Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)
@#$%
@#$%
It took sooooooo many, tooooooo many, years
before I learned this about myself.
I may be wrong
about...
I am wrong
about...
I can be
stubbornly wrong about...
Sooooooo much pain, tooooooo much pain, has
been caused by me because I haven't just
been wrong about...but I've sooooooo
often, tooooooo often,
been stubbornly wrong about...
That's what
happens when we egocentrically reimagine divine revelation apart from
Jesus by the book.
I've done it sooooooo many, tooooooo many times
because I've been so arrogant about thinking I'm sooooooo right and others are sooooooo wrong:
"Ya'll not me have sinned and ya'll not me fall short of..."
Frankly, I don't
think I really got that in my gut - it had been swirling around in my noodle
for years in an intellectual if not spiritual kinda way - until that
apocalyptic moment early one morning in October 2011 while reading
Matthew 15 and 23 under Eugene's influence.
@#$%
The apocalyptic
moment.
Jesus said clergy
make people twice as fit for hell as they are themselves.
I guess that's
why clergy conspired with the state to murder Him.
No wonder Dick
Sheppard fought the bishops and said the only thing that separates people
from Jesus is the church.
No wonder C.S.
Lewis' old demon told the young demon that their best work is done at the steps
of the chancel.
Strange.
Ironic.
The people who
said/say they were/are the closest to God did/do their worst to distance
themselves and those under their influence from the incarnate God.
The enfleshed God
who filled Holy Scripture full of its eternally intended meaning was/is
rejected by those, like me, who were/are stubbornly, heinously, murderously
wrong about...
Has anything really changed since His
ascension?
Or do we still
have this instinct - let's call it original sin or total depravity - to
descend from the theocentric to the egocentric to the peril of everyone around
us.
Since that apocalyptic
moment, I've realized why I've had this deep disdain for clergy, like me, in
the deepest recesses of my soul.
They/we/I make
people twice as fit for...
They/we/I
conspire to murder...
I can barely
read/recite His sorrow: "O Jerusalem, Jerusalem...clergy...women and men
who say they know Father and Son and Holy Spirit...how often I would have
gathered you together as a hen gathers her baby chicks but you..."
@#$%
I'm just
scratching the surface of my relationship with Jesus.
I've learned to
say about most things, "I may be wrong about this; but here's what I
think...If I am wrong by the example of Jesus, explanation of Holy Scripture,
and common sense, please tell me so I may confess, repent, and honor Him."
I've learned I'm
only 100% certain about...Jesus being Lord and Savior.
Annnnnnnd considering all
of the below juxtaposed to all of the above, thank God for His forgiveness
through faith in Jesus!
@#$%
Gerry helped me
to realize how wrong I have been about...
Whenever anyone
has come to me with some of the inane things that some pewsitting and
pulpiteering people really care about...[If I have to catalogue 'em for you,
you may be among the "some" who've brought 'em to me!]...that bear no
consequence to the rise and fall of the kingdom, I've often blurted, "I
really don't care about..."
After one of
those blurtings in front of Gerry, he corrected me: "Bob, I think you
really do care.
You care about the people who care too much about the wrong things. But
you do care and I know it!"
Being stubborn
about being wrong sooooooo often,
tooooooo often,
I admitted/admit he is right about how I've been wrong.
I really, really,
really care about people even when they really, really, really...
@#$%
I've been
refreshed since admitting I was wrong about that.
I've been
refreshed since admitting I really, really, really care about mainline and
sideline denominations including my own, the left and right and sideways,
Democrats and Republicans, Bears and Packers, along with all of the below who
really, really, really need, like me, to become more intimate with all of the
above.
Annnnnnnd as I get closer
to Jesus - and I've got such a long way to go as I'm just scratching the
surface of my relationship with Him - I find myself tearing up whenever I
read/recite that lament of His over clergy like me.
Maybe that's why
my spirit is filled with more sorrow than anger these days.
Dr. Macleod
always insisted we never end an essay or paper or book or something homiletical
with a quote; but, these days, I'm feeling like the Tin Man: "Now I know I
have a heart; because I can feel it breaking."
@#$%
@#$%
Blessings and Love!
No comments:
Post a Comment