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Today I read a news story about the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in Jerusalem. This is thought of as the holiest site of Christianity in the world. This is the most likely place that Christ was both crucified and buried. Apparently an Armenian sect of monks was trying to have a procession when Greek Orthodox monks stopped them and a brawl actually broke out between monks at what is generally thought of as the most sacred place for Christians in the world! This was all due to a power struggle between different sects for this site that has been going on since the time of Constantine if not before. How dare we as Christians think we can fight to "control" such a holy place for ourselves? Sadly this reminds me of the money changers and merchants who used the Temple for their own selfish desires (who, by the way, Christ threw out of the temple...maybe those "knowledgeable" monks should reexamine that part of Scripture).
To me this is a symptom of a much larger problem in the church. We are divided, which is the complete opposite of God's command. We have an infinite number of denominations, which aren't necessarily bad except that there is so much bad blood between them. Protestants despise Catholics and vice versa; Baptists (which I am) make fun of Methodists; the Church of Christ doesn't like anyone who worships with instruments (these are just generalizations, some churches truly have excellent tolerance of other denominations). The truth is that it doesn't matter how we worship God as long as we follow the Bible and all make Jesus Christ the Lord of our lives. In 1 Corinthians Paul talks about how different people follow doctrines of different people but also that it does not matter; what matters is that we follow Christ and worship him in Spirit and in Truth. How can we truly worship with all our hearts if we are divided? Here's a better question...how can we convince the lost in this world to turn to Christ if we as Christians are fighting amongst ourselves like little children?