Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
@#$%
@#$%
Approaching the
first tee with my favorite Special Olympics world golf champion, I was already
simmering.
A text reached me
just after slipping on my plastic cleats that another storm was brewing back at
the fort.
This one could
boil over at any moment and fill up my calendar with my least favorite
ministry: damage control.
Of course, being
a presbyter in the PCUSA, I'm used to damage control.
It happens after
every GA meeting.
Be that as it is, back to
the text.
;)
Issue.
Disagreement over
a memorial.
Help me, Jesus!
While my
disinterest in trinkets, relics, brass plaques, and other stuff related to the
first few of the big ten along with my continuing obsession with Matthew 15 and
23 have made it really, really, really easy for me to moderate hotly contested
meetings on such non-kingdom-rising-and-falling matters, folks are often trying
to suck me into such encounters and convince me that I should care about
'em.
I think of the
dear friend who made an appointment to see me about the changing of the
big people's choir's name from chancel to adult.
Response:
"You want to talk with me about that? O.K., I love you; so I'll
listen. Buuuuuuut ya
gotta know that while I love and care about you, I just can't work up any
emotional energy, physical strength, intellectual curiosity, or spiritual
sensitivity to deal with that. Ya see, and if you don't, I'll try to
help, my plate is kinda full with people in hospice and nursing homes and
facing serious surgeries. I'm counseling fractured families and marriages
and... Then there's our denomination. It's in so much conflict these days
and I'm getting pressured from folks who are elated by what's going on and
those who wanna exit faithfully from what's going on as I try to convince 'em
that it's more Biblical and incumbent upon sacrificially suffering servants to
remain faithfully like Wallace, Hamilton, Luther, Calvin, Bonhoeffer, King,
and... Besides that, my youngest needs wheels and I need new shoes for my
pony and my wife is ticked because I don't spend enough time at home already
and there are these two football players that I've been counseling
because...
Are you beginning to catch my drift,
darlin'?"
She did!
Wonder of wonders, miracle of...
Rare.
We'll see about
the text.
BTW, Billy is my
therapist as well as golfing buddy.
He told me to
focus on the game and stop thinking so much about...
Shot my best
round of the year...even without yellow balls.
Think about it...
@#$%
Jesus didn't like
clergy who were spent sooooooo
much time on such inconsequential stuff at the expense of "the
weightier matters" of faith.
Annnnnnnd I've been
wondering why we/I/they do?
Here's my guess.
I may be wrong.
I think we spend
so much time on such ___ because we lack the emotional energy, intellectual
curiosity, physical strength, and spiritual sensitivity to engage in 'em.
I think
everything and everyone are sooooooo
out of control in our world, America, churches, schools, market,
families, marriages, and all of the below that we, uh, satisfy, uh, gratify,
uh, concentrate, uh, pleasure ourselves on such ___.
I may be wrong.
@#$%
Maybe that's why
it's easier to be embrace or accommodate/enable apostasies in mainline
denominations and America.
Maybe that's why
it's easier to exit from 'em and join another ecclesiastical franchise or
renounce citizenship and move to...
Yeah.
It's much harder
to remain and resist faithfully.
Yeah.
That's what I
think.
I may be wrong.
@#$%
Tony once told me
that one of his favorite things in life is to listen to smart people say stupid
things.
Some of the
aforementioned and not-mentioned-but-on-the-tip-of-cognizance come to mind.
Buuuuuuut maybe, and I may
be wrong, smart people spend sooooooo
much time on stupid things because they feel sooooooo impotent when
encountering those "weightier" matters.
It's kinda like
rooting for the Cubs or a Republican in Illinois.
All I know is
it's easier to spend time on the inconsequential...or...elate...or...exit...
Maybe it's just
because we're really not thaaaaaaat
smart.
Maybe we can't
figure out things for ourselves.
Thought.
Could that be why
He gave the book to us?
Rhetorical.
@#$%
@#$%
Blessings and Love!
4 comments:
Remaining faithfully is the example we have from Martin Luther. He hammered those 95 Theses into the church door in 1517. His refusal to retract all of his writings at the demand of Pope Leo X at the Diet of Worms (1520) includes his often quoted line: "Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen"
For his remnant faithfulness, the Pope excommunicated Luther a year later. The Protestant Reformation blossomed.
For all his many personal flaws, Luther was Biblically correct. The apostasy of the Church in 1517 was as pernicious as the apostasy of the PCUSA in 2014. Both Luther and you chose a course of fidelity to Scripture and to Jesus. It is neither safe nor right to do anything else.
Be blessed.
That stupid stuff also allows us to fill our calendars so that we feel busy and buy into the cultural idol of what work is. I recall that Dr. Gillespie, after noting that a well placed bomb would do a world of good at SBL, said that the most important word he could teach us to say is, “No.”
You know something, Bob. You're really good!
I'm in Germany. On my way home from my 2nd pilgrimage to Santiago Spain (250 miles this time). Waiting for the USAir Force to give me a ride home. I retired at the end of August and have been walking since. Just now catching up.
Blessings
I've noticed that the stupid stuff is the stuff that gets up and bites you in the Butt. You are smart. You know when to jump in and when to just look down on the whole situation and shake your head and say. I'm not going to get into a tinkling contest with a skunk.
On a side note, you do realize that your congressman is a Republican right. I'm not even sure when the last time the 16th Congressional District has had a Democrat in the seat. I actually will have to check with wiki. I just looked it up. There was one D in that seat from 1991 to 1993. I was away in the military then. Previous to that, the last democrat held the seat in 1917/ wow. Thanks for teaching me something today.
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