Then the men of Judah said to the Simeonites their brothers, “Come up with us into the territory allotted to us, to fight against the Canaanites. We in turn will go with you into yours.” So the Simeonites went with them. – Judges 1:3

Today’s Scripture Reading (October 29, 2012): Judges 1

The Baptist denominations are well known for their independent nature. The idea is that each individual church should be able to decide on and govern the direction of their churches on their own. And there is a deep logic to it. We seem to think it is an unalienable right to choose our own path and do what it is that we want. It has been that way since we were children telling our parents that they could not make us do anything. Of course, the truth was very different. Our parents could make us do almost anything they wanted to, but the assertion of our independence still felt good.

But there is a negative end of our independence. When we are all going our own way, we also produce barriers the separate us from each other. And sometimes the barriers and differences are significant enough that it makes it hard for the independent churches to work together. Often it is hard for the members of the churches to even understand why they need to work together - this in spite of the New Testament’s description of the church as being one body and one faith and recognizing that we should all be sharing one common goal.

Israel had possessed the land, but there was still work to be done. Judah would be the first to make an effort to take their territory. This was both a fulfillment of the prophecy of Jacob that the day would come when Judah would take the lead (Genesis 49) and a recognition that Judah, as the most populous of the tribes of Israel, had the greatest need to secure the territory. But the tribe of Simeon shared a similar need, and their territory was the only territory completely within the territory that had been given to Judah. And so it made a lot of sense for the tribes to take the land together – and the security of each of the tribes was dependent on the security of the other. The two tribes shared more things in common than characteristics that made them different.

In spite of our need for independence, we have to admit that there is more that binds the Christian church together than there is that separates us. We try to make an argument for our reason to exist, but in fact we all share our reason – and it is Jesus. And maybe it is time that we, instead of stressing the things that make us difference, decide to enter the land that God has given us - together.    

 Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Judges 2