There are some things that you do early in ministry that you look back on and think, “what was I thinking.”  One of those surely came to mind this week as I sat down to prepare this sermon.  My first job in ministry was as a pastoral resident at Myers Park Presbyterian Church.  What’s a pastoral resident?  Well, it’s like an intern but you get paid and, I think, a little more is expected of you.  So, I was a pastoral resident and they asked me if I wanted to teach anything.  I told them I sure did.  You see, at the time I had been taking courses in Reformed Theology and thought I knew a thing or two about it.  On top of that, I was cooped up with a bunch of Methodists at Duke Divinity School so I was learning lot about what John Wesley thought.

So, when the thought of teaching a class came up, I leapt at the opportunity.  My class was called “Calvin and Wesley – Who Got it Right?”  Which I thought was a brilliant title.  I taught that class for about eight weeks.  For eight weeks, I explored the differences between Calvin and Wesley, always making sure to demonstrate as best I was able that Calvin was right and that Wesley was wrong.  I had hoped to make us proud of being Presbyterians but, in the light of scripture, I got it all wrong.

You see, this prayer is about unity on a lot of different levels.  And one of the things about unity is that it can’t be disunified.  That’s a contradiction in terms, isn’t it?  Which is exactly what the church is right now.  I know it’s probably not top-of-mind stuff for many of y’all but did you ever think about just how many Christian denominations there are?  I don’t know if Doctor Google is right here but I came up with the fact that there are 200 denominations here in America and over 4,500 world-wide.  That’s a lot of denominations, isn’t it?

The proliferation of denominations comes as a result of the Protestant Reformation in the 16th and 17th centuries.  A group of people got to thinking that the only real source of reliable information we have about God is found in the Scriptures.  This caused some great friction with the largest church at the time, the Roman Catholic Church.  You see, they place church tradition as co-equal with the Bible.  So, they have practices and beliefs that aren’t properly “biblical” in the truest sense of the word.

Over this major issue, the church split into two, Protestants and Catholics.  And maybe that would’ve been okay.  But you see, once Pandora’s box was opened, there was no stopping things.  That’s why we’ve grown to over 200 denominations in America with no shortages recently.  Nowadays, I don’t even think that it’s denominations that are causing the most disunity in Christ.  With a start-up church on every corner, we’ve got everybody with a Bible getting up and doing what they think is best, rarely engaging with other Christians.  And it causes problems.

Did you know that they used to do a contest where they’d see how much weight a horse could pull?  Well, one time there was a fair and they were doing this.  The runner up horse could pull 4,400 lbs.  The winning horse could pull 4,500 pounds.  But then someone wondered, “wonder how much they could pull together?”  So, they hitched the horses together.  Guess what?  They were able to pull 12,000 lbs. together.  That was more than double what they could do on their own.  Two together are stronger together than a solitary horse.  Which, I think, is exactly the problem with Christianity right now.  We’ve got 4,500 hundred horses all pulling in opposite directions over theology.  That’s right, what divides us all are largely minor points which most people don’t really understand to begin with.

We all like to be right, correct.  I mean do you remember how excited you got when you were a kid in class and you knew the right answer?  Remember how anxious you were to let everyone know that you knew the answer?  You’d thrust your hand up high into the air, sometimes going “oh, oh, oh,’ with the hopes that the teacher would pick you.  I read a funny story about being right in the church from, of all people, science fiction writer Isaac Asimov.

At the appointed time the pastor, the president of the church council, and ten elders met around a magnificent mahogany table in the conference room of the church. One by one the issues were dealt with and on each issue, it became more and more apparent that the Pastor was a lonely voice in the wilderness.  The president of the church council said, “Come, Pastor, enough of this.  Let’s vote and allow the majority to rule.”  He passed out slips of paper and each man made his mark.  The votes were collected and the president said, “You may examine them, Pastor. It is eleven to one against you. We have the majority.”  Offended, the Pastor rose to his feet and said, “So, now you think because of the vote that you’re right and I’m wrong.  Well, that’s not so. I stand here,” and he raised his arms impressively while looking heavenward, “And call upon the Holy God to give us a sign that I’m right and you’re wrong.”  No sooner were the words out of his mouth when there was a deafening clap of thunder and a brilliant flash of lightning that struck the mahogany table and cracked it in two.  The room was filled with smoke and fumes, and the president and the elders were hurled to the floor.  Surrounded by rubble the Pastor stood erect and untouched, his eyes and smile flashing with triumph.  Slowly, the president lifted himself out of the rubble. His hair was singed, his glasses were hanging from one ear, his clothing was in disarray. Finally, he said, “All right, eleven to two. But we still have the majority.”  It’s a funny story but one I think is strangely close to the truth sometimes.  We’re so adamant about being “right” that we leave behind unity of the church for some oftentimes very silly reasons.