A black and white photograph of my maternal grandparents hangs on the wall in my parents’ living room. In the picture my grandfather stands handsome in pin-stripes, a white corsage pinned to his lapel. In front of him, their shoulders barely touching, is my grandmother. Her floral hat is angled just so, her porcelain skin framed by a spray of ribbons and gladiola across the shoulder of her suit.
It’s their wedding portrait, but there’s no tuxedo, no white dress, no lace-trimmed veil. On the day they married, my maternal grandparents didn’t walk down a church aisle or stand before a congregation of friends and loved ones. Instead, they were married in the rectory adjacent to the church. My grandfather, born Baptist, was not permitted to marry my grandmother, a Roman Catholic, inside the church.
I used to sit in the blue chair in my parents’ living and stare at that wedding portrait of my grandparents. Truthfully, it made me sad. I mourned the fact that my grandmother hadn’t been allowed the kind of wedding most girls dream about. I mourned that my grandfather, one of the most faithful men I ever knew, had been barred from marrying the girl he loved in a proper church wedding.
For a long time I railed against what I perceived as the Catholic Church’s intolerance of other denominations. When, after many years of unbelief, I returned to faith and religion as a Protestant, I naively assumed my new religion was free of division and divisiveness. Turns out, I was so blinded by my new love for God; I couldn’t see that some Protestants drew their own lines, with Catholics, and others, on the other side. I was disappointed. It was a different “enemy,” but the same old dividing lines.
“If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink,” Jesus told the crowd gathered in the Temple on the last day of the Feast of the Tabernacles. “Rivers of living water will brim and spill out of the depths of anyone who believes in me this way, just as the Scripture says.” (John 7:37-39)
Like Brad observed last week, Jesus chooses the most basic, elemental symbols to make his case: hunger and thirst; bread and water. Water comprises 70 percent of the Earth and about 57 percent of the human body. It is the most basic, but also the most fundamental component to our survival. We all thirst, every last one of us. Jesus chooses the symbol of water for this very reason – because he extends the invitation to everyone.
I love how Jesus always cuts straight to the chase. It’s simple, isn’t it? If you thirst, you are welcome. If you thirst, you’re in.
Yet it’s easy to forget this, isn’t it? It’s easy to forget that Jesus wasn’t about doctrine and creeds, rules and regulations. He simply opened the door and offered the invitation. To everyone.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t advocate that we all adopt a milk-toast, one-size-fits-all religion. I value and appreciate the differences unique to our denominations. I love how we all have a slightly different take on the body and the blood, the bread and wine, the sacraments and the rituals and the prayers and the creeds.
Maybe I’m naive, maybe I’m simplistic, but I believe we can celebrate these differences without deeming one or the other wrong. I believe we can find a way to embrace and appreciate doctrine without allowing it to trump Jesus.
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Whether you’re naive or simplistic, I don’t know. But I do know that I join you in this hope. Wholeheartedly.
Thanks so much for hosting today, Michele. Your grandmother was probably so thrilled to be married to her sweetheart that she was happy to have found a way around the church guidelines. I loved how you described yourself as a young girl dreamily looking at the picture. You are such a descriptive writer that you draw me in as a reader each week.
YES!!! It amazes me how much Pentecostals have in common with Catholics ~ yet they often don’t realize it. I think when we become dependent on the rituals and the pomp and recitation rather than Jesus and the simple gospel message, that’s when we get into trouble. We begin worrying over denominations and differences rather than focusing on commonalities. For me the solution is simple: focus on Jesus and find some kind of Kingdom work (feeding people, missions work) that simply doesn’t allow for endless introspection. If we’re busy, we won’t have much extra time to worry over doctrine:) I <3 your thoughts this morning! Exactly what I needed to read.
Leigh: This: “We begin worrying over denominations and differences rather than focusing on commonalities.” YES! And I agree, too, with your suggestion that we get out of our own heads and our own selves and work toward serving others. Amen, sister.
If you think Catholicism is “rituals, pomp, and recitation rather than Jesus,” I invite you to come to my church. I know that Michelle did not intend to malign Catholics, but is it fair to judge a religion based on a wedding photo of an adult’s grandparents? I say this with respect and as a lifelong Catholic whose church is dedicated to serving the poor. There are variations in Catholicism just as there are variations in Protestantism. New England Catholics are not the Catholics I grew up with in Maryland. I find that constructions of Catholicism are always an easy mark, and conversations like these are frustrating to someone living that faith.
