Being on the Same Page Helps

“Do two walk together,
            unless they have agreed to meet?  - Amos 3:3

In context, this verse means that there was no basis for covenant fellowship between the LORD and the northern kingdom so long as Israel was violating the terms of the agreement. But, the proverb's general meaning is that estranged parties cannot make progress together when they are not on the same page.

A supreme example of this is the current controversy over the national anthem involving the NFL, the President of the United States, the appropriateness or inappropriateness of the protests, and the veracity of the social narrative behind all of it.

In 2016, one player engaged in a protest for which there was no way of gauging whether or not he would ever accomplish anything. Colin Kaepernick chose to kneel rather than stand during the national anthem, explaining his actions in the following terms: "I am not going to stand up to show pride in a flag for a country that oppresses black people and people of color ..."

The issue itself created an impasse. If some meeting of the minds has been officially reached, I clearly have been napping. Some people seem to believe that the matter of police shooting black men is EPIDEMIC and that some major societal adjustment is in order. Others believe that the incidents are ANECDOTAL, that the country itself is not to blame, and that the culture is not systemically racist. All such incidents should be addressed through the justice system on a case-by-case basis. As I see it, any common ground for assessing the situation seems elusive at best.

Suddenly, after a single season, Kaepernick was done with his kneeling. Was the matter now resolved to his satisfaction? If so, was it resolved due, in any part, to his protest?

Now, in the current season, others had been following Kaepernick's lead when President Trump chimed in. Suddenly, it was impossible to determine who was reflecting Kaepernick's original issue and who was simply asserting, for the president's benefit, the right of the players to protest anything, everything or whatever.

This is my prediction. Eventually, the noise will fade, and the issue will simply pass. The NFL will find some way to move forward that will ultimately satisfy no one. They have to. There is no remedy. Once again, the issue is rooted in a perception of a problem for which there is no consensus while the protest itself has no metric for measuring its effectiveness.

Christian, if you are firmly convinced of one version of the narrative or the other, contend for social justice and peace accordingly. But, by all means, avoid the strident rhetoric that poisons the dialogue. Every Bible-believing Christian understands that when the world's din has calmed and the dust has settled, all that will matter is a person's standing in Christ. Ours is a greater and more urgent cause than any limited to this terrain. And, if we cannot engage in the issues of this world in such a way as to earn a hearing for matters that have eternal consequence, what difference will it make if we are on the winning side of some temporal argument?

Like Sheep without a Shepherd

The American Civil War claimed around 620,000 lives, 49% of the nation's combined death toll for all the wars in which the United States has ever been engaged. That's just a little fact to bear in mind the next time you hear someone lament, "Our nation has never been more divided."

Our country has always been divided. Partisan wrangling has always been brutal. I suppose that the proliferation of 24-hour media, social media, identity politics and the like has exacerbated the typical citizen's awareness of the various schisms, but make no mistake; discord has always been present. On occasion, some foreign enemy may cause us to pull together for a season, but whatever unity is produced is never perfect, and it has never been enduring.

I don't mean for that to sound fatalistic, but my Christian worldview informs me that divisiveness is rooted in sin and selfishness, so it is our default setting as fallen human beings. And, there is nothing that mankind can do about it as he has proven time and time again.

More than that, I am not convinced that many who occupy seats of power are really that bothered by the factions in America or anxious to seem them bridged. In the world of partisan politics, few people are ever persuaded of anything. Occasionally, an issue may capture the collective imagination so as to sway a vote one way or the other. More often, it is all about ginning up a base. President Trump does not tweet anything so as to persuade left-leaning hardliners to want to give him a hug. His critics who call him, "white supremacist" or "Fascist" know they are not increasing their camp. Neither major party corners the market on hyperbole, demagoguery or ad hominem attacks. Both camps will welcome converts wherever they can find them, but the game, primarily, is to sufficiently agitate the respective bases so as to have them show up at the polls.

Many of the calls to peace and unity that we hear are quite lame when we examine them. Poets, songwriters and others tell us to "teach love not hate" even though there seems to be no consensus in the world today as to what love is. John Lennon's alleged great anthem of the historical "Peace Movement" called us to join him and "Imagine." (Now, that was meaty advice.) On the other hand, the rhetoric of activism is typically quite strident. Far from bringing opposing parties together, the result more often seems to be to further galvanize the differences.

