It would seem that there are a lot of prophets who would love to tell us what we have done wrong as a church body and make us wallow in our shame for failing to heed their counsel. People are telling us all the time about the need to change and get with the times or die. I fear that some of those folks would love to proven right in their prediction even if it came at the cost of our church body and all our institutions. There are those on one side who like to be a thorn in the side of those who conserve the faith with all of its institutions and traditions. Stay in the fight and try to change Missouri, they say. Of course they do. They would rather be proven correct in their prophecy than hold fast the unchangeable truth of God. And there are those on the other side who seem to take delight in a circle of orthodoxy that grows ever smaller and with it a church body! Purity at all costs is their mantra. Of course it is. Unfortunately, the litmus tests of orthodoxy grow as the disdain for error increases. Love means never having to say you are sorry. Ouch.
Could it be that we do not want to wait for God's justice or be patient as God unfolds His will and purpose? Could it be that we would rather take into our own hands what God has kept to Himself? I wonder. I am not at all suggesting that truth should be compromised or that error ignored but there seems to be little sadness over the inevitable conflicts and divisions being pressed upon us. I am saddened by the way we inform upon our brothers and sisters rather than address them directly. The internet is filled with outrage that is also rather prideful, I fear. But better for us to be proven right than to try in patience and with discernment speak the truth in love. At least that is how it seems.
Perhaps we have lost our patience and neither wish to wait nor wish to bring people around. Or perhaps we just prefer to tell the whole, awful truth than work toward cleaning up the mess. We have our conferences of like-minded people and we live in the echo chamber of our own minds and meanwhile we are failing at the one duty and responsibility God has given to us -- to speak His truth in love. I am certainly not suggesting that we end all the conferences or podcasts or blogs (never!) but that we also take time to listen. Instead, we tend to raise our voices complaining about the closed ears of others while forgetting how hard it is for us to listen. No, some of these differences will not be resolved and it may require us to become smaller to find a more generous unity. Still, we ought to at least regret out loud the cost of such fracture and division. Even when we pray for unity it is generally on our own terms even before it is on the basis of what God has said.
I will confess my own sinful joy to sometimes be proven right -- yet the reality is that living to say I told you so will not benefit the Kingdom or manifest the love that is not optional along with fidelity to the Word that is yesterday, today, and forever the same. The prophets who took joy at the failings of those to whom they were sent did not fare so well, did they? If the people heard the Word of the Lord and repented, it would rob us of our joy and delight in saying I told you so. Maybe Jonah could tell us something of that. Again, before you think I am advocating for more wiggle room in doctrine and practice, I am not. I merely want us to speak together without a smug pride that hopes to be proven right more than we hope to see reconciliation and unity.
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