I was raise as a devote Catholic and when really found a relationship with Jesus I wanted to express that love in a different way…so I looked for a church that had no denominational structure…I just wanted Jesus…so I found a great non denominational church…but as the years went by…I too was disappointed to find…there were lines everywhere…but this also helped me to see we are all really the same in so many ways…from Catholic…..all the way down to a home church…each church thinks to some level they have a corner of truth…or they have figured somethings out better than others…and to some degree we can’t get all the way past this…because we would not be going to a certain place if we didn’t even if it is some small way…think this is better. But I do think that doesn’t have to divide us if we keep it in it’s proper place…the place of…this place is where I find and live love and life in the Body the best.
I think God is doing this…I am a bit older than most in this bloggy world…and I think the Church…His Body is healing and growing in the right direction…and I believe it is the generations behind me ushering this in…and I pray for us who are ahead of you all …the ones who stood behind our lines and shot at each other …will let go and keep moving in pace with what God is doing. You are neither naive or simplistic…this is hope and where would we be without it~
I agree, Ro, absolutely – I see a change, I feel a change. It’s being led by those coming behind us.
“Keep moving in pace with what God is doing.” Beautiful, Ro. Love the way you think, lady.
This is my heart, too, Michelle. It seems strange, but the deeper I move into the particularities of my own denomination, the more I love and feel connected to the church as a whole. It seems counter-intuitive, but perhaps that is how we know it is the Spirit’s desire and the Spirit’s work.
Thanks for this.
Perfect words, dear Michelle… It STILL breaks my heart to see the lines drawn in the sand when it comes to loving Jesus. Since we are an army family, we aren’t denominationally driven. At each new duty station, we pray for a new church home and go where God leads.
And it’s amazing to watch Him work in this regard. No lines there! 🙂 Blessings, lady. Counting down the days til your book comes out!! 🙂
Amen. I am sure that when we get to heaven no one is going to care if you were sprinkled or immersed. 🙂
“I love how Jesus always cuts straight to the chase. It’s simple, isn’t it? If you thirst, you are welcome. If you thirst, you’re in.”
Yes! Yes! Yes!
And that makes me think that I’d better be salt so those around me get thirsty quicker! “You are the salt of the earth.” Matt. 5:13
I do think the “church” at large is moving in the right direction. Perhaps it’s because I live in California, which is a very political state, but I see many denominations working together for the common good of the people (the church). Denominations that previously would never have spoken to each other or interacted together in previous generations, much less work together to bring good changes. It gives me hope 🙂
Well said. I often tell my family that sometimes it’s really hard to see Jesus through all the junk we people who represent Him put in the way. Sometimes we let our *humanness* create unnecessary divisions. And you’re right, there is something really sad about that. Sometimes I think if Jesus walked among us today, He’d shake His head in dismay.
May we ever strive to look more and more like Him – and remember that no good comes of *body parts* fighting against each other.
GOD BLESS!
Great post. That’s why the Bible is my only source for truth. Also why I’m grateful I became a believer later in life so I could find the truth for myself. I know so many people who have rejected Jesus completely because of bad experience in the Catholic Church (I’m sure other churches as well). Man-made religion and ritual is not what Jesus was about, it’s what He came to expose.
Oh, Michelle, I am a cradle Catholic and know that for sure that we are all after the same things. I like to think the boundries have softened over the years. I remember sneaking a visit into a Luthern church wiht a friend when I was a high school student. We thought we’d be in such trouble, if we were caught. (it was just blocks from our Catholic high school) Well, nothing happened! But I did learn that the inside of the church was much like ours so I felt that we couldn’t be that different. Celebrating sameness, letting go of some very old fashioned ideas are good. I will always believe and want communal worship and it will likely be Mass for me, but I celebrate what others do on Sunday as well. Just do it for the love of God. m.
I love this story, Marg – thank you so much for sharing it and for reaffirming the fact that we are indeed moving and growing with the Holy Spirit and in the Body of Christ. Amen, sister!
Doctrine should never trump Jesus! I love how you have stated that there is room for different practices of the same faith, and this shouldn’t cause divisiveness when our true focus is on the Lord.
Blessings, Michelle!
I agree, Michelle! If Jesus were here on earth, would we be so denominationally divided? Maybe. Maybe not. But I think we’d be more focused on Him! Thanks for this!
Lovely post — as always — and what a truth you spout.
BTW: I love how you described the portrait of your grandparents.
I used to stare at the engagement picture of my maternal grandparents [there was no wedding photo] and wonder who those young people were, so frozen in that moment — they looked so innocent, so ready for life together. 🙂
This reminded me of my father, and all the weddings he turned down because he would not marry a Catholic person in the Methodist Church. Seems like so long ago ……….He now would welcome the union.
