"Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.
What does this mean? Answer:
We should fear and love God that we may not deceitfully belie, betray, slander, or defame our neighbor, but defend him, [think and] speak well of him, and put the best construction on everything."
This nugget from the Small Catechism has been killing me over the past week or so. In all of the fighting and fussing that, pathetically, seems to be life in the Church these days, I think we've all (and by "all," I mean "me as much as anyone") forgotten about this. I can't remember the last time I defended, spoke well of, or put the best construction on anything that the folks with CORE or the NALC came up with. As a matter of fact, I believe I have used a variety of phrases, some of them too colorful to use in this blog, to describe both of these organizations and their adherents - probably the most consistently used phrases revolved around their lying, being schismatic, not knowing how to read the Bible, being racist-sexist-homophobic, and being a bunch of old people uninterested in actually doing the work of the Kingdom so much as preserving the illusion of Christendom until the wheels fall off. The reverse is true; I've heard the Church that I love so much called apostate, a deceiver, a failing institution, a lover of the world rather than God, unfaithful to the scriptures or Lutheran confessions, and the source of no good whatsoever during its history.
And so, as I look at the Catechism, I wonder - what does the world see when it looks at this? Does it actually see some sort of dynamic change, a power shift, like we try to tell ourselves, or does it just see, yet again, a group of Christians failing to follow Christ in how they treat one another? And so I cry - forgive me, Lord, for what I've done and how I've failed to proclaim the Gospel with my words and attitude toward my brothers and sisters in Christ.
No comments:
Post a Comment