Some people have asked me why I’m bothering to undertake this church crawl. The further I go into this journey, the more I realize that reconciliation, especially between Christian churches, is absolutely essential.
Because if we don’t reconcile, the result will look like this:
Watch that video. When Christ was born, the angels proclaimed “peace on earth”. But today, at the birthplace of Christ, those who are supposed to be his representatives are hitting each other with brooms because they can’t agree on who should sweep a patch of floor. Seriously.
If we can’t resolve an issue of housekeeping in one of Christianity’s most sacred sites, how will we present ourselves as agents of reconciliation in a broken world? If we are still divided by arguments that date back a thousand years or more, how can we claim to be being transformed into the image of Christ?
Reconciliation is not something that can be ‘put off’ until later while the we get on with the mission of the church. Reconciliation is the mission of the church.