If you won’t gather the way I think you should, then I’ll find a group who will!
The title of this post has been the (sarcastic) point of several of my blog posts, including one of my favorites called “A Cup o’ Joe or a Cup with Joe.” (By the way, if you jump to that post, make sure to read the comments. Those are some of the best comments on my blog… ever.)
Now, Kurt at “church then and now” has written a post on the same topic called “A Holiday Disaster – A Parable.” Kurt not only begins his post with a humorous “parable,” but he also continues by examining the problem of requiring others to be and act the way we think they should.
Here is Kurt’s parable:
It was one of the worst possible family gatherings imaginable. People showed up late. Aunt Mary was supposed to bring the salad but forgot. Uncle Sam was in charge of the meat. It was overdone a tough. Some of the cousins got into a fight with lots of name calling and even a few hard shoves. The dessert…we always have apple pie. This year we had chocolate cake. It just isn’t the same.
I was a bit frustrated, maybe even angry. Everything seemed different. I didn’t like it. Mistakes, change…I don’t like it at all. My first inclination, my knee jerk reaction, was to find another place to go for my next holiday meal. I am having a hard time. I don’t like this a bit.
I heard that a house down the street has nice people, a happy atmosphere, and wonderful food, including apple pie. I think I will go to that house next time.
It sounds funny when it’s a family reunion… but it seems the church is so much like that. We accept one another and fellowship with one another based on our levels of agreement instead of basing everything on our mutual relationship with God in Jesus Christ.
How much different this “family reunion” we call church would be and would appear to others (especially outsiders) if we accepted one another as God has accepted us in Jesus Christ.
Don’t miss the remainder of Kurt’s post. He has some good things to say in regards to accepting one another as God’s family.
I liked the post. I couldn’t figure out how to comment on it, so I’ll comment here. I thought it was a little unrealistic about families. I mean, at least in my family, it isn’t all sunshine and flowers. If we had a crappy family gathering people would complain about it and argue and be annoyed. Some people in my family have things that annoy them about other people in our family. I think the important point is that no matter how much complaining and bickering there is, everyone will still be there for the next get together and anyone would drop anything to help any other member of the family out (even if they were annoyed about having to do it). Maybe other families are different, but I just felt like the family described in the post was a bit too picture perfect, and that the imperfection of the family unit only drives the point home even more. We may not get along, we may find each other annoying and tiresome, we may not like the food, we may even complain and fight, but we always stick together and come back. To me that says a lot more than the perfect family could.
Dan,
That’s a good point. While the post focused on staying with one another as family while working through problems, family remains family even if those problems are never “ironed out.” We are family in Christ. Period.
-Alan