My heart here in Chicago is focused on Gather (The Covenant Annual Meeting) about to convene in Anaheim California. As always, there are stresses and strains, and decisions to be made. At its heart a vote will be taken to dismiss a church over theological matters. We are more aware of those challenges in recent years than ever we have been.
I simply want to share a word and a prayer from two of our past sages, as if to remind us who we are, or at least who we were in our formed life and spirit. May their thought and spirit prevail this week.
First a bidding word from the itinerant and traveling preacher C.J. Nyvall (1829-1904), who said:
“I would like to say a few words, beloved friends, regarding the strife which at present persists among us: about the right conception of the gospel on the one hand and the common church life on the other, or rather about our own attitudes toward each other when we are unable to think alike on these matters. Oh, how important it is to heed the Lord’s admonition and see to it “that we are not mutually devoured!”
Beloved friends, you who have had your eyes opened to the dear gospel somewhat more than others, remember that even those who do not see things exactly as you do may yet live the life in Christ. Watch out that you do not judge as slaves of the law those whom God counts as his children. It would be a truly evangelical conduct and it fits in poorly with your confession…No, my dear friends, the life of grace in others is a condition which we cannot always evaluate, partly because of our own inadequacy and partly because of varying circumstances among the children of grace. This ought to make us not only cautious but thankful to the Lord that he has not set us as judges over others. May we instead judge ourselves, test ourselves, and see if we ourselves are in the faith.
Therefore the real children of God have peace among themselves, something that is so highly necessary that without it everything else is a sham, and we, with all our zeal for the kingdom of God, disgrace the gospel of peace and bring condemnation upon ourselves…. Peace within the group does not mean that all think alike and interpret all things alike, each wishing to see, as it were, his (sic) own self in another, but it does mean that each one recognizes his brother in Christ, whatever else the condition may be. It is not identity in thought and comprehension of all possible particulars that constitutes the perfect bond by which we love one another; that bond, rather, is the mutual filial condition to which we are born from above.
May the Lord open our eyes to this blessedness on the one hand and not to the deceit of the devil on the other so that we be not caught in the snare. Cease to bear arms against brethren and thank God for the dear gospel which he in great mercy and faithfulness has committed to us, and use your war energy to the end that many more may become partakers of the same gospel and be blessed. (89-90)
Second, a prayer offered by my late uncle Zenos Hawkinson at the Covenant Ministerium meeting in 1978:
Our Father, we give you glad thanks for this unbelievable, imperishable, unmerited fellowship. help us to continue to enjoy each other as we pasture in your meadows, in places that have been made available to us through your grace, because you love us– not because we earned it, but because you love us, because you are who you are. And help us thus to love each other even when we disagree, even when we see things differently, but understanding that we are sheep of the same shepherd, even our Lord Jesus Christ. Help that whatever is said or understood among us may suffer the winnowing of your good sense, that what is good seed may fall into good ground, and what is nonsense may dry up quickly, blow away, and be forgotten. For we pray it in Jesus’ name. Amen. (595)
(quotes from Glad Hearts: the Joys of Believing and the Challenges of Belonging, compiled and edited by James R. Hawkinson, Covenant Publications, 2003)
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