Pls. forgive length! =]
Michelle, this is a wonderful, sensitive, and thought-provoking post and worth weighty consideration. There is nothing milquetoast about it. I love it. I can’t believe that you wrote about it, because, serendipitously, just last night my family and I were talking about how terribly sad it was that two of my great aunts and two great uncles, all siblings, didn’t marry because of religious differences held by their families and those of their fiancees (yes, all four siblings were *engaged*). My family (then) was Methodist, and all of these four were engaged to Catholics. Each of their families were contentious about religious differences, and did all they could to stop the marriages. My grandmother, a Methodist, and my grandfather, a Catholic, however, secretly eloped and had a very happy marriage and one child, my father. Later, one of my great uncles, at seventy-five, secretly wed his septuagenarian fiancee, and they had sixteen blissful years of marriage before he died. But just imagine all the beautiful years that they could have shared, and yet sacrificed (as did my other aunts and uncles who never married! It was tragic.) It’s so sad that none realized it didn’t have to be that way.
I think Christians, despite their denominational differences, have far more in common than they think, and I love to see how people like you, Deidra, etc., are trying to reconcile believers. We are one in the Lord. We are also all sinners, in desperate need of a Savior, and Jesus bids us come to Him in repentance and humility for salvation. He is the living water and He is the bread of life, and I believe that He employs these metaphors because they represent life itself. We must drink and eat to live. And we *must*have Jesus for spiritual life and life eternal. He does invite all to come, but sadly, few do. I”m reminded of Mt. 22:14, which states that “many are called, but few are chosen.” Perhaps, in part, it’s because they are thirsting for the wrong things. I might gently say that what you said–“if we thirst we’re welcome; if we thirst we’re in,” might be expanded upon. I hardly mean to split hairs, because I truly think I know what you mean and would agree. But just for me to be clear in my own head, I will say that I think to come to Jesus, we must thirst for righteousness, we must thirst for Him and for freedom from sin. The people in Jeremiah’s day were thirsty, too, but God rebuked them, and said that His people had committed two *evils*: “They have forsaken Me, the fountain of living waters, and hew themselves cisterns—broken cisterns that can hold no water ( Jer. 2:13).” So they were not thirsting for God, but seeking to assuage their thirst the wrong way, and God called it evil. I love how you make me think, and I’ve had to give more thought to your statement that “Jesus wasn’t about doctrines . . .” I do think that Jesus was deeply concerned about doctrine…the Greek word for it simply means teaching. And Jesus was concerned with teaching truth. Jesus *is* Truth. So I’m thinking that Jesus “was about” truthful doctrine. As Christians, when we follow Christ, we adhere to the doctrines which He taught. 1 Timothy 1 talks about sound doctrine, and we learn what it is and isn’t. Titus 1 talks about qualifications for an elder and says, “He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refuse those who oppose it.” So, in turn, it’s important that our doctrine is sound. But what I love about your blogpiece is that you encourage reconciliation and not to let denominational differences divide our unity in Christ. I think sound doctrine is extremely important, and that we can earnestly seek it and still have differing viewpoints. But when beliefs differ from core doctrine that is central to true Christianity (say, whether or not Jesus is really God), then that is doctrine on which we can’t compromise. Again, Michelle, not meaning to split hairs whatever, but to plunge deep, because this is what you do, and I love that about you!!! I just love you, period!
Love
Lynn
I do believe what you are saying, and always have. I so believed that we Christians are all one that I, a Catholic, sent our children to a nearby Baptist school. “What are you going to have your children do when they teach religion?” I was asked. The asker was also Baptist but couldn’t find a church her family was happy with so they home churched.
“Don’t they just teach the Bible?” I asked. “Nothing. The Bible is the Bible. It will be good for them,” I answered. What I didn’t know is, they actually taught anti-Catholicism. Once I discovered this I was so sad. I asked our priest if he thought we should pull them out, but his answer was to leave them in but keep talking to them, telling them what we believe and why. We were die-hards. We let some of our children spend four years in that school, talking all the while. We did ask the pastor to go a bit easier on the Catholic church but his response was, “This is our school and this is how we feel. This is what we will teach.” I know now, we were just wrong to leave those little kids in that environment, and I wish I hadn’t. There were some wonderful things about that school and some really low moments I wish we’d never let the children live through, but what I feel the most strongly is, the Devil must cheer when Christians are so divided. We are so goofy to work so hard to point out differences instead of working hard to point out how we are all the same, walking different paths to reach the same final goal. The new pope, Pope Francis has the right attitude in this. Take care of the poor and down trodden, love God, live as Jesus did. If we can do all of those things, we are on the right path!