Let’s Just Agree to Agree
Bible Passage:
Titus 3:9-15
Pastor:
Pastor Mike
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Sermon Date:
2010-02-13
119 years ago, just 18 miles from here, a church was torn in two. The year was 1891 and the voters’ meetings were explosive. A theological disagreement had arisen over the doctrine of predestination. Some in that country church believed God had chosen certain people to go to heaven and certain people to go to hell. Others believed God didn’t want anyone to go to hell. Two different doctrines divided the church. And when discussions and debates couldn’t mend the tear, the two officially split. For seven decades they remained apart. But in 1961 the two decided to become one once again. Last August, the Wisconsin State Journal told the story. Earl Ellickson, a lifelong member, said, “It was a big argument that didn’t make much sense…It was a small detail—almost a joke.” Mark Granquist, a seminary professor, added, “The controversy was resolved in 1912 when both positions were allowed to co-exist, an understanding that remains today.” Ellickson concluded, “There was no reason to stay apart. We were friends. We were neighbors. We were together all the time except to worship.”
There are countless disagreements among church-going people. Political parties, church music, the meaning of baptism, sermon length, how to get to heaven, parenting style, pastoral attire, conversion, translation of the Bible, callings of men and women, and a trillion other issues. So the question is—Which issues are worth fighting for? Which issues are worth dividing over? When can we just agree to disagree and worship together and when do we need to dig in our heels and say, “No, we can’t be united if that’s what you believe,”? As we read the closing verses of Paul’s letter to Pastor Titus, we’ll find God’s answers to those questions.
What Paul describes in these verses is an open and a closed hand approach to disagreements. We hold in an open hand every personal opinion we don’t insist on. When we can agree to disagree. We hold in a closed hand everything we believe and are not willing to compromise. No disagreement allowed. So we ask, “What goes in which hand?”
Paul starts in v.9 by reminding us that we need an open hand. “But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless.” Some things just aren’t worth fighting for. There are topics that become foolish if we fight about them. It’s not that you can’t have an opinion, but when that opinion creates divisions and animosity and slander, things have gotten foolish. They need to be kept in an open hand.
We could give any number of examples. What is the best football team? What about health care reform? How big should our government be? How long should a sermon be? Should you send your kids to public school or parochial school or home school? Should we have a building project? What instruments should we use in worship? These are all open handed issues. In other words, you can believe whatever you want about those things and God is okay with it. You can worship with people who hold a different view on such topics and there’s no reason to divide. Paul says quarreling about such things is “unprofitable and useless.” These are simply our opinions and we have God’s blessing to agree to disagree.
We become legalists when we close both hands, as if every opinion was worth fighting for. But that’s foolish and sinful. When families squabble over their inheritance, that’s sinfully foolish. When members of a congregation grow cold in their love over some budget or administrative decision, that’s sinful and stupid. When we don’t show the love of Christ to another person because they voted democrat or republican or run the office in a different way than we would, we’ve closed our hand on our opinions as if our way was God’s way. Paul calls that useless. Friends, let me ask you a tough question. In what area of your life are you fighting useless battles? Where are you holding on to your opinion so tightly you are pushing other people away? Where have you exalted your view to a God-like status that everyone must agree with?
This one little verse reminds us how desperately we need a Savior. And a Savior is what Paul gives us. In this same chapter he writes, “God saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy.” God didn’t save us because we knew when to open and when to close our hands. No, he saved us because he is that kind of God. A God who is merciful. A God who is forgiving. A God who doesn’t just overlook our foolish pride, but pays for it so he can declare us innocent in his sight. He pours out the Holy Spirit on us and gives us a humble spirit so we can keep one hand open by his awesome power.
That’s Paul first big point. Keep one hand open. But in v.10-11 he commands us to keep the other hand closed. “10Warn a divisive person once, and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. 11You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.” Sometimes we can’t agree to disagree. Sometimes we have to warn and warn again and then go our separate ways because we need to hold doctrine in a closed hand. Sometimes the God-pleasing thing to do is not put up with it, but to divide. Separate. Start a new church.
That’s why the Journal article is so sad. Members and pastors alike joke, “Oh, that division over doctrine—That was silly of us! What were we thinking?” But what are they saying? Some of their members and their school teachers and their preachers are declaring, “God wants some people to go to hell. He chose them from the start to be condemned.” What?!? That would make God a monster! No, the people who walked away in 1891 had it exactly right. They warned those who held to a false, divisive doctrine. They warned again and probably again and again and again. And then they walked away. They held that doctrine in a closed hand and were willing to fight and divide for it. Sadly, their grandchildren didn’t do the same.
