This one might ROCK YOUR WORLD!
A Moment Of Clarity...
You know, I was chewing on the whole "tower of Babel" story in Genesis 11 today and it struck me, I think that division among the church (most notably in the form of denominationalism) is perhaps NECESSARY and GOD BREATHED. What could I possibly mean by that? Let me explain...
Upside down!
I for one have always ranted about how wicked division among believers is. Even last night as I was speaking with someone from a German Baptist persuasion, I moaned about how wicked it is that we are all so divided.
Often such division is rooted in nothing more than varied interpretations of the Bible. That's it. It's like the scene in "The Life Of Brian" where they are trying to figure out the meaning of the sandal. Hilarious... and bitterly true.
But I feel like God might be telling me differently today. After all, our ways are NOT His ways.
The Bitter Pill.
As postmoderns (or those desperately wishing they were), we bitch and moan about the church having lost significance. We secretly pout at the failed experiment we called "church". We try to regroup and emerge anew.
BOLD
RELEVANT
EFFECTIVE
EVOCOTIVE
DIFFERENT
Lessons from Babel...
The point is not to keep us from arriving at His level. God isn't threatened by us. He is not knocking us to the ground because we are getting too close! On the contrary! As we unite, we drift further away from Him. We begin to elect elders and leaders. We begin to assign power to places, times, and agendas. We begin to THINK that we "get it" as we drift further from the fact that we are perpetually NOT getting it.
In that chapter in Genesis, it seems clear to me that God shot those folks down because they were too close to becoming self-sufficient. Dangerously close to forgetting how much they needed redemption. The tower wasn't too tall. The people were too united.
Taking it all in...
From what I gather, too much community... too much unity... leads to too many accomplishments. And too many accomplishments lead to a feeling of sufficiency. And a feeling of sufficiency leads us in the opposite direction of the cross.
We don't say it...
and we deny it if accused...
but we're so good at LIVING it.
"Make yer point son!"
I have MANY suppositions about the purpose and function of the Bible, but today I gained a new one.
Is it SUPPOSED to be vague?!
Is it SUPPOSED TO DIVIDE!?
DARE I SAY...
SUPPOSED
TO DIVIDE
US?!
I think so.
If it needs to be clear... it will be.
That is that.
If it isn't clear... the there's a reason for it.
Today, we see a church that is spilt every which way. Up and down, side to side, and straight through the middle. We see Christians, like ants under a kicked stone, running madly around... trying to make sense of it all. Killing one another in the process.
Gaining perspective...
From our vantage point, it's a mess. Dogma eat Dogma. But I believe... it is pleasing to God? To see us all so incapable? To see us searching instead of settling? To see us needing instead of having? To see us struggling instead of accomplishing? That is where He wants us. Why?
Because perhaps, at the end of the day, when the sun goes down and we hunker around or work lights out in the garage... trying to figure out why "it" didn't work... we might one night, eventually realize that we are simply not enough. That the work is futile. That the results are temporary. And that "temporary" is ultimately unnaceptable. Then perhaps, when we emerge the following morning, into a world of second chances... we might look toward HIM for hope. For peace. For security. For accomplishment. For value.
But what about LOVE?
Does saying God chooses to divide us mean that God chooses for us to hate one another? Absolutely NOT! How awful. On the contrary, we are to LOVE ONE ANOTHER. What good is it if you only love those who love you? What good is it if you only love those who agree with you? There is no honor in that. This supposition about God desiring our division only enhances the beauty of love when we choose to love one another... despite the cataclysmic rift that God has placed between us. Could love be more authentic than that?
"Finger Pointing"
If the church is over... I'm not sure that I completely blame us anymore. I think that God might have just picked up the rock we were under and started flicking us around... breaking up our best laid plans... sending us into a pathetic and beautiful downward spiral. Smiling as He watches us scamper about wondering, "what did WE do wrong?"
It's what we did right that was wrong.
Our strengths were our damming weaknesses...
drawing attention away from Christ and leaving it on us.
A tool of division.
Left in Christ's wake,
not to fill the void,
but to maintain it.
a virus in our system
loaded by the administrator himself
A thorn in our minds
that will firmly linger
until Christ returns.
the equation
not the solution
Dividing us.
Confusing us.
Keeping us in a perpetual state of need.
What an interesting and bold idea that is!
2 Comments:
Sig - "What a load! Division? Quit making divisions."
Luke - Quit making divisions? Are you telling me or our Creator? 'Cause He's been doing it for centuries. He even admits to it in His own "inspired word" (a.k.a. The Bible). It's all throughout the Bible.
