athens FAMILY REUNION
oe ) CY RCH WIDE
; 4 adhe Psalm 133 STAC FE MA SS Teme
ov when OMY Colossians 1:15-20 B-22—-4Wy

WH ed through him God was pleased to reconcile

to himself all things.” Colossians 1:20.

March 22, 1998
Louisville

John M. Buchanan

—— In Joseph Cardinal Bernardin’s little book,

. . wore, }
The Gift of Peace, which he waswewking hard
wefors We Sed, Wee a yeer Ad © Mel m1",

to complete justeyearage, there is a gripping
samen 2

and moving account of his meeting with Steven
Cook he young man who had accused
Cardinal Bernardin of sexual abuse. WWtis an

event best forgotten except for the

extraordinary way it concluded in 1993 the

accusation became publicfana Cardinal

Bernardin had to live in the glare of public

curiosity constant media attention and the

deep pain of experiencing his credibility and
integrity questioned by many people who
simply assume that an accusation is the
equivalent of gut and then, over time| Mr,
eee — eater nes
Cook acknowledged that the charges were
false and the case was aropped\rhe Cardinal
plunged back into his busy schedule but he

ey

kept thinking about Steven Cook,\his accuser,
ed Eres” Sree,

now critically ill with AIDS, living alone.

So Cardinai Bernardin did the most

remarkable thing. \He located Mr. Cook and

see

invited him to meet at a seminary outside of
Philadelphia, Cardinal Bernardin explained
that his only reason for wanting to see Mr. Cook

was to tell him that he, Cardinal Bernardin,

harbored no ill feelings. He wanted to pray

with Mr. Cook.

Steven Cook accepted the invitation and
said that he wanted to apologize for the hurt
and embarrassment he had caused. \When the
meeting | happened, Mr. Cook told his story,
including his alienation from the chureh\ They
talked for awhile The Card inal said what he

had come to say and he gave Mr. Cook an
[er eae

inscribed Bible and offered to celebrate mass.

aFler eA, he
Yelw+peen ty Wiss -f- yer < Cpr

te [Warped ac \ clench

4
Mr. Cook hesitate : Parainal Bernardin

took a hundred year-old chalice out of his case.

“Steven, this is a gift from a man | don’t even
ve Sew cbto wee

know. He asked me to use it to say mass for

you some day.” 1“Please,” Steven responded

tearfully, “let’s celebrate mass now.”

Afterward, Steven Cook said, [‘A big

SET iim,

burden has been lifted from me today. \ feel
mon. Pe al

healed and very much at peace.” \Cardinal

a

Bernardin reflected, As we flew back to
Chicagg. that evening, Father Donohue and |
felt the lightness of spirit that an afferngon of
grace brings to one’s life.” t[See The Gift of

Peace, p. 34-41]

“the lightness of spirit that an | — Whet < b less me
Cex wF¥- ef

afternoon of grace brings...” | yy, pttned - for us

sbyfer~ +

“How very good and pleasant it is when

Ld

kindred live together in unity,” a poet wrote

ee,

3,000 years ago.

[love that ancient poem, Psalm 133.[1

a

found myself thinking about it a lot last year as [ .

traveled throughout the Presbyterian Church

(U.S.A.}, which does not often feel like itis
dwelling in unity,\or even wants to, for that
matter. \The psalm’s purpose, someone

suggested, is to celebrate a particularly happy

family reunion. lramitieg seem to act pretty

much the same over the centuries and
ie bir

millennia. | Sometimes they get along,

sometimes not. \Three thousand years ago, in
ae nel

an agrarian, tribal culture \families argued and

fought about land mostly and livestock and

TE se

fsousy on why does Dad ; always seem to

favor you and when | was your age he would

never have let me get away with that.) Parents

know how painful it is when adult. children fi

or are alienated. [anc parents also know how

exquisitely happy it is when adult children care

— ow Toes -
nd about one anothér, when kindred dwell

It’s a family reunion and everybody is

there\There are aunts and uncles and cousins

and fathers and mothers, na lois of children

and some new babies who have made their

appearance since the last reunion, bo there’s
=n ma mein aol

lots of “oohing” and *

and passing the
babies around. \ara the food — everybody

brought something. [n fact, each family tried to

SE

outdo the others, so there was an abundance of
EE bo

food, far more than could be eaten.

And in the middle, \he grandp

looking ai all of this with profound wonder,
eee ‘EEE

maybe holding hands and thinking that it wasn’t

really so very long ago that none of this existed

=

—hets ber +
hepa >» we *
lot -

oR

~none of these people { just the two of us| And
so, | think it was the oldman or the old woman

who went home that night and wrote,

“How very good and pleasant it
is when kindred live together in
unity. }It is like the precious oil on the
head, running down upon the beard
of Aaron, running down over the

collar of his robes.”

