Subject: The River of No Return? |
Bible Note: Schwartzkm, bravo! Three cheers! A most excellent and insightful contribution. Oh, but can I identify and empathize with your experience with the communion of believers upon which you based your keen observations, for I too was once of that stripe, having grown up in a congregation of those who were fond of saying that they had no creed but Christ. Of course, the affirmation that one has no creed but Christ is, of itself, a creed of sorts, albeit a very broad and rather non-specific one. Your observations on division even among members of a local congregation reminds me of an incident that occurred near Nashville, Tennessee when I was a college student in that city. In a small town on the outskirts of Nashville, there was a small congregation of believers whose practice it is to observe communion every Sunday. Now in this little group it had long been their practice to partake of the fruit of the vine from small, individual containers. But one day one of the elders posed a question: The Bible, he asserted, speaks of "this cup" and not "these cups." He therefore concluded that the command was not being properly obeyed when more than one cup was used. He persuaded some, perhaps half, to his viewpoint, but not the rest of the congregation. An amusing compromise was at length settled upon. Every Sunday the Uni-cuppers sat on one side of the aisle and the Multi-cuppers on the other. So far as I know they lived happily ever after. --Hank |