“The squirrels are fighting in and about the
oak tree whose roots extend to unseen places below me and whose branches
extend toward the infinity of sky above me. Yes, the squirrels are raising a
ruckus. But the Old Oak is unmoved but still growing, and I love Her Shade
and the hope of Her Acorns.”
My friend Brad Bull posted this on his Facebook page recently.
My response was to ask if this was a metaphor for some particular
event. He did not respond directly, so I will put my spin on it (with
his permission to reproduce his comment).
A lot of things have happened in our country over the past
two months. Some have grieved, some have rejoiced, some
have forgiven, some have become angry. Society and culture work that
way. We find our own ways to cope or
make sense out of change, when things seem out of control. None of us
in complete control; if you think you are, I can recommend a good counselor
to you.
Here's my "spin" on Brad's comment. The
church has been around for two thousand years. Sometimes it has led and
sometimes it has followed. The church has blessed and it has oppressed.
The key thing is that the church has survived and prospered. Why?
Because the church (and by this I mean those who are called into fellowship
with Christ) has listened to the Holy Spirit. The Spirit has informed,
transformed, and empowered believers through time of significant change and
crisis. Of course, sometimes this
adjustment takes awhile.
Since the Bible does not condemn slavery, Christians used
the acceptance of the practice in the first century to justify its practice
well into the 19th century. At the same time, Jesus said a lot about
caring for the poor, orphaned, and widowed but somehow that message hasn't
gotten through to all of us yet. Change can be very slow.
Accepting change is never easy. Winston Churchill said
"You can always count on Americans to do the right thing--after they
have tried everything else." The same can be said for the church. Even when we realize that the Spirit is
calling us into something new, the process of change can be slow and
agonizing. The only real sign of life
is change. It is time that we
understand and embrace that truth.
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I am grateful for my heritage as a Southern Baptist. I was exposed to the Bible and worship from a very young age. I grew up in a church in south Alabama that supported the Cooperative Program of missions giving. This meant that our church had the benefit of being part of a supportive group of local churches and the educational opportunities that afforded. Our state convention provided varied and effective ministries with groups like orphans, ethnic groups, and college students. We supported missionaries at home and abroad. We had good Bible study and training literature (which we paid for, of course). I went to an accredited seminary and paid a remarkably low tuition. Wherever you went on a Sunday morning (in the Southeast and Southwest, at least), you could find a church that sang the familiar hymns and studied the same Bible lesson. In hindsight, I realize that this Southern Baptist utopia was imperfect. There were significant...
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