Occasionally, someone dares to speculate as to how Jesus might vote were He registered to do so in our day and age. I am persuaded that His involvement is still precisely what it was in His Own first-century world. He looks upon us and feels compassion for us, because we are so clueless, that is, "helpless and harassed, like sheep without a shepherd" (Matthew 9:36).

How should God's people, the citizens of His kingdom, respond to the current tumult? I am socially and politically conservative and would surrender all credibility were I to fail to admit that I have biases. Still, I learned long ago that when I immerse myself too deeply in the political fray, I descend into a state of chronic crankiness. Occasionally, if some rhetoric seems too over the top, I perk up and pop off. But for the most part, I observe more than I participate.

How do believers, as "the salt of the earth," live redemptively rather than merely as contributors to the noise? Our greatest ministry in the world is to compassionately see the helpless and harassed futility of lives lived without Jesus and to be attentive to any and every occasion to address that greatest of all needs. Pride compels us to want to be persuaders of the many, but realistically, any impact we have upon this world will probably be on one person at a time. The greatest common ground the human race has for unity is a shared recognition that we are broken and sinful people in need of a Savior. Many are called, but few will ever come around to seeing that need. Still, our calling is to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ over every other agenda.

It would be the height of arrogance to claim that in and of ourselves we are above the fray. It is the path of obedience to attempt to keep our eyes above it.

Sins that Are Not Sins that Can Become Sins

I recently read a blog posted and widely-liked on Facebook. It was entitled "5 'Sins' that Aren't Sins" (www.beliefnet.com/faiths/galleries/5-sins-that-arent-sins.aspx). I cannot disagree with the author, one Carolyn Henderson. In fact, I share her desire that believers walk in freedom and rest in God's grace. I suppose that Ms. Henderson writes from her own unique body of experiences just as I am responding to her thoughts from mine. My thoughts should be construed as no more than a cautionary note to this particular age of the church as I have observed it.

The 5 "non-sins" in question were: 1) Skipping Church, 2) Not Participating in Sunday School, 3) Thinking or Speaking a Negative Thought, 4) Just Saying, "No", 5) Disagreeing with Your Pastor (or other Leader).

My immediate reaction to the article was that there was a bit of the straw-man to the five entries. In thirty-plus years of ministry, I have seen the legalist marginalized for the most part. Few people today pay much attention to the old curmudgeon who insists that folks should be at church "every time the doors are open." Few people would take to heart the counsel that one must never say, "No," to a plea for help. Few people today would show much tolerance toward the notion that it is forbidden to disagree with a pastor. And, the idea of never thinking or speaking a negative thought has always been a bit of a fringe position, so I'll not address it in this article.

For as long as the Gospel of grace has been with us, factions have gravitated toward one of two extremes. The first is legalism, which utterly negates the whole concept of Christian liberty. The other is antinomianism, the practice of unrestrained freedom, that is, the exercise of freedom without that useful prerequisite of self-denial. It will always serve the flesh.

As I said, this age of the church does not seem to be overly plagued by the legalist. On the contrary, it seems more captivated by a comfortable Christianity that is not particularly disciplined at all. The cost of being a disciple and the path of the cross are not in vogue. In fact, they are often recoiled against as if they were some sort of "negatives" that bring people down.

Am I free to skip church? Sure, but is that the best choice I can make on any given Sunday morning? After all, it is the corporate worship expression to God of one local manifestation of the Body of Christ, that manifestation to which I belong. I have no more valuable place to be. The author suggests that Hebrews 10:25 is thrown around loosely. Perhaps. So, let us consider what it does mean, for I am sure that it means something.

"... not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near."

The book of Hebrews was written to believers in Jerusalem who were flirting with a return to Jewish ritualism as they faced the threat of persecution. To abandon the pattern of meeting together for mutual encouragement may have seemed like a safe thing to do, but it would not have been a wise thing to do. That author's point was that in view of the circumstances under which they lived, those ancient believers very desperately needed one another.

American believers today do not face the same degree of persecution as our ancient counterparts. Still, we are marginalized by the wise of this world. We are viewed as rubes for our stands on a plethora of issues; purity, sexuality, creation, morality, life. etc. From where will the encouragement we need come? Will it come from the world? Will it come from the media? Surely, educational TV will affirm us as we struggle to cling to God's truth? Obviously, we need people of like mind to remind us that God's Light is truly light, and the world's light is darkness.

Clearly, choosing to sleep in some Sunday does not constitute a pattern, but it does constitute a precedent, and a precedent is the first step toward establishing a habit. Am I going to call anyone, "Sinner!" who blows off a church service? No. That's well above my pay-grade. But, I will plead with anyone, "Don't allow such a choice to become cavalier."

On the matter of Bible School, it could be argued that its addition to the Sunday-morning schedule actually brings the worship of the modern church more into harmony with ancient worship, not so much in form, but in content. It provides a venue for the systematic study of God's Word. Some churches have retired the Sunday School in favor of other approaches to Bible learning. That's fine on paper even though the numbers of people involved seem to plummet when they do so. (That's not the empirical result of a study, so much as an observation from my little corner of the world.) The question for me is not, "Am I sinning if I don't participate in Sunday School?" Rather, it should be, "Am I engaged at all with others in the systematic study of God's Word?" The blog's author noted the Bereans who searched the Scriptures to measure Paul's preaching. They must have been in some sort of a learning network to effectively do that.

Is it a sin to say, "No?" Of course not. But again, my observation is that the ability to say, "No," is becoming quite easy for many as the church is becoming a much less generous bunch than it once was. We are indeed gifted in particular areas to serve the Body of Christ, but the argument, "That's not my gift" can become a cold and vacuous dismissal of Christian duty. We are servants. Servants serve. (See Luke 17:7-10).

In my years of ministry, I recruited many people. I never once played the Hebrews 13:17 card ("... obey your leaders ...") that the author of the blog suggested was a commonplace practice. The author rightly takes issue with throwing Bible verses around too loosely, so I was taken back by her own use of Acts 5:9 as a way of resisting being asked to do something. When Peter and John said, "We must obey God rather than men," they were being commanded to no longer speak in the name of Jesus. They were not being recruited to organize crafts at Vacation Bible School.

Finally, you are not sinning if you disagree with your pastor. The author cited the Bereans for examining the Scriptures to scrutinize Paul's teaching, which is good. Then, she suggests that believers read the Bible on their own to police the pulpit. That is valuable as well, but only so long as they are engaged in some systematic study themselves. After all, if a pastor is prone to error in his private interpretations, so is his critic. My advice is that disagreement with a spiritual leader should never be a kneejerk reaction. So many times when I thought I heard heresy, all I really heard was a different way of looking at something that was over both of our heads. Of course, there is a place for disagreeing with and even calling out a leader, but that cannot be a casual thing for it will inevitably become an arrogant thing. Often, conversation and clarification will prove much more fruitful.

Again, my point is not so much to be disagreeable as it is to call each of us to a point of thoughtful balance, for we gravitate toward extremes. In his own discussion on the exercise of liberty regarding dietary matters, Paul penned these provocative words: "... For whatever does not proceed from faith is sin" (Romans 14:23).

If a believer decides to skip church, there are no amount of words anyone can write to either indict or acquit him or her of sin. That is the risk God took when he granted His creatures liberty. Ultimately, I will follow my heart, which imposes on me a profound duty to examine my thoughts and motives, conceding how deceitful my heart really is. Am I making a God-honoring choice or a fleshly one? And, if getting to the bottom of that issue is too perplexing, then, I hope I would choose to err on the side of the spiritual discipline.

Another Blog, Really?

I was a bit of a late entry into this whole social media scene. Basically, I just wanted to keep track of old friends, share interesting anecdotes from my own experiences, and brag about the grandkids. However, it soon became obvious that many people like to disclose insights into their religious beliefs and convictions. At times, that is a source of great encouragement. Other times, it can be rather distressing. Many times, it is simply perplexing.

