Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, ...

At our last meeting, while we were waiting to begin, a few of us talked about the book, Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe. Now I'm sure most people would think that this was not related to our ecumenical Bible Study, Yet I believe that elements like this could be a part of what we share as we meet to study the word.

Now I am not suggesting that we base our meetings on anything other than a study of the life of Paul and his letters, yet I find it very much in line with his letters to think about beautiful things that are not necessarily directly talked about in his letters. In Philippians 4, he says as much,
"whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is gracious, if there is any excellence, if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things."

I was also thinking about the approach Jesus took when he was preaching. I think he would gladly welcome a discussion of Uncle Tom's Cabin just as he would a discussion of the lilies of the field, mustard seeds, the qualities of light, treasures found in a field, examples of charity, hypothetical ethical questions, etc. He obviously thought that it was important to be grounded in the Scriptures; Jesus and the Gospel writers often quote scripture. It is also important to see that Jesus himself was the fulfillment of Scripture. Yet Jesus often simply appeals to natural truths, real-life examples, and other non-scriptural ways to shed light on truth.

I look forward to more times during our meetings where people make note of or to express praise for whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, etc. The Community Bible Study curriculum already leaves openings for discussing how the scripture can be applied to our lives, and we will look for other ways to bring cultural elements to bear on the day's discussions.

Meeting 3. more planning and ideas

Met once again at SSBC on Wednesday, June 11, 2008. Continued to discuss both the general structure of the planned Bible Study as well as the themes and subjects that we would like to tie in as we go along. The themes would be both overall themes and specific themes related to certain letters of Paul. Overall themes related to the Year of St. Paul are Ecumenism, Evangelism, and Unity. Specific themes can include: anger, dissension, immorality, sin, truth, hope, love, unity, marriage, etc.

We talked, once again, about some fundamental concepts like Saint and Christian and Word.

We had a basic agreement on these topics, and discussed them to a certain degree. As expected the concepts of true conversion, and the rebirth found through baptism are concepts that Baptists and Catholics understand differently and at times I thought we were talking past each other. Just my impression, but I am hopeful in spite of what I perceived to be a disconnect. In spite of the disconnect we did agree on some major truths which included the following:
1. to follow Christ is what matters the most. Union with Him is what we all desire.
2. "The Word" has a meaning that is more than just scripture. It is expressed through Scripture, yet it existed before the first word of Scripture was written, and is expressed every time we are prompted by the Holy Spirit.
3. The word "Saint" seems to have two meanings. One that tries to capture the initial consecration, the initial decision to follow Christ, the initial receptivity to Truth and Love. And another that implies eternal salvation, truly in Heaven, truly seeing, truly one with Christ through and through, all impurities and sins in the past.

We also had an interesting discussion at the beginning while we were waiting for people to arrive that I would like to comment on in another append.

Next meeting is scheduled for Tues. June 24 at South Shore Baptist. 7:30pm to 9pm. (changed to Tuesday, 24th. Too many could not make 25th. PK)

Glorifying God by Loving One Another

Dr. J. Vernon McGee, the old fundamentalist preacher of Thru the Bible fame (http://www.ttb.org/), tells what is probably an apocryphal story about a man who drives into a nameless town in small town America on a Sunday morning, and stops at a gas station on a hillside overlooking the town. As he looks down at the town in the valley below, he notices all of the different church steeples dotting the landscape. So he says to the gas attendant, "Boy, those people sure must love God, don't they?" In response, the attendant says, "I don't know about that, but they sure hate one another." While I wouldn't necessarily agree with this observation completely, there may be at least some truth to it. And even if there isn't, what kind of witness are we presenting to the world when professing Christians are perceived as fractious, spiteful, unforgiving, judgmental, etc.? After all, the Lord Jesus said that "this is how they will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:35. That is ultimately the point of this endeavor, to show the world that we desire to love one another, regardless of our (real and imagined) denominational differences. To do that, we need to come to a greater understanding of what we believe in common, which starts with the fundamental Christian confession that "Jesus is Lord" and at the very least includes the Apostles' Creed. With that foundation, along with a deep and abiding sense of love, humilty, and respect for one another, we can begin to understand the areas where our encounter with the Risen Lord differs. In some areas, those differences may be large, while in others they may be small. But even where we agree to disagree, we can learn to admire the passion and zeal with which our brothers and sisters in Christ strive to love and serve our Heavenly Father. To be clear, the idea is not to have another morally relativistic encounter group, where the "truth" is always up for grabs. Rather, while the details of what we will be studying are still to be determined, we are committed to meet together united around the Truth, the Lord Jesus Christ, under the power of the Holy Spirit, to study His Word, with the ultimate goal that others may see our love for one another and give glory to our Father in Heaven. As one of my favorite hymns goes (and I have heard this in both Catholic and Protestant churches), "They will know we are Christians by our love." Amen.

Avoiding difference? or listening to all sides?

Another discussion point that came up at meeting #2 was how to deal with differences of opinion, differences of belief, and conflicts.

One approach is to avoid disputed points. Try to address things off line as much as possible.
The thinking behind that approach is the acknowledgement that most people have a strong emotional attachment to their faith, and we don't want to scare people away by making them feel threatened.

Another approach is to listen to each person's views with as much respect and understanding as possible, letting Catholics speak for Catholics, Baptists speak for Baptists, etc.; but there shouldn't be a need to avoid the issues.

I think that we agreed that the latter approach is our desired approach. One person expressed a commonly held opinion that "ecumenism" is often associated with "compromise" or with the "watering down" of truth. I believe that everyone who was at our meeting agreed that we don't want to have to water things down or avoid difficult issues.

How that plays out will require great gentleness and care. St. Paul reminds us of just that in his letter to the Colossians where he says:
"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassion, kindness, lowliness, meekness, and patience, forbearing one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony."