GodReflection: Conflict Zone.
I like church for many reasons. However, one primary reason is when I worship with the church, I find myself among people just like me. No, I am not referring to race or skin color.
If my congregation is healthy, we assemble with those of different skin colors among young people, older women, and older men who may speak different primary languages. Yet, the common denominator that unites us together is that we are all broken and flawed.
That brings me to the subject of this post. My Church May Say But It Ain’t Always Right. Each one of us finds ourselves born into, or brought into, churches that come from different traditions.
Yes, I know that some of us claim to worship with those who believe just like the first three thousand converts baptized on that day in Jerusalem. They were from those who met for the first time on the day of the Jewish Pentecost celebration.
However, the reality is that twenty-five hundred years have gone by and each one of us hold versions of doctrine that never entered the minds of our first Christian sisters and brothers.
In our local churches we find ourselves in the very center of the Conflict Zone. It is there where we hear messages from pulpit and classroom that flow out of our historical traditions. It is there that My Church May Say It But It Ain’t Always Right.
A first step in the right direction is to read consistently our Bible. We must spend time in God’s Word to constantly seek clarification concerning what to believe and what we need to discard from the lessons we receive in our churches. The Apostle John gives us the voice that must enter our ears and penetrate our hearts.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made.
In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it—the true light that gives light to everyone—was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him.
He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him. Yet to all who did receive him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God—The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth—out of his fullness we have all received grace—grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. (John 1-17)
I think of what Jesus teaches us in Mark’s Gospel from the Prophet Isaiah. “Isaiah was right when he prophesied about you hypocrites; as it is written: These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me. They worship me in vain; their teachings are merely human rules (Mark 7:6-7).
We must all be careful with rules. We humans are right at home making our own rules. We believe we know how to draft rules that accept us and exclude others. Our Holy God, Holy Jesus, and Holy Spirit, will have none of this.
The mission of the Holy is to make us human beings “Holy insiders”. The Holy wants to keep us in the Holy Zone and protected from the Conflict Zone. That is precisely the reason we must be alert because My Church May Say It But It Ain’t Always Right.
Stay tuned.
Dr. Gary J. Sorrells
A GodReflection: My Church May Say It But It Ain’t Always Right.
God Reflection 