You Are Brothers. You Are Men.

Driving to work after my bible study this morning, I was thinking about the passage in John's gospel when Jesus encounters the Samaritan woman at the well. Usually when I read this passage it is Jesus' encounter with the woman in the context of her thirst for 'living water,' the water that Jesus offers her, in the first part (v. 7-17) that is focused on. But it is actually the second part of this encounter--when she brings up the fact that Jews and her people, the Samaritans, worship at different places, that spoke to me today.

"Jesus said to her, "Woman, believe me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. But an hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for such people the Father seeks to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (Jn 4:20-24)

The men whom I consider brothers in faith--whom I pray with, study the bible with, and fellowship with each week--I do not worship with on Sundays. My faith tradition takes me to "a different mountain." Do we worship the same God? Yes. Serve the same Lord? Yes. Glorify the same Spirit? Yes. But in different places.

I don't want to minimize this fact; I pray for unity, but I am no syncretist. It is a kind of "spiritual dissonance" I hold in tension. But I also don't want it to be the focus of my relationship with my brothers in faith. I want to focus on what we share in common and  meet there, not create 'otherness' based on theological differences, as important as those differences might be to me personally and as unwilling as I am to compromise on them or abandon my religious tradition. Even if that's where it ends, I think it's a good start.

"Master," said John, "we saw a man driving out demons in your name and we tried to stop him, because he is not one of us."
"Do not stop him," Jesus said, "for whoever is not against you is for you."(Lk 9:49-50)

Are we all human? Yes? Great! We know what's its like to seek the one true thing; we know what it feels hurt, loneliness, betrayal, joy, fear. We all want our lives to mean something. We all want a purpose.

Are we all men? Yes? Awesome! We can relate to one another with our desire to be leaders in our family, to provide, to love our wives, with our shared struggles to step up and be the men God has called us to be?

Are we all Christians? Yes? Terrific. Let's give praise to the One True God with all our heart, mind, strength, and soul together and leave liturgical differences for another day. Let's unite in a common front against the Culture of Death. Let's pray for one another and serve one another in the spirit of Christ.

Do we come from different socio-economic backgrounds, different churches, different upbringings? Yes? Than we are stronger for it if we draw from our strengths.

True ecumenism, in the words of the singer John Michael Talbot, is "dialogue rather than arguing, sharing rather than proselytizing, and inviting rather than pushing."

What I am grateful for is the spiritual maturity and respect shown in our men's group that recognizes such differences and works to meet on common ground; to worship in spirit and truth, and to be those the Father seeks to be his worshipers.

Every Tuesday morning at 6am in that upper room at The Well I get to share in the words of the Psalmist: "How good and pleasant it is when brothers live together in unity! It is like previous oil poured on the head." (Ps 133:1-2)