This joy is so profound it warrants
ECE,
extravagance \ike opening a bottle of the finest
wine, aved over the years for an ocgasion

such as this. \Oil is precious, necessary for

heat and ight. only rarely is it used to taste, or
to make the face shine for your beloved. \ Never
is it simply poured out in celebration, only when

no other gesture will express the glory of this

wondrous moment. — li ke Clanparg~ gw i
ee

“How very good and pleasant it is

when kindred live together in unity.”

kkkEKK

Si. Paul, our earliest missionary and
ee

theologian, vas an uncompromising follower of
penne? bd

Jesus. Jesus Christ was, for him, the way, the

truth and the life, the complete revelation of

rE,

God.] But the older Paul became and the more

bd

he observed how religion, including his own,

ba

served to divide the human family instead of

Zag A ERSTE

reconcile it\phe more he talked and wrote as if
cmc bey e
he believed that the peace of the family, the

gether of human beings, was what

God had in mind all along. |e was, he wrote,
God’s purpose — to bring together, to recancile
PUFpo: Bea! heal rece

all things.

“In Jesus, all the fullness of God was
pleased to dwell, and through him God
was pleased to reconcile all things to

himself.” Colossians 1:19, 20

10

evangelics \

In tension within thefparticularities of

Paul’s thought — that Jesus Christ is God’s truth

Sito

— in tension, then, is a universalism which Aw Ruving vate ed

rie Bow,

=—_ #8 snes Ct

suggests that God’s purpose from the
_ ee

beginning of time has been the unity of the

cca |

family.
——

The sad reality is that religion doesn’t
often contribute to that. [The sad truth is that
the history of human religion is the story of
conflict, pf ideological and too frequently,

bans |

actual warfare in which human beings kill other
ea

human beings in the name of their God.
eel

—_—e

_y

L \wsir Fecevved £
letker fim Glew
Primes - adam,
US%0 of vor Clery . oleae
4 assivy svtowaly wy A we
of 56lv oc \eanr -

1]

&-
Which Sym Cant ov
EO Tea Eels at on Gy ples

“Wwe Wage ts AW ‘Ff owe Cam juab at, @ sree Wh IR ante, .

pe

SH We Arise Wa gms uk cv 4 egrer, |i UM Can
pore A inet Brasil = tchecloyrty - a wit plan G4 tC
Chrck Well gro \ Ded comet me ih | Dw elm te Moe do
wocle _» simply ith 4 ove Soeuts + (Norra wl us.. t& eve
Mark Twain didn’t want to have much to) “Wyss .

do with organized religion and this is why. lond $y
time he wrote: Maes Weuwr.

“| built a cage and in it put a dog and |
cat. And after a little training, | got

the dog and cat to a point where they
lived peacefully together. Then |
introduced a pig, kangaroo, some

birds and a monkey. And after a few
adjustments, they learned to live in
harmony. So encouraged was | by

such successes that | added an Irish
Catholic, a Presbyterian, a Jew, a

Moslem, a Buddhist, along with a

12

Baptist missionary ... and in a very
short while there wasn’t a single

living thing left in the cage.”

There is, of course, an alternate story.

The conflict gets all the press\ but sometimes

‘SeEEPRLOCIES

God’s people do extraordinarily reconciling
‘erent
and unifying things.
Peter Kuzmic is the President of
Evangelical Seminary in Ocijek, Croatia, where
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) mission workers

Steve and Michele Kurtz are on the faculty.

Peter, who is a Calvinist Pentecostal and one of

the leading Missiologists in the world, teaches

13

that missionary effectiveness depends on

authenticity and that there is no authenticity in
ae EEE

mission that does not reflect not only Christian

unity} but that deeper, magnificent new

creation, new humanity St. Paul talked about.

—_—

One of Peter’s colleagues is a delightful

Eel

Croatian of Serbian descent, antgl Boag’

Antol was a businessman who decided to give
his life to Jesus Chrietfand now is managing.
refugee resettlement, sponsored by the Agape
Project,|which is supported by the Presbyterian

Church (U.S.A.) and One Great Hour of

14

Antol is in charge of rebuilding villages
that have been destroyed in the war and
resettling refugees. |He was working with the
mayor — village chief| of a Muslim village that
was totally destroyed| Antol was bringing

together the materials and resources to rebuilti,
bei

the village, a house ata time. |Looking at the

plans with the Muslim chief, he noticed that the

village Mosque was not on the drawing and he
moa,

aeetiny

inquired about t\Hi Muslim colleague was
surprised. {“You’re a Christian, aren’t you?\You

want to convert us| Why are Christians willing
La tl 7) PTE,
to help us rebuild our Mosque? /And Antol!

