Friday, February 8, 2013

Think and let think

Part of the mystery that is ministry, heck that is Christianity itself, is getting all our "I believes" in the same place, headed the same direction, doing the same things. Churches with leadership do this, I think. There is ample discussion and everyone is headed the same direction. But no everyone, not every church is this way.

One person's social justice theme is another person's evangelism theme I reckon.

But deeper than that, we all come to the table, God's table not the United Methodist table, with differing theologies.

Before I began this journey, that was foreign to me. I believed what Mama taught me to believe and that was that. But I've found there are other streams that dump into the same ocean.

Paul addressed this in his letter to the church in Rome. He wrote, "One person considers one day more sacred than another; another considers every day alike. Each of them should be fully convinced in their own mind. 6 Whoever regards one day as special does so to the Lord. Whoever eats meat does so to the Lord, for they give thanks to God; and whoever abstains does so to the Lord and gives thanks to God. 7 For none of us lives for ourselves alone, and none of us dies for ourselves alone. 8 If we live, we live for the Lord; and if we die, we die for the Lord. So, whether we live or die, we belong to the Lord. 9 For this very reason, Christ died and returned to life so that he might be the Lord of both the dead and the living."

In other words, each of us have our own things. Ultimately, the battle over what is truth is the battle we all will fight, however. If we cannot talk about what these truths are, what are we doing?

In 1771, John Wesley wrote in a sermon, "Nay, perhaps, if you are angry, so shall I be too; and then there will be small hopes of finding the truth. If once anger arises,  (as Homer somewhere expresses it,) this smoke will so dim the eyes of my soul, that I shall be able to see nothing clearly. For God’s sake, if it be possible to avoid it, let us not provoke one another to wrath. Let us not kindle in each other this fire of hell; much less blow it up into a flame. If we could discern truth by that dreadful light, would it not be a loss rather than gain? For, how far is love, even with many wrong opinions, to be preferred before truth itself without love!"

In other words, is our truth, the truth we will fight about, worth fighting about if the argument itself doesn't come from love?

I think not. Wesley wrote, "If there [is] a difference of opinion, where is our religion, if we cannot think and let think?"

1 comment:

Kevin Horne said...

This is marvelous and radical. Thanks for posting it: "For, how far is love, even with many wrong opinions, to be preferred before truth itself without love!"