Sig - "Every time I visit this site I see you trying to set yourself apart from the CHURCH"
Luke - Right on man! Right on! The question is in how you define the CHURCH. In a very real sense, I think I'm trying to figure out what it is SUPPOSED to be. I have my doubts about what I see us vomiting up.
Sig - "Oh yeah there's something wrong with the church it's people that want that division. It's people that always want to cause a ruckus. Sounds familiar huh?"
Luke - Sincerely, I have a hard time deciphering exactly what you mean sometimes because I feel like you are leaving out some necessary punctuation. Is this last statement sarcastic, serious, or otherwise? For what it's worth, yes, it does sound familiar. People are all about division. And we get that from a "Book" that is INCOMPLETE AT BEST. It's like a 1500 piece puzzle. We put it together and found it to be lacking about 964 pieces. Like I said, I am simply suggesting that it might be more about leaving us with questions than with answers.
Do you honestly think for one minute that God would want His people to have every stinking answer that they could ever possibly need in the form of an "instruction manual" called the Bible? Maybe you do... and that's cool. But I don't. I think He wants gaps. I think He wants us to be left wondering from time to time... and perhaps more often than we may like to know.
Anytime I read a new instruction manual for a piece of software or a user guide for a piece of equipment that I buy, I can clearly see that creators have written the manuals so exhaustively so as not to leave me with a need to call the "hotline." The better a manual is written, the less people you have to pay to answer phones, the higher the profit margin. In other words, these product manufacturers don't WANT to hear from me. So they make it all as clear as possible.
I submit that God DOES want to hear from us and, as such, has left us with incomplete (NOT IMPERFECT) information. Just enough to get us moving but not so much as to keep the "phones" from ringing.
Sig - "Try just following the Bible."
Luke - I do Sig. This concept of God dividing us IS IN THE BIBLE. But there's the problem, we all pick and choose what we want to believe and what we want to ignore.
Sig - "I guarantee it will not cause a ruckus."
Luke - You guarantee? Sorry dude, with all due respect, your guarantee means nothing to me. And besides, the Bible IS causing a ruckus. So did Jesus. So did God the Father. You blame people for the ruckus. I do too... partially. But we are just reacting to what we've been given... and it ISN'T crystal clear on every matter as you suggest.
Sig - "You might actually be bored."
Luke - On the contrary. For the first time in a LONG TIME I have felt energized to read the Bible. Because now, I am NOT worried about seeing the picture. Now I feel as though I understand... THERE IS NO PICTURE in the Bible. Only glimpses. Glances. Hints. The picture will come later... and probably not on this side of Heaven.
Sig - "No attacks just black and white!!!!"
Luke - I didn't sense any attack. I appreciate that. Heck, I can even buy the "black and white" part. Remember, I am NOT suggesting that the Bible is WRONG. I think that we can see some things VERY clearly. Like those pieces of the puzzle that WERE in the box. What I submit is simply that it is NOT everything God has to tell us, and is therefore INCOMPLETE. Again, NOT IMPERFECT... just incomplete.
Do you honestly believe God has nothing left to say? That the Bible was His final book of thoughts? Not me.
God has probably not taken a vow of silence. Likewise, it seems VERY likely that an INFINITE CREATOR cannot be contained within the pages of a TRILLION books... let alone just one. WE LACK THE BIGGER PICTURE. WE LACK TOTAL KNOWLEDGE. And God WANTS it that way. Partial. Fragmented. And at times, confusing. Why?
SO THAT WE WILL ALWAYS NEED HIM.
We will always need to call "customer support" (so to speak).In the garden of Eden, what was the ONE TREE not to be eaten from? Do you think that was just some cute, random choice? Not me. We are SUPPOSED to lack the knowledge of good and evil.
Now THAT is black and white.Oh, and by the way, I suggest that you don't just immediately call something a "load" simply because you are not used to the idea. "New" isn't always "bad." If new ideas cannot find room in your mind for consideration... then I fear for you. Remember, folks probably didn't crucify Jesus because they thought He WAS the son of God. Those folks had their minds made up about what "He" should look like, where "He" should come from, how "He" should act, and so on. Jesus didn't jive with the "truth" they had come to place their faith in. Just be willing to CONSIDER the radical, the different, and the possibly insane.
From one perspective, "radical", "different", and "insane" pefectly describes the man who died for our sins. Some got it. Some REFUSED.
Cheers and thanks for stopping by again sig!
Luke
4:23 PM
luke, i am also going to say that i enjoy your seeking mind and your ideas, but for a different reason. whenever you post something new, and i don't agree with it, it helps me to seek out why i don't agree. i may not agree, but that is ok, at least we can share our differing ideas with each other and maybe learn from each other.
kristy
1:39 PM
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