This past week I happened to stumble across a church rummage sale. I looked at the many items that the church was selling and was taken by some of the silverware. It did look like it was from a different era and to my undiscerning eye it looked like they might be made of real silver. Yet what I liked best was the small lettering stamped “Congregational” on the front of all the pieces. It did seem kind of classy and refined.
I told my dad about the silverware and he told me of a story that was relayed to him about the church. During World War II, the Congregationalists and the Methodists decided they should worship together. Such an arrangement would save on utility costs and perhaps make for larger gathering with many men having gone off to war. During this time, a dispute arose between the two groups of Christians over . . . yes, silverware. Some pieces went missing and one group had accused the other group of taking the pieces (by the time the story reached my dad, it wasn’t clear which group was the “victim” or the “accused.”)
After hearing that story the lettering took on a whole new meeting. It seems that the Congregational Church had decided to put their names on their silverware as a loss-prevention tactic against their fellow Christians.
While this certainly doesn’t rise to level of betray of the far more famous 30 pieces of silver given to Judas, it does seem a sad thing for Christians to be arguing over. With all the demanding needs and suffering in the world, isn’t it too often true that church argues amongst itself over trivial issues. Do you have any “silverware” issues in your life or within your church? Perhaps on some days, we Christians can keep focused on the real priorities of kingdom. Such an outcome would indeed be golden.
