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God's Battleship Seventh Sunday of Easter from the book Lectionary Tales for the Pulpit Series VI, Cycle B David E. Leininger John 17:6-19 |
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Several years ago, there was a convention of clergy gathered at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta under the auspices of the Promise Keepers organization.1 Between 40,000 and 50,000 preachers were in attendance. (What's that you say? An awful lot of hot air in one place?) For what it is worth, I disagree with some of the Promise Keepers' positions, but two of their basic emphases I wholeheartedly applaud -- one is an end to racial division in our society (and especially in the church); the other is an end to denominational division within the church. They are adamant, as I am, that the church of Jesus Christ is one church, and these artificial units known as denominations are problematic. After all, the only words in the Greek New Testament that could be translated as "denomination" would better be translated as schism2 (1 Corinthians 12:25) or heresy3 (Acts 24:4).
One of the speakers at the three-day event was the well-known devotional author ...