Yesterday

Yesterday started out like any other Sunday. It was good. Still good from my perspective, but we will get to that later. As I have mentioned awhile back, retirement has brought much in the way of relaxation. I think that permanant wrinkle between my eyes is even beginning to disappear. So what follows here is not what I would call particularly irksome. I am not mad or irritated about any of it. I'm just kind of disappointed.

Early Sunday school was good. We discussed the seven sayings of the cross; Jesus did not talk much as He suffered, but what he did say had meaning and import.

Church was kind of boring. I do not say this to berate anyone in particular. I just find the way that conservative churches do worship to be boring in general. We get the occassional good sermon and sometimes praise time is meaningful, but it's all in that 'rock concert' kind or way. Going to church has become much like going to a show. There is the audience. There is the stage. There are the 'performers'. There is applause. But aside from the occassional 'amen' there is little or no participation by the body that one would not expect from the average secular concert audience. It's all designed to pump up mood. Really, all that's missing is a smoke generator. I suppose they already have one and are just waiting for the right time to roll it out. I can't wait.

Some might say that it's all in what you put into it and what you bring into the auditorium with you.

That's wrong.

There just ain't much edification going on in a room where everyone is silent while someone tells them all what to think. Edification requires discussion of ideas and participation of the learners. There is more than one point of view about most everything, even those things the church calls 'doctrine' and claim to be set in stone. The Spirit works in all of us to test the truth of these things, but only one point of view is promoted or perhaps, even allowed.    

But I digress...

My 1030 Sunday school class, which is always a hoot, was particularly interesting yesterday since the instructor exposed his bias toward Old Covenant type families dominating the New covenant church. It was very informative for me on many levels. I finally know where his mind is at.

The class itself has been described as sort of a 'Seinfeldesque' experience. It's really about nothing. Nothing that is relevant to salvation. And this is true. But what was discussed yesterday about women and their place in the church was backward in the extreme. I would go so far as to say that if this point of view is promoted heavily in the church, it will ultimately diminish and perhaps destroy it. The focus on male domination was heavy handed and unnecessary. We do not live in an age where women are property, where they are uneducated babymakers and babysitters. Women in our world wield power at work, at home and within the family structure. To deny them this at church on the basis of Paul's personal opinion in 1 Timothy 2 about the curse in Genesis 3 is ridiculous.

The whole discussion made me stop and reaccess.  Do I want to worship with a body that promotes and Old Covenant, patriarchal family system on which to build a church? Did Jesus or Paul or any of the apostles really promote such a thing in the New Convenant?

The answer is clearly 'no'.

In the New Convenant, everything is about kingdom and kindom building. Everyone that has faith can get it. The body is diverse and we all perform different fucntions and NONE OF US should be limited by our genetalia or marriage status in pursuit of our walk with Christ. Instead, our efforts must be focused on becoming like Him regardless of who we are.

We are not trying to build a nation in a promised land where the men will all be little kings within their tribal boundaries.

We have only just left Egypt and our journey to the New Kingdom is an on going effort to take as many as possible from all walks of life to this New Land!

We are not all Hebrews or even Messianic Jews in pursuit of a land flowing with milk and honey. We are God's people and, might I add, Gentiles, in pursuit of a better country where Jesus Christ rules forever; a place where there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male or female.

I will probably have more to say about this as the week goes on, but I am going to say it here for all to read.

And to anyone that is wondering....I love very much the people that were part of this dialogue with me yesterday, both inside and outside of class. As you said....we simply disagree.

But as Barry Goldwater once said, "in your heart, you know I am right".

And so truth marches on.

I think I'm back!