Bolag said, (We will help you rebuild your

Mosque because we are followers Jesus,

I5

and Jesus told us to love our neighbors, to
stand with them \and Jesus told a story one
time about a Good Samaritan who helped his

neighbor without asking him about his

theology.”

(‘Behota how good and pleasant it is)

I will never celebrate the Sacrament of
the Lord’s Supper again without thinking about
brothers and sisters | have met | have met and
Can a1 them

with whom | worshipped last year in Cuba,

Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Italy, Hungry, Croatia yaks 4

“. _
and Kores,| remembering a feeding center } deprive tim 4

in Ocijek where Presbyterian dollars feed . we
J yt rol wioleae saute

Bosnian Moslem refugees. Wn remembering

festive meals which became sacramental
ee eee

occasions of deep and powerful meaningifin

ONE ee
the fifth floor walk-up of Isaac and Magdalena

SEGRE

Jorge, Moderator of the Presbyterian Reformed

Church of Cuba, lovingly prepared, and then

the lights went out and we continued by
— Re ETE TET

flashlight.\I’'m thinking tomggy of the

ay
extraordinary family within the human family

that is the Christian Church, the Holy Catholic

Sera

onal boundary,

sy er theology and yan ecclesiotoy | tam ss

reunion.

Tim xb, 4 Va rex y AF Yo rder tet hes doud-d
2 Comb + « pep fi SO Yeors.| Me lO walla
5. Yarrsus Wwe rele bees vw «=! Soy \. CWtAdaanes LA

Was “ ago | Vecrd cleo + m4 th | an acteos

weed an-|\ Hed 5. w v08e Uris 4 dosh, - ¢
win os -| woke ar a 4 bat
Aw

“Ss”. | Sas: ew t- fL~a waaaAkE \ 400 chat g¢ *

T keeo eww rewdld. cum wo 40
Widslk { ow _arquamds temfleets, due
VAWwa call :

Sea, Oi RR amet

acti egleo-Perie? noerneg that God has

an even more ambitious plan for creation: (that

all thing’ to be recone reconciled: nat

God’s love and grace, qualways, challenges

God means f¢'

and pushweand stretchemy own Presbyterian

provincial way of seeing things\ dm "ee nema

roa” of
poememiperiang Paul’s brave suggestion that all

fullness of God came among us in Jesus Christ
ah

and that the purpose of the project was not to
be] 7 oe

I keep

Jat remembering theologian Wolfhart

Pannenberg’s wonderful reminder that this is

18

the Lord’
he Lord’s Supper, not a church supper, and

e of the quest

that we don’t get to be in charg
list at this ee * Sod does does the

ss Ate
vn tat our BRO our ‘is il see who gets

ea

in or who is excluded Jout our own table
mannersjand to see that God’s hospitality i is
extended to all.
. eR
’m reminded that while there may be
plenty of places in this world where you and |

may not be welcome, we are invited to be here.

t while there may be plenty of

lam reminded th;
times and placeg, perhaps even your most

intimate relationships, where you are most
er,

vuinerable,\where you do not feel accepted

pero you celotimske With YW pene 3
Te, _‘eedy uu eye. Your Seley

en
19

without condition, br wanted without
Leet eal
reseryation, {you are accepted and wanted
witwriemerce! See nae
here, Yam reminded that while there are plenty

of places where you need credentials before

you get in{your membership card, your

certificate of belonging\your engraved

invitation lor your theological or moral

credentials — the only requisite for admission to

SS

this table is that in some way you. want to be

here: that in some way you claim Jesus as the

truth for you and in some way want to follow —
want to be a part of whatever he is. upto in the

world.

20

Cardinal Bernardin remembered fondly

al

how his mother taught him the importance of
family Joven family in Italy he had never seen.
He wrote believe however, as my mother

always has, that family goes well beyond blood

ties. | Family is the human community) {p 68-

70]

Steven Cook died a few gonths after his
reconciliation with Cardinal Bernardin. |
Cardinal Bernardin died two, fears later, qr
Newmumiver, and | love the thought that
somehow in the mystery of God, they are at the

table+e6 - with us,lwith all of God’s people in

Page tee —

21

alltime and all places,|God’s great family

reunion, OR

ow aood and pleasan it is.”
va
/ é

22