Separation Anxiety

I'm a bit traumatized after watching the special on the wolf vs. bison on Frozen Planet, BBC. That's not to say that it wasn't good, on the contrary, the documentary was spectacular on all fronts. The team caught all aspects of the hunt, powerful animals engaged with a savage intensity in the need to survive. A couple moments caught my attention that made me contemplate the spiritual aspects of the material display. In the first half, a pack of wolves are hunting a herd of bison, trying to separate one from the group. After great effort and divisions, a calf is caught by two wolves and the pack just rips into it while the adults stood frozen in the sidelines. I thought, this calf is done for sure but all the sudden, the herd charges the pack, and snatches the calf from the wolves. I admit I cheered. Still, I the wolves are hungry, they've got to continue or they die. New strategy, new scene, wolves charge another herd of bison and, instead of standing together, the herd bolts, allowing their unity to thin and spread out. The wolves attack the hind legs of a huge bison and hang on for dear life. Now this bison is huge and alternately charges and tramples the wolves in return. The herd doesn't stop this time, there is no rescue. What's crazy about this scene is that another bison that had been separated as well, charges in fear OVER the bison and wolves, finishing the wolves attack on their prey. The fear of the one bison was the final blow to the already injured fellow herd mate. The bison dies. Now what does this have to do with theology? Here, I see Paul's theology in the later section of Romans playing out the unity of the church. I admit that the evangelical disposition is too often to see the church as a means to get to know God personally, rather than identity. We look at fellow Christians as those who will help keep us on the straight and narrow, and to help us with our personal walk with God. And to a large extent, that's true: the Church does all of that. However, the personal benefits is not the purpose and function of the Church. The Church is dynamically a unified whole. If we don't work in God-blessed unity, then we are easily scattered in denomination, theology, and congregation. We might breath a sigh of relief that it wasn't our church, our denomination that was taken down by the enemy. Indeed, we might feel a Pharisaical righteousness, that God would protect His theologically purest members. God forbid such hubris and spirit of division in the Church. When one is vulnerable, we should always seek to save the weak, the ensnared rather than trampling over them in our frantic rush to have 'nothing to do with that' church, denomination or whatever. The church needs to embrace grace. Not to say that denominations are not needed (far from it!) but that whenever and wherever possible, we should reach out, minister, give aid and suffer when our brothers and sisters suffer an attack, either from within or without. Because they belong to US, and the church belongs to Jesus.