Looking for error. . .

One of the side effects of controversy is that we look for error more than we look for that with which we may agree.  Given that there is no shortage of dispute and angry discussion in the world, it should not surprise us when the same rancor is found within the Church.  In fact, social media has done as much harm to the unity of the faithful as it has the unity of people in their nation and neighborhoods.  The exaggerated statements of dispute tend to be passed along and stir up plenty more views than a careful and reasoned assessment.  That is surely what we struggle against now.

On the one hand there are the politics of the season.  This is an election year in the LCMS and there has been a history of politicking on both sides.  Sometimes it is merely a matter of posturing but other times it ends up brushing up against the 8th Commandment (if not violating it out of hand!).  Instead of debating, it tends to be easier to paint our opponents in the worst possible terms.  There are those who routinely refer to those elected in offensive language that gathers notice but actually works against their point.  I hope and pray every election season that we can forego such characterizations designed not to build up or repair but to tear down and injure.  We can have differing opinions without painting our opponents as demons.

On the other hand, there are the politics of confession.  I am concerned by the idea that we must agree with an author in all points before we will listen to that author on any point.  The recent dust up over a book published by our Synod through its publishing house is case in point.  Some of the arguments against the book were over who the authors are as much as over what the authors said.  Again, it seems that the opponents were not only looking for error with a fine tooth comb but arguing that if something could be better stated, it must be.  I am reminded that the good is not the enemy of the perfect.  It is certainly  dangerous to hold everything we say and do up to this principle.  Doctrinal review is not charged with editing for such purpose but to make sure that what has been written is not wrong.  I wonder now many things would not pass muster if they held up the printing press because something could have been better said?  Certainly Luther himself was not enamored with everything he said or wrote and regularly suggested that most of his writings should be burned (though the list of things to be saved changed from time to time).  Every pastor is self-aware of sermons that did not say things wrong but could surely have said them better.  I know I am.  Preacher's regret is not simply what you should have said that you did not but more what you could have said more clearly but did not.

Anyone who reads this blog knows that I have my own issues with our church leaders, especially District Presidents, and yet I am mindful of the fact that no church bodies are as rigorous or reactive as the LCMS is when something has been gotten wrong.  Indeed, the Synod President held up distribution of the book cited above so that a further review could be made.  Many of the critics were not pleased either by the withdrawal or its return to active sale.  The reality is that the process worked.  A second review was made of the material some found objectionable and the Synod President decided that it is not error to have said things less clearly than you might have said them.  We have simply stopped keeping score of the egregious errors tolerated and approved by the ELCA, the Episcopal Church, and a host of other denominations.  They are too many to keep track of.  Missouri is not without our problems but we are certainly doing a more credible job of confronting them than any other denomination (including Rome!).

I put up a meme once that showed a pastor shaking hands at the door of his parish after worship.  In his mind were the hours he has put into preparing a sermon, Bible study, and worship planning.  But the words out of the mouth of the parishioner were a complaint about how hot or cold it was in the Sanctuary.  If you look for error you will always find it.  There is nothing we could not have said or thought or done better.  At the same time, you should not simply be looking for error but for that you might and should endorse and commend.  I fear we have all forgotten that part of it.  Instead of encouraging where we can, we seem intent upon warning or condemning where we might.  We are certainly the poorer for it.  Unless we have to say it, maybe we need to learn to simply shut up.  And if we must say it, maybe we need to look as much as how we say things as what we say.  Unless we are seeking praise from an echo chamber, we all could find things we would have said differently.  That does not make them wrong.  If we do not love our neighbor enough to be charitable, maybe we ought to love God enough to be kind in our criticism.