Healing Fractures

When I was a sophomore in high school I broke my leg in football practice. It was a break just above the ankle of my left leg. I'm sure with today's medical technology things would be different, but back in the 1970's I spent three days in the hospital and more than two months in a cast above my knee. Years later my cousin did a much more effective job on his leg.

While skiing on his honeymoon he went off the main trail in search of fresh powder and hit a pocket in the snow. One boot released as designed but the other did not causing a horrific shattering of his shin. Doctors later told him that the break was so bad if any piece of bone had come through the skin they would've amputated the leg. On the x-ray from just below the knee to just above the ankle was a cloud of bone fragments. The doctors set the leg and my cousin had to keep his leg elevated every day for several months. He spent the first six months of his marriage bedridden and in a cast.

That traumatic leg break is an image that comes to mind when I consider the denominational fracturing that has occurred in the Body of Christ over the last 500+ years. In an effort to restore a proper understanding of Scripture a variety of thoughtful, strong willed and determined men sought to articulate what they believed was the truest exposition of scripture. Each of the reformers had their own take and each developed a following. Eventually within each of those followings nuanced differences came up and, in an effort to further clarify, other splits happened. Fast forward to 2014 and here we are faced with a challenge.

Do we amputate this cloud of denominational fragments from the Body of Christ or do we put the whole mess in a cast and immobilize it until the fragments find their way back into a recognizable body part?

Here's an interesting thing about my cousin's healing. Given the structure of the cast, medicine to prevent infection and ample time to rest those bone fragments in his leg did find their way back together. They returned to the shape of a shin bone. A lumpy, calcified and ever so slightly shorter shin bone than before the break, but a shin bone nonetheless. There were no pins, no rods, no screws, no incisions. Just a cast and time to rest.

Increasingly faithful believers are abandoning churches that highlight, celebrate and insist on standing on their denomination's doctrinal differences and standing apart from all other Christians. There's something about the Body that rejects that kind of separation. Like a cloud of bones drawn back to a useful and usable shape there is a new reformation going on right now. It's not physically bloody, political and dangerous like in the days of Martin Luther. But it is a reformation just the same. It's an awakening to the fact that God intended the Body of Christ to be unified as one and a rejection of the efforts of men to keep it separate.

So denominational buildings are increasingly empty on Sunday morning. New expressions of worship, praise, teaching and accountability are rising up. The bones are coming back together. And there are those who are fighting that healing with all their might. There are denominational leaders still deciding who they will and will not associate with amongst the other denominations. All the while the bone fragments...who used to sit dutifully in their pews each week...are finding their way back together. In service projects, disaster recovery, mission trips, weekend events, Bible studies and countless other ways the body is rebuilding itself without regard for which church, group, denomination or organization is behind these activities in which they're participating.

In response to one of my recent posts a Christian brother and friend said he was looking for my creative ideas as to how the Church might move forward. I've given that a lot of thought. The truth is many years ago thoughtful men went about determining how to change the church. They fought, argued, bled and died in the process of reformation. They passionately pursued their best understanding and set themselves apart from others.

My inclination, at this point, is to be very aware that the Body is reforming itself. I want to watch that reformation happen, comment on what I see and take action (if any is to be taken) as the Lord leads. This is an exciting time for those who long to see the Body knit back together. It's not so exciting for those trying to hang on to what church looked like forty or fifty years ago. Much like five hundred years ago, the bloodshed within the body will come when those who are entrenched in their ways take aim at the reformers.