Lord, have mercy! I've run off and joined a cult!

I heard this week about a nice Episcopal lady who went to interview at one of our local Baptist churches to interview for the position of a church secretary. She was told that the interview was concluded because their employees had to be Christians and they did not consider Episcopalians to be Christian.

Lord, have mercy. I've run off and joined a cult!

There are a couple of things about this that make me sad.

First of all, in Gethsemane our Savior prayed to the Father that He would make us one as they were one. Unfortunately, we have divided up the Kingdom of God like football teams, and we spend more time cheering for our own team and booing everyone else's than we do actually getting down to God's business.

Second, it makes me sad that the leadership of the Episcopal Church that I love, the church that has brought me hope and peace at different times in my life, has so fractured its relationships with the rest of Christendom that we can be accused at all with any validity. It makes me sad that politics has supplanted the mission of the church. Now, that said, I see this in multiple denominations, not just the Anglicans and Episcopalians. Some groups like the ubermensch at the SBC are fracturing relationships from their Pharisaical bent.

When I was little, the two Baptist churches and the Methodist church in my hometown would have a joint service on the last Sunday of the month when there were five Sundays in the month. Fifth Sunday services were a lot of fun. One church would host it, another would do the service, and the third would bring food for fellowship time after the service. I remember that after one service done by the Methodists one of our good Baptist deacons wanted to take me to task for repeating the Nicene Creed with all the Methodists. He had a problem with the line about "one holy, catholic, and apostolic church". He didn't understand that it wasn't refering to the Roman Catholic Church but the single Church of the our Lord that is broader than our divisions. I had to ask my Dad about it, because at the age of eight or nine, I wasn't sure either. He sat down with me and went over the Creed line by line and explained to me that although Baptists don't say any creeds, there wasn't anything in there that Baptists didn't believe. He explained that this was my heritage as a Baptist as much as anyone else's, and that it was an important part of the history of the Church.

I would even dare to say that the name of the church you attend doesn't matter. What matters is what you believe about Jesus.

anything but typical

The Nicene Creed

We believe in one God, the Father, the Almighty,
maker of heaven and earth,
of all that is, seen and unseen.

We believe in one Lord, Jesus Christ, the only Son of God,
eternally begotten of the Father,
God from God, Light from Light,
true God from true God,
begotten, not made,
of one Being with the Father.
Through him all things were made.
For us and for our salvation he came down from heaven:
by the power of the Holy Spirit, he became incarnate from the Virgin Mary,
and was made man.
For our sake he was crucified under Pontius Pilate;
he suffered death and was buried.
On the third day he rose again in accordance with the Scriptures;
he ascended into heaven and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead,
and his kingdom will have no end.

We believe in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life,
who proceeds from the Father and the Son.
With the Father and the Son he is worshiped and glorified.
He has spoken through the Prophets.

We believe in one holy catholic and apostolic Church.
We acknowledge one baptism for the forgiveness of sins.
We look for the resurrection of the dead,
and the life of the world to come.
Amen