Grace and Peace to you from the One Who is, Who was, and Who is to come,
Jesus Christ our Lord, Amen.
I continue to pray for you and for all of my brothers and sisters in Christ spread across the globe. In this I say that I pray for all humanity, because truly all people are the sons and daughters of God and thus the siblings of our dear older brother, Jesus. But, I pray particularly now for you, in the trials and tribulations that you are now facing.
I have heard of and have experienced the squabbling, fighting, and bitter division that is now facing you and other congregations like yours. What are we fighting over? Is it acceptable that a man or woman be called to be a pastor at a congregation who would have them, if that man or woman is in love with a member of the same gender. This is our fight, at least on the surface. In all reality we are arguing over many more difficult and deeper things, like the nature of scripture, the meaning of and ways we are a “church,” what is salvation, grace, and the nature of sin. So, this one letter can not answer all of your concerns. I hope though to make a start.
The first thing is that all involved in the disagreement need to do is stop, step back, and calm down. Yes, there have been many heated arguments. There have been insults and misunderstandings and many more things that we should regret and be ashamed of. Is this really the way that Christ would have us treat our neighbor, or more so, our brother and sister, if we have a disagreement? Matthew 5:23-24 tells us that if we come to the altar with a gift and remember that our brother or sister have a disagreement with us we should leave the gift and be reconciled to our brother or sister. Should we, in our current state of disagreement, presume to receive the gifts from the altar, the body and the blood, when we, according to the scripture, are not even capable of offering our gifts at the altar?
I am not one to normally consider withholding the sacraments from any individual. As a Lutheran, my ancestors left the Roman Catholic Church because they felt the sacraments were being held captive. And, yet, at this moment, when our anger and our resentment of other Christians are at their highest, I contemplate just such an action. Not as a punishment or as a means of lauding power over others, I have no power to deny anyone the sacraments, but because Communion as a sacrament reminds us of our unity with Christ and our neighbors, all humanity, all Christians. However at this moment, our bitterness and our disagreements have led to a breaking of the unity, a breaking of the communion, with each other. How can I take communion with Christ if I can not love my neighbor due to his or her belief regarding homosexuality? Until I can forgive those who disagree with me, and receive forgiveness from those who oppose me; until I can be reconciled to them and remember that they too are my brothers and sisters, the dearly loved children of God our Father, how can I claim communion with Christ?
Let us begin again. Let us forgive each other our wrongs, and swear to one another that we will approach our disagreements with more tact, restraint, and respect. Let us remember and reflect on how we have acted and who we have harmed every time we step up to the altar to receive the body and blood of our Lord. If we are able and if we find our hearts troubled with our actions or the actions of our neighbor, may God give us the strength to turn away and be reconciled to our brothers and sisters before we receive the gifts.
Grace and Peace to you.
Your Brother in Christ,
EWHP
I don’t do titles.
August 23, 2011 in Christian Commentary, Edward Pease | Leave a comment
I am pretty horrible at this whole blogging thing. I knew it was the case, but recently it was brought to my attention again. I will make no promises, but I am really going to try to write more often in this thing and maybe even include more personal information, not only the opinion things that have made up the majority of my blogging.
For those of you who don’t know, I work overnights. Out of an eight hour shift, I probably have about 4 hours of work to do (that might even be on the high side). I do some cleaning, cooking, hourly bed checks, documenting on residents, and finally I do a lot of wake-up prompting of residents.
So, what do I do with the other four hours? I try to find a lot of other random work to fill the other four hours, I might do some writing, and I do a lot of thinking. Throughout the entire shift I listen to podcasts and audiobooks.
The thinking thing though is what I want to talk about. I have been having a great deal of thoughts about Biblical interpretation and also theology. Who would have guessed that the person who dedicated 6 years of education to religion would find their “resting” mind playing games with theology?
One thing that I keep coming back to are alternative readings and understandings of Biblical texts. When I am reading and contemplating the text, I try to ignore everything I have been told about the text. I try to forget the sermons and classes that I have had on the topic and just read the words, in English or Greek.
One thing that I am starting to realize is that regardless of the flavor of Christian you are, most of what you believe the Bible is telling you, isn’t really there, or isn’t the most reasonable way of thinking about the text. If we focused more on what the Bible is actually saying and less on what other people have said about the Bible, Christianity would have a very different shape.
That leads me to a question that I have been struggling with. Which is more important: the Bible’s message, or the Church’s message about the Bible? What is odd is that the groups that are more likely to say that the BIBLE is the most important are most likely to find their understanding of the Bible most tainted by the traditions surrounding the text and not the message of the Bible itself.