a church that preaches we are saved only by grace through faith, how can some step away from that and proclaim that only they have the truth?

Sure, folk have difference of opinions about interpreting scripture, particularly in regards these days to sexuality, but are they really of such importance that they no longer believe they can work alongside their sisters and brothers in Christ? I guess so.

But I don't understand it. Not in the light of grace. Such judgment makes no sense.

I don't get it. Jesus prayed for our unity. Unity based on the love He shared with His Father God. Not unity based on doctrinal correctness or the ability to all believe exactly the same thing. Unity based on love for each other. Love for God. Love for the church. Love for love.

So I'm sad that so many of us get it so wrong. I grieve over the message our schisms offer to an already skeptical world. I totally realize that I'm no saint in the unity area. I have my personal convictions and prejudices. But are they of such significance that if you don't agree with them I presume you are going to hell? More likely, when they cause conflict, they are a sign that I need to take a little more time getting over myself.

So I'm expressing my schismatic sadness. I do not believe it is glorifying to God or in the best interests of God's Church. I can't see what long term good any of it will achieve, other than being yet another milestone in the history of our inability to be the people God wants us to be.

Of course those who know better will call me simplistic and unrealistic. They will accuse me of making light of irreconcilable differences. And they have gone and will go their own way. It leaves me with a deep sense of sadness that within an organization that supposedly is only redeemable by the grace of God we lack even the human grace to swallow our pride and accept that others have opinions that we don't share... but love them all the same... because that's just exactly how God has loved us.