Unity???

  

 My husband and I stand in front of the unity candle at our marriage ceremony.

     I have been an active member of a mainline, protestant, evangelical denomination all my life.  Growing up in that atmosphere, I had never understood those denominations whose services were full of liturgy.  I thought they were stuffy and boring and missing the point.  Of course my actual knowledge of those churches, or any other denomination for that matter, was limited to rumors and innuendos from people in my own denomination.

     One thing I did have knowledge of, other than my own kind of church, was a mom and dad after God's own heart.  They taught me one basic thing;  to always read the entire Bible for myself and ask God to impart His understanding of that scripture to me.  They even reinforced the matter by telling me I should never take any one preacher or teacher's explanation of scripture as absolute gospel, but to search out the matter for myself.  I have been on that search about the deep truths of God's Word for most of my life.

     A few years ago a friend invited me to a class on 1st Century Judaism, taught by a Lutheran minister who is also a Jew by birth.  I was a little skeptical at first, but the mere mention of the name of the class surged through me with great excitement.  The class is known as Torah Tuesday.  In the midst of attending this class I have visited this church several times and I have realized a great misconception on my part.  Let me revert back in my life for a moment to help you understand my point of view as well as give you a little something to think about.

     My denomination, while conservative in it's teachings, encourages a certain level of freedom of expression during worship.  If you want to sit during the worship it is okay.  If you want to stand and raise your hands while saying hallelujah, that is okay as well.  We don't judge those who "feel the Spirit" during their time with God.  We do, however, tend to think differently about those who worship in liturgical congregations and I must admit that I was one of the worst in doing so.  I was so judgmental that I wrote a book several years ago along that line.  I gave the book to several people in my denomination whose opinion I trusted wholeheartedly.  Each of them gave me back the draft with words such as, "It was nice," or "It would make a great instructional manual."  (Just their way of saying kindly, "Oh dear, how can we tell her this book is awful!")

     I was brokenhearted at the comments.  There was no enthusiasm for my words. (Ahh perhaps that was the problem, they were my words...a realization that just hit me.)  Rather than stew over it, I vowed that I would put it away until God revealed otherwise.  If all of those trusted people said the same thing, well.....

    Now fast forward five years.  I have been in this class regularly for four of those years and worshiped with that particular congregation about 10 times.  I have also, through this class, studied the beginnings of Christianity from an entirely new perspective.  Where I once saw liturgy as rote and mindless tradition, I now understand it as unity.

     In my last post I mentioned that the United States appears more divided now than at anytime since the Civil War.  I still believe that to be true.  According to a survey by The Association of Statisticians of American Religious Bodies (ASARB), there are over 300,000 Christian based congregations who worship each week.  Of those, approximately 100,000 are either fully or in part liturgical and 200,000 are not.  I would wager a guess here to say that on any given weekend only about 57,000 of those congregations are on the same page.  Although that is a great many, on the other hand there are about 243,000 congregations who are each doing their own thing.  Although they probably all teach from the Bible, they greatly differ on the scripture reference and interpretations and that is not unity.  About the only time those 200,000+ are unified is; Christmas, Easter, Mother's Day and Father's Day. (If you are part of an evangelical congregation, how many times have you attended on Mother's Day and made that face, because you knew you were going to hear Proverbs 31 preached again!) 

     If all 300,000+ congregations believe in the same God and in the same Savior, why aren't they unified?   Have they misinterpreted God's Word in some way?  Think along with me on this, the apostle Paul said that God is a God of order.  If this is so, why are His people so disorderly?

     My study of 1st Century Judaism has brought about a thought process.  What would and could happen if ALL God's people got on the same page?  How wonderful is it when many people from various walks of life come together with a unified agenda, putting aside their differences on things which aren't applicable to the cause?  What accomplishments can be achieved with unity?

     Let me take this one step further.  What if every church in the world read the same scripture this coming weekend?  All churches, no matter the denomination, lifting up their voices as one in unity?  Would the gates of hell crumble?  Would this one simple act be THE ACTION which would herald in the return of the Messiah?

