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A few days ago, someone asked me what I knew of other
communities shared activities during the season of Lent.
My answer was "not much." Now that goes two ways - first,
I don't know that much (and have never, ever claimed that
I did) and second, it is my experience that weekly
ecumenical services during the 40 days before Easter are
very rare. How truly wonderful it is that here in the
Assumption area all five churches can gather and travel the
Lenten journey together sharing in each other's
hospitality and worshipping in a variety of traditions and
styles the same Lord. Among the book of Psalms is one
that is only three verses long, Psalm 133. These verses
speak of how good and pleasant it is when people live
together in unity and that when we're so gathered together
as one in common purpose that we are blessed by God.
There are two illustrations in this short Psalm -
anointing oil, a precious fragrant blend of expensive
spices and olive oil named as sacred by God and used only
rarely for the anointing of priests and the temple and,
second, a mountain dew (no, not the soda--regular, diet,
or code red) but the rare preciousness of that unexpected
morning moisture in the arid climate of the Middle East.
I find it interesting that oil and water, two things that
we all know don't mix well together, are used to illustrate
how precious to God and so also to us are those time when
we come together as one people - the children of God The young residents at Kemmerer Village have introduced me
to a genre of worship music that I was not familiar with
prior to coming to be with them as their chaplain. It is
classified as gospel music, but this isn’t grandma’s
southern gospel favorite quartet. This is the music of
Kirk Franklin, Mary Mary, Yolanda Adams, Donnie McClurkin,
and many others. Among the lyrics in Kirk Franklin's song
entitled The Blood Song are these words--
We may be different but the God we serve's the same.
Yet every Sunday we separate, and bring the Father pain
Your name is higher than any other, yet You took my place instead
Y ahora mis peacados son limpios, because Your blood was red.
Strong enough, to wash away my sin
Pure enough, to cleanse my deep within
Real enough, to find me when I'm lost
Great enough, to die upon the cross
Doesn't matter what color You are as long as Your blood was red.
I think Mr. Franklin has hit the proverbial nail on the
head - considering the price that Christ has paid for us,
it must frustrate our one, true and holy God (that is,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) that we continue to go our
separate ways, assuming that we have the "right" way to
worship or to serve or to study or to live as the people
of God. What might we learn from each other if we would,
and could, come together and openly share in our faith
experiences. Reminds me of a story--After a good and full life a fellow
passes away and finds himself at the gates of heaven. He
is welcomed into eternity and all the splendor that is
heaven by a delightful angel who offers to give him a
brief tour around part of heaven so that he might get his
bearings. He marveled at all the wonders the angel showed
him- they traveled streets of gold, lined with many
marvelous palaces, and such a wide variety of peoples were
there. He was shown such glorious things that are simply
not describable in human words. But he also kept noticing
this one area of heaven that seemed to be walled off..
well, like a very, very, large cube of stone. So being
curious, he finally asked his guide, "Excuse me, I don't
mean to be nosy, but you keep avoiding that area over
there, could you tell me what that is?" And the angel
replied, "Oh...that's where the (put in the name of the
denomination of your choice) have chosen to spend
eternity. They think they're the only ones up here!" My friends, we are the one people of God (by God's
choosing, not ours) - let us live that way today.
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