Hold the phone! In today's sermon, Fr. Dunbar asks us to stick to the "via media" when facing controversy, but then goes on to talk about "liberal" Paul and his letter to the Galatians. We cannot even try to talk about a via media before our words betray our human weakness, our natural tendency to classify people, things, and ideas. A little voice in my head said, "Here we go, look out for 'conservative' bashing." Sure enough, by putting Paul in the liberal camp of Christianity many might be left thinking "I sure would hate to meet a conservative." I would like to read Paul's blog to the Church today. I wonder how he would be classified by the
Internet gurus. Would he be called conservative, liberal,
reasserter,
reappraiser, revisionist, apologist, chauvinist, homophobic, someone with visions of Christhood, or maybe someone with a martyr complex? Once labelled, I doubt Paul would agree, but they would label him somehow. I do agree with Fr. Dunbar that the via media is the best path, unfortunately people on the left or right hand side of the road think they are already in the middle and that any sideways movement would put them off the road altogether.
Hmm...
W.W.P.D? He might just shake the dust off his feet at us!
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Rather than shaking the dust off his feet, he might just sit down and die laughing at an Episcopal leadership (?) that seems incapable of defining for its members what constitutes sinful behaviour...or, whether the entire concept of sin may soon be up for negotiation in order to avoid giving offense to anyone.
ReplyDeleteVerily, what Paul warned would happen in the "end times" is coming true in our day: "For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine, instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn away from the truth and turn aside to myths." (2 Timothy 4:3-4 NIV)
As I read today's psalm, I hope I am not sitting in the seat of a "scoffer" by reprinting it here.
ReplyDeletePsalm 1
1 Happy are those who do not follow the advice of the wicked,
or take the path that sinners tread, or sit in the seat of scoffers;
2 But their delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law they meditate day and night.
3 They are like trees planted by streams of water,
which yield their fruit in its season, and their leaves do not wither.
In all that they do, they prosper.
4 The wicked are not so, but are like chaff that the wind drives away.
5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the congregation of the righteous;
6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.
Using the Bible as a source of guidance may well become futile. Bishop Charles Bennison recently stated that "...the Church wrote the Bible and the Church can change it." Clearly, that process has begun.
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