My Salute to the Faithful!

Let there be no doubt that in American Christian Institutions, there are lots of odd, if not harmful, pastors and ministries. Hardly a week goes by without some revelation of abuse, arrogance and downright evil, and to the worst of it, we're drawn. It's like driving by a hideous auto accident, we turn away and at the same time fixate on it. And so with the media of the day - there's a fixation on the bizarre, the harmful, the odd and the destructive elements of religion - and of such, there's more than enough to go around and keep the media busy.

But all of this is misleading, for we miss the thousands of faithful moments and even noble efforts played out daily by women and men of good faith, with a universal sense of things, a sensitivity to the immediate, to the neighborhood, to the people around them, the people they seek to love, even as they find love waiting for them in every human being.

I've been affected by negativity - it's easy to be critical of everything associated with religion and church, it's easy to dismiss all of it. And I've done that a time or two. But such dismissal is inaccurate - like plowing down a field of corn because parts of the field are overrun by weeds.

Yes, plenty of weeds, and some parts of the field have been, or so it seems, overrun.

And it's easy, then, to get all worked up about the weeds - who and why and how come ... and maybe the whole crop is lousy, the whole field isn't worth it.

But I do myself a disservice with such thinking. Something more is needed, something more nuanced, something honest that sees the weeds for what they are, but also celebrates the essential health of the whole field, the crop that feeds so many with wholesome awareness - the strength of faith, hope and love, the stuff of grace, mercy and peace.

With that said, I salute the work and faith of the church - the good it represents, the love it shares, with most of it unseen by the world at large, ignored by the media, but so appreciated in the local setting, adding to the welfare of the world with its care for justice and its ways of kindness in a corner of the world.

Whatever the religion, I salute those who live and work out of the deepest impulses of human kindness and hope.

I write as a Christian, for that has been my world, into which I was born, in which I reared, and in which I have lived my life to this very moment. Not only a Christian, but a Protestant Christian, and of that, of the Reformed Family.

I grew up with fine pastors and strong churches, models for much of my work over the years.

I have known and continue to know religious people of great faith, great hope, great justice and kindness and mercy, willing to work long hard hours for the welfare of others, devoted to God, tirelessly working, and sometimes, often times, working bone tired, to realize something good in someone else's life.

To the women and men today who have worked on a sermon and will today give it to a congregation - in a mighty cathedral or in living room ... to those who gather to sing and pray, in the ageless quest for meaning, for hope, for encouragement to keep on keeping on ... to those who lead choirs, who play organs and make music, who manage the sound, who take up the offering, who teach Sunday School, who pour the coffee and slice the fruit, who hang around to talk with one another, who greet the stranger, who put on a smile for others even when their own heart might be tearful ... to all those who grasp the best of things and embrace the world.

To all of them, my gratitude ... and a simple prayer: that they will not give up on the venture ... and will serve with integrity and humility. The integrity of the faith given in the Cross and Empty Tomb, in the life and words and ministry of Jesus ... and the humility of knowing that every human expression of that faith falls short of its ideal, yet trusting the ideal to be revealed all the more.

Have a good Sunday! And like my beloved father-in-law always said to me upon parting, "Tom, preach the gospel!"

Sometimes We Get Along, Sometimes Not

It doesn't take long in the #PCUSA to see what a diverse group we are. Much of the time, we manage to get along; some of the time, we don't.

Diversity pushes and pulls us, and sometimes pushes or pulls us beyond where we're comfortable ... and sometimes challenges us to rethink, to reconsider, review those things we deem "essentials."

We love to quote authorities, and, of course, THE Authority, Scripture, but even that seems to fail us finally, leaving us without resolve, and all those pesky Bible verses that refuse to fit into our otherwise neat and tidy systems.

If we take sin seriously (as Presbyterians, we have too!), then we're stuck with a curious kind of humility toward one another, and toward those views that either challenge us or strike us as even heretical.

We'd all like to claim that "our system, our version of things, our take on God and the Gospel, are bigger, brighter and better" than all the other competing versions.

But history refuses us such a claim.

All we can do, and humbly do, is put forth our view of things, and try to apply the best tools of scholarship and science, engaging in steady prayer and the practices of humility (often saying, "I don't know" or "I'm not sure"), bringing to bear upon our ideas the best of Christian scholarship, the vast and often contradictory traditions of the church, including hymnody, social justice practices over the centuries and the day-to-day learning from one another - in other words, all that God provides us in and through the church and the larger world.

In reality, we're mostly on target, and sometimes not.

Who can contain the whole counsel of God in any system of thought?

Who dares to say they comprehend the will and character and purpose of God throughout the ages?

If any of us muster the "telling Bible verse," someone else offers another verse.

So we serve one another best of all when we raise critical questions for one another, and provide ample room and time for one another to express his or her views.

If we come to the #PCUSA or to a particular congregation to have all of our a priori notions confirmed, we may well find a congregation that suits us perfectly, but not likely the entire denomination ... which is why some are so eager for schism - as if the balkanization of the church could lead to greater purity of thought. It never does, and never will. To seek purity at the expense of fellowship is to sacrifice the very purity so eagerly sought.

Anyway, much of the discussion here is thoughtful and kind ... God be praised.

Perhaps we might take Jesus at his word in John: "I am the way, the truth and the life" ... not Calvin or Knox or Kuyper, not the Book of Confessions or the Book of Order, neither Aquinas nor Barth, certainly not Jerry Falwell (God rest his soul) or James Dobson, nor Rob Bell or Max Lucado. But from all of them, we learn about Jesus, yet Jesus does us the favor of "walking through our midst," lest we crown him(John 6.15) or try to kill him (Luke 4.29).

Our systems are all approximations ... and we humbly bow down before the LORD of all ... honoring the Holy Spirit in each and every believer who utters the name of Jesus in faith, hope and love, fragmented as every heart is, with but a fragmentary grasp of Jesus, whose grasp upon us is sure and certain, unto the end of the age, and then some.