Isn’t the closed hand exactly what our Scripture lessons today taught us? Jesus said in John 8, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples.” If you “hold” to it! And then Paul in Romans 16, “Watch out for those who cause divisions and put obstacles in your way that are contrary to the teachings you have learned. Keep away from them.” Doctrine matters! It’s a closed-handed issue. But which doctrines are included? Which teachings of Jesus do we really need to hold on to and which can we kind of, sort of hold another view? All of them are included. It all matters to God. Just think of the book of Titus. In just 46 verses, we have studied church leadership, salvation by grace, callings of men and women, sanctification, justification, purification, redemption, the second coming of Christ, original sin, the work of the Holy Spirit, baptism, church fellowship, eternal life, and more. And how many times has Paul said, “Just agree to disagree on this one,”? Not once! Instead he uses words like, “Straighten out,” “Hold firmly,” “Refute,” “Silence them,” “Rebuke sharply,” “Teach,” “Encourage,” “Set an example,” “Remind,” “Rebuke with all authority,” and “Stress these things.” In other words, good doctrine matters. It all belongs in a closed hand and we will fight for it and divide over it, if necessary.
But you need to know that gives us no pleasure. As we think about those who are divided from us, we don’t rejoice. The fact that there’s a Wisconsin Synod and Missouri Synod and Evangelical Lutheran Church in America doesn’t make us happy. The divisions between us and the Catholics and the Baptists and the Presbyterians and the Methodists and the Non-Denominationals brings us zero joy. I hate the divisions in my own family and among my closest friends. But what other choice do we have? We could move doctrine into the open hand, call it optional, and move forward, but God is not pleased with such things. So we weep as we look at the fractured Christian church and pray that a study of good doctrine would one day truly unite us.
The doctrinal divisions Titus faced on Crete and the denominations we see today are heart-breaking, but they’re not the end of the story. And thankfully they are not the end of Paul’s letter. Instead he leaves us with something more beautiful and inspiring. It’s the same thing we subtly celebrate here so often at Eastside. In just a few minutes, we will join our voices and say, “We believe.” Our unison voices will confess, “We believe in one God…We believe in one Lord…We believe in the Holy Spirit…We believe in one holy Christian and apostolic Church…For our salvation, he came down…For our sake he was crucified…We acknowledge one baptism…We look for the resurrection and the life of the world to come.” We will celebrate our unity in faith. We all are growing in our knowledge of the Bible and our understanding of good doctrine, but we are not divided by different convictions. Instead, the Holy Spirit has worked a miracle in uniting us in our faith and in our mission.
That’s what Paul celebrates at the end of this letter. “12As soon as I send Artemas or Tychicus to you, do your best to come to me at Nicopolis, because I have decided to winter there. 13Do everything you can to help Zenas the lawyer and Apollos on their way and see that they have everything they need.” Paul names names of those who shared his faith. While Titus was to have nothing to do with divisive men, he could have everything to do with these fellow believers. We don’t know anything about Artemas or Zenas; they are only mentioned here in the Bible. Tychicus appears a number of times and some suggest he delivered five of Paul’s inspired letters to various churches. Apollos was a key figure in the 1st century church who preached boldly that Jesus was the promised Messiah. But all of them, the famous ones and the unknowns, were united in doctrine and in deeds. So Titus was to help them in every way he could.
That’s why I love close communion. Communion is one of those times who people who are so different in so many ways come forward to confess they believe the same doctrine. Watch later today as 80 year olds and teenagers line up together. Watch as Germans and Irish and Indian and South African and adult converts and those from a solid Christian family approach the altar. Celebrate as those with different teams and musical styles and political views and spending habits and personalities join together in receiving Christ’s body and blood, broken and shed for the forgiveness of their sins.
And as they leave, pray Paul’s closing words for all of them, “14Our people must learn to devote themselves to doing what is good, in order that they may provide for daily necessities and not live unproductive lives. 15Everyone with me sends you greetings. Greet those who love us in the faith. Grace be with you all.” A wonderful message of unity to close.
That’s the book of Titus. 46 short verses. But doctrine big enough to change our hearts and change the world. Life wouldn’t be easy for Titus when he finished reading the letter. It won’t be for us either. But we have seen the good doctrine of our good God. And we have learned the good deeds he has prepared for us to do. May the God of Paul and the God of Titus give us the strength we need to be rock solid in our deeds and our doctrine. Amen.
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