One of the things that always excite me about the decadal All India Congress on Church in Mission is the unity of the church in Jesus Christ that is so visibly demonstrated here. It is so exciting and encouraging to see different denominations with varying doctrines, methods of church governance and even some fairly divergent opinions on many issues come together to debate and discuss and fellowship and from Christian world views by listening to the lord and to each other. This is a great strength of the church and demonstrates that it is possible for people to come to agreement with each other by coming together in a spirit of humility.
Look at the two great apostles, Peter and Paul. In their lifetime Peter and Paul did not work so closely together. Peter was called directly by Jesus and given “the keys of the kingdom” (Matthew 16:16-18). He is portrayed in icons carrying the keys. Paul, on the other hand, probably never met Jesus face to face. Once a persecutor of the church, his conversion came about through a vision on the road to Damascus. His inspiration and his style of presenting the gospel came from visions and charismatic experiences. Peter and Paul were so different that Peter was surnamed the Apostle of the Jews and Paul the Apostle of the Gentiles. Paul once had a public disagreement with Peter on whether Jewish Christians could eat together with Gentile Christians. (Galatians 2).
If Peter and Paul did not agree in life, they did agree in death. Both suffered the same kind of death, martyrdom, in the same city, Rome, at about the same time, 64-67 a.d. The early church recognized Peter and Paul as the two pillars of the church of Christ. This is depicted in an ancient icon with Peter on the right and Paul on the left, each extending a hand with which they bear up the church. By placing two of them together in one icon, united in lifting up the church, the church is sending a message to all her children that they all likewise should be united, in spite of individual and local differences, in building up the one church of God.
In the early church there was a tendency to splinter into various factions, each faction claiming to follow the leadership of one of the chief apostles or missionaries. This was one of the reasons why Paul wrote the first letter to the Corinthians. The Corinthians were breaking up into followers of Paul, followers of Peter, and followers of Apollos. Paul reminds them strongly that these human leaders are all equally servants of the one Christ. Christ, therefore, should be their focus and not the human leaders.
Editorial
Living together, Serving together
By: Dr Shantanu Dutta, Viva India
Monday, 26 October 2009, 17:27 (IST)
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