So We Tried To Stop Them

This morning I was reading in Luke 9 the sad, sadly funny and completely contemporary exchange where John comes up to Jesus to excitedly tell him the great thing he had done for the cause: "I saw people doing kingdom work, but they weren't part of our team, so I stopped them." The bible merely says that Jesus told John not to stop them, because if they are not against us they are for us -- you've all heard the quote. But I wonder what his expression was, or what else was going through his head. I think that maybe he looked at John like I look at my dog when he gets all tangled up in his leash. He does it time and time again, and it is so stupid, but I love him and untangle him.

This week I heard about a controversy at a church we are close to. They are having a conference with the subtitle "Are Science and Faith Compatible?" I did not know that that question was still up in the air, but that is another post. The point of this is the controversy -- hostility and threats from the church, threats to resign membership and more. The young pastor who was put in charge of the conference at the last minute and has received dozens of hostile e-mails, said, "This was supposed to be an event to bring non-Christians to and now I'm afraid our members are going to picket."

So, you ask, what is this huge controversy? One of the speakers believes in an old earth (and our church's official position -- if we even have one -- is a new earth, literal 24 hour day creation and all). And so, we are allowing someone to speak on a Wednesday night who does not believe exactly as the church does (even though he is not speaking on anything related to old/new earth!) And so he must be stopped, the conference must be stopped.

One exchange took place at the end of one of the largest (hundreds of folks) Sunday school classes. One of the lay leaders loudly telling others that he had resigned his membership because "(the senior pastor) lied to me, he said we would never have anybody in the pulpit who did not believe that the bible is the infallible word of God." This over a guy who believes that God might have created the earth in days that were longer than 24 hours. Now, that issue for me, I don't really care. God created it and that is a wonderful thing. But the hostility that has in this case risen to the surface -- we will stop the work of the kingdom if it is not done by people who are with us -- it's really sad.

This story is merely the dirty laundry of one unnamed church (it could be many church's), but it is a symptom of the inward, inbred, nature of so many communities of faith. Jesus started his ministry proclaiming that the Kingdom of God was among the people of his day and that he must go and proclaim that good news. Well, the Kingdom of God is still among us, and now we are charged to proclaim that good news. When we stop those who are doing Kingdom work, or we fight against those doing Kingdom work, or gossip about or look down our noses at those doing Kingdom work, because they are not part of our particular tribe, stripe or group we are quite frankly working against God's kingdom, rather than for it.

I guess that's all I have to say about it. Let's all look for opportunities to partner with someone who is doing Kingdom work -- maybe they don't even know they are doing kingdom work.

What a head scratcher it will be for them when you tell them.