     I want to give you a couple of examples of what unity can do..    

Joshua 6:20,  "So the people (Israelites) shouted, and [the priests] blew with the shofar (horns). And it came to pass, when the people heard the sound of the shofar, that the people shouted with a great shout, and the wall fell down flat, so that the people went up into the city, every man straight before him, and they took the city."

Nehemiah 8:1-9,  "When the month of Tishri arrived, the children of Israel gathered together as one at the plaza before the Water Gate and they asked Ezra the scholar to bring the scroll of the Torah of Moses, which HASHEM (the Lord God) had commanded to Israel.  So Ezra the Kohen (Priest) brought the Torah before the congregation - men and women, and all those who could listen with understanding - on the first day of Tishri (Rosh Hashanah - a holy day which begins 10 days of awe and ends with Yom Kippur, the day of atonement).  He read from it before the plaza that is before the Water Gate, from the first light until midday, in front of the common men and women and those who understood; and the ears of all the people were attentive to the Torah scroll.  Ezra the scholar stood on a wooden tower that they made for the purpose......(the portion omitted here lists 13 men, 6 of whom stood on Ezra's right and 7 who stood on his left)........Ezra opened the scroll before the eyes of all the people, for he was above all the people; and when he opened it all the people stood silent.  Ezra blessed HASHEM, the great God, and all the people answered 'Amen! Amen!' with their hands upraised; then they bowed and prostrated themselves before HASHEM, faces to the ground......(Again men named who helped the people understand the words they were hearing. I could teach an entire lesson on just the names of all these men, but alas that is for another time.).......They read in the scroll, in God's Torah, clearly, with the application of wisdom, and they helped the people understand the reading.  Then Nehemiah, who is the Tirshatha (Persian official) as well as Ezra the Kohen, the scholar, and the Levites who were helping the people understand, said to all the people, 'Today is sacred to HASHEM your God; do not mourn and do not weep.'  For all the people were weeping as they heard the words of the Torah."

     I know the last passage was lengthy, but I wanted to capture the context.  The first temple had been destroyed and the people of Israel had been in captivity in Babylon for 70 years.  Under great men such as Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah and their influence over the Babylonian Kings, the people were allowed to return to their land.  Through the generosity and kindness of King Cyrus the second temple was built.

     As the Torah was being read the people began, as one, to weep as they realized they had been neglecting the Torah's laws.  Every time I read that passage from Nehemiah I am so deeply reminded of what took place at the dedication of the first Temple:
       
          "There was unison among the trumpeters and singers, sounding out in one voice to praise and give thanksgiving to HASHEM, and when the sound of the shofars and cymbals and other musical instruments sounded out, with praise of HASHEM 'for He is good, for His kindness is forever,' and the Shechinah filled the house - the Temple of HASHEM - and the Kohanim (Priests) could not stand and minister because of the cloud, for the Shechinah glory of HASHEM filled the Temple of God."  II Chronicles 5:13-14.

     WOW! What a day that must have been!  Something I long to see in Christianity.

     Although it is not exactly the same as our Gregorian calendar which is solar, the Jewish calendar is lunar and has a specified scripture for each week.  It is the same EVERY year.  You could say their calendar is God's calendar or better yet, God's day planner for He is the one who gave it to them.  In every Synagogue around the world the scripture is the same.  The Jewish nation scattered all around the world is unified on each and every Sabbath as well as every festival and Holy Day. (Judaic unity goes much deeper than this, but that is also for a different post!  If you would like to purchase one of these calendars you may find it here:  http://ffoz.com/eretz-yisrael-wall-calendar.html  It is well worth the money and contains BEAUTIFUL pictures of the land of Israel.)

     What would and could happen if all of Christianity, within our congregations, began to follow the same scripture reading schedule as all of Israel?  What a day it could be if ALL GOD'S CHILDREN stood on the Sabbath and at the completion of that reading, shouted in one voice, "For He is good, for His kindness is forever!"  Could we usher in or shout in the return of THE MESSIAH?

     

   SHALOM!