I have been concerned for years about the authority, power, and witness of the church in America. In too many settings, the teaching of sound biblical doctrine has been neglected, and the results have been predictable. The church has embraced the commodity mindset of the culture. People begin with their needs/wants and shop for a church accordingly. Like the big box stores, mega churches have crippled smaller churches. Like the online marketplace, people are turning to the Internet for even greater personal convenience. Many have simply left the church due to apathy or disillusionment and feel no particular sense of danger in having done so.

In the meantime, some believers appear to be unconcerned about disclosing for the world to see the coarseness of their dialogue, the impropriety of their amusements, the cruelty of their humor, and the anger in their hearts. Divorce is too common in the church, as are affairs and a plethora of other sexual misbehaviors. Criminal behavior is not novel. Simple forgiveness seems much more challenging than it ought to be. Material greed is cloaked as sound theology.

Many are captivated by the glory of grace, but not so much by the cost of discipleship, the practice of purity, or the essential spiritual disciplines that bring about personal growth. I am embarrassed for some of my friends by some of their posts, not because I cannot handle it. I have done plenty through the years to make a prude blush. Rather, there seems to be a mindset afloat on the waves of Christian thought that suggests that the pursuit of relevance and relatability in the eyes of the world is more pressing than the pursuit of holiness in the eyes of God.

Sustaining Our Savor

            “You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people's feet.  - Matthew 5:13

I still remember something I read many years ago in a century-plus-old commentary. It seems that what we call "salt" never actually loses it saltiness. Humidity may render it hard to get out of the shaker, but it never ceases to be salty. Salt devoid of saltiness is not a part of our experience.

The salt used in ancient Palestine was obtained from marshes along the seashore, not from clean salt water. It, in fact, COULD lose its saltiness. When this occurred, a cursory reading of the text might lead one to conclude that such savorless salt was utterly useless. Look closer. It still had one valuable function. "It is no longer good for anything EXCEPT to be thrown down and trampled under people's feet." Such salt was used to treat pathways and roads, because it had the capacity to destroy any potential for fertility, and as it follows, any potential for life.

So, is this a big thing? What is the danger of the savorless salt of a professed Christian's witness? Simply put, it is TOXIC. He or she will do more harm than good in the cause of the kingdom. Such salt is scattered to the end that drawing others to Christ is rendered impossible. It grieves the Spirit. It brings the ancient faith under reproach and subjects it to ridicule. It scandalizes the Name of Jesus. If you would harden rather than nurture the hearts of others toward the Gospel, live out in their presence some insipid distortion of Christianity - a legalistic strain, a licentious sort, a cost-free variety, a materialistic kind - anything but the real thing should do.

What to Expect

How can I tell you what to expect if I am not certain myself? Many sites are authored by those who have set themselves up as watchdogs over all things doctrinal. If I gravitate toward such a "curmudgeon-y" extreme, trusted loved ones have been instructed to reel me in. Still, if something sufficiently agitates me, I will surely chime in. It may be to address blatant falsehood, but not always. From time to time, I run across things that seem benign enough. Without attacking the source, I may wish to encourage the reader to think through all of the consequences of embracing some piece of input; hook, line and sinker.

I am not a fiercely political animal. However, the Christian lives in the world and has as much freedom to address the age and the culture as anyone else. In fact, he has a greater responsibility to speak truth to falsehood. If something vexes me, I may speak to that as well. Still, if I take a strident posture or assume a meanness of spirit that undermines my overall theme of Sustaining our Savor, I invite you to lovingly call me back to the advertised objective.

About the Author

I am a 32-year veteran of pastoral ministry in the local church. When my last ministry came to a close, I chose not to seek anything too similar. I stepped away from the pulpit ministry and told my friends that I was going to spend a little time in Arabia (see Galatians 1:17) while I reoriented. That seemed like a cleverly vague thing to say at the time. After all, no one really knows what Paul was up to in Arabia, and I had no idea what my own life would look like.

In the meantime, friends and mentors have regularly told me that I need to write. Some have come close to scolding me for not doing so. I have an active mind. I am a notorious over-thinker. Whether anybody chooses to read or not, I am the kind of fellow who finds a degree of peace in muddling though the untidy clutter of my thoughts, hopefully, to put something lucid into words.

Your feedback is welcome. Just keep it respectful. I also love the dialogue that follows when people have questions about faith, the Bible and this strange age in which we are living.

Karl Crouch