I feel like the liturgical calendar should allow for Denominational Convention Season. Sure we have Epiphany, Easter, Advent, Christmas, and Pentecost, but when will we formally add the Month of Churches in Council—or whatever you call your particular synodical assemblage? It will be, as indeed it already is, the usual celebratory business of human will meeting divine will in the practical business of ecclesial administration, theological tumult, and politics.
As I’ve mentioned a couple of times, I’ve been slowly—glacially—reading Jacques Ellul’s The Politics of God and the Politic of Man and mulling over his provocative and insightful reading of the Bible. This, and the fact the New Testament lesson this morning was Acts 15, make the circumstance of so many large church bodies, including my own, gathering to make decisions and indulge in a little Robert’s Rules of Order ripe for takes. Let's see…
One
I said this in my brief podcast this week, but I think it bears saying again—the work of the Kingdom of God is spiritual and political. And here is my amateur and cobbled-together definition of politics—human people mucking it out in the Kingdom of Anxiety where there are rare beasts and unique adventures. Politics is the realm of human decisions and freedom, of accumulating power and spending it, like currency, on the things that matter the most to a particular group of people so that generations coming after them have to deal with the fallout. I don’t know if this is a real definition of politics, but it at least serves the arena of church governance.
The trouble is that God, whose ways are higher than ours, nevertheless decided to act through sinfully blind human self-interest to govern the unruly affections of his creatures and to arrange things the way he desires them. The most perfect example of this is the cross, where everyone did what they most desired to do, and yet, in the end, God’s desire to effect our salvation prevailed.
For the faithful Christian, disengagement is not an option. You have to enter the fray—whatever it is—with both, just to go with a super worn-out cliche, a sword and a trowel. You have to get on with life and also wage war against the devil in the company of other people who are just as bad and as blind as you are.
Two
The trouble is, a lot of us are conflict-averse. It’s nicer if we can pray a lot and not ever have to say anything or attend any boring meetings.
Three
But meanwhile, wickedness never sits down for a tea break. Satan always shows up to every meeting. He has a great work ethic. He is on time and has already brewed the coffee. He’s read the bylaws. He knows where the mics are. And he has draped himself in a bunch of rainbow flags and is probably covered in swasticas. He doesn’t care about your political ideology, he just wants every nice, peaceful, comfortable institution full of people who really do love God to fail—and fail spectacularly.
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