Steeples

As I was driving over the main bridge into my town this evening, I looked south down the river. The sun was setting Over the Fox.

It was beautiful.

Do you know what I saw? Church steeples. Now, lots of towns have churches, but my town has an abundance of churches. Historic churches.

In 1836, at the request of a prominent early settler of Batavia, William Van Nortwick, a circuit rider was dispatched to serve the Methodist of the Fox River Valley. In Batavia, classes were held for 16 years in the residence of William Van Nortwick. A street is named after him.

Seeing so many steeples made me think of the following questions…

1. What is the draw of the Church? What do people need?

2. Why are there so many types of churches?

3. What is the answer?

What do we need?

According to 1 Corinthians 13, we need Love. If we give all we possess to the poor, but do not love, we have nothing.

According to Ephesians 6:10, we need to put on the Armor of God. This is in order to stand against the devil’s schemes. We can have all kinds of good intentions, but if we aren’t aligned with God’s intentions, it will be more difficult.

According to James 14, we need both faith and deeds. If you have faith, but let a person in need go, the faith does no good. If you do good deeds, but have no faith, same thing. You need both.

Why so many churches?

Martin Luther, known for nailing his “95 Theses” to the door of a Catholic church on Halloween in 1517, did not like the book of James, amongst lots of other things including paid indulgences in the Catholic Church. No one knows the true reason why he didn’t like the book of James and there are lots of assumptions. First, however, according to one Biblical Commentary, His opinion of the book (written in his preface to the New Testament) was as follows.

“St. John’ Gospel and his first Epistle, St. Paul’s Epistles, especially those to the Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, and St. Peter’s Epistle – these are the books which show to thee Christ . . . Therefore, St. James’ Epistle is a perfect straw-epistle compared with them . . .” (Basic Theology, article “The Canon”)

So Martin Luther basically said that the Book of James was an “Epistle of Straw”. So essentially he was saying that it didn’t show the true character of the apostles.

He apparently rescinded his remark later.

His thesis and protests caused the second major split in the Christian Church. Protestants split off from the Roman Catholics and from there several churches have been formed.

Martin Luther’s attempt to remove James from the Bible did not hold-it is in the Protestant bible. It is an important book-especially for those who are going through difficult times. Short and sweet.

What is the answer? Forgiveness. Forgiveness heals everything. God is behind forgiveness.

The Catholics and Lutherans have begun the healing process. Everything needs forgiveness, because even in his fleeting moments, Martin Luther WAS right. The indulgences that the Catholics were paying for in the 16th Century were wrong. However, his deeds were not in line with what God wanted (as God asks for in Ephesians 6:10) He didn’t listen to God’s will. In his anger and frustration, he went a little overboard and the message got misconstrued for over 500 years.

A major split occurred in the Christian Church due to his boisterousness.

But God fixes everything. This year during advent, my Catholic Church did a special Lessons and Carols with a nearby Lutheran Church because the two corporate churches are trying to repair the rift.

So yes. God can heal the deepest wounds and fix the worst situations. He can bring anything back together.