We need now to turn to the sadness of how the church appears to many, and to how the messianic community connected to James was behaving (James 4:1-3):What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don't they come from your desires that battle within you? You want something but don't get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.Here are the incriminating words: fights, quarrels, battle, want, kill, covet, quarrel, fight, pleasures.
Not good. The messianic community had both the potential and the
evidence to be schismatic and seething in dissension within itself.
Today is a day of admission and confession, a day to admit that the church has been like this, is like this, and will continue to be like this. We must admit that we are part of this -- and it doesn't matter if you'd like to jump ship, start up your own group, and get things right for once. You and I are still a part of the Story called Church, and that Story has ugliness.
Today, then, is a day of confession to God and to one another that we are at fault, in word and deed and thought, for dissension, for schism, and for ugly relations. Let us admit the realities and confess to God and to one another that we are sleeping in a bed of our own making.
Today is a day of admission and confession, a day to admit that the church has been like this, is like this, and will continue to be like this. We must admit that we are part of this -- and it doesn't matter if you'd like to jump ship, start up your own group, and get things right for once. You and I are still a part of the Story called Church, and that Story has ugliness.
Today, then, is a day of confession to God and to one another that we are at fault, in word and deed and thought, for dissension, for schism, and for ugly relations. Let us admit the realities and confess to God and to one another that we are sleeping in a bed of our own making.
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I confess... May God in His mercy forgive me.
AMEN! And I confess that when I get fed up, it is because I'm not getting my way, even if I'm thoroughly convinced that God has given me the idea. I must be willing to lay down even those things that I feel God calls me to do in light of His working all things together for His good and I must trust His timing.
AMEN AMEN and AMEN! Let me seek His will above my own.
Thanks for this, Scott. I'm learning this lesson as a minister both for my congregation and also for myself. Below is a link to a message I shared with my church--look for the paraphrased McKnight quote in the middle...
http://ministryintheuk.blogspot.com/2009/05/coming-clean.html
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