The Point Is - September (a monthly short story from Cy)
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The Point Is - August (a monthly short story from Cy)
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The Point Is - July (a monthly short story from Cy)
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The Point Is - Classic - (a timeless thought provoker by Cy)
The Point Is - September (a monthly short story from Cy)
Controversy, Politics, Jesus and You
Recently someone asked me, “What is the worst thing you ever experienced as a pastor?” I’ll tell you in two years. Why two years? Because, after many years of ministry, if there is one thing I have learned, it is this: When it comes to controversy, we all need time to process.
Which brings me to our President and the recent controversy about building a mosque three
minutes walking distance from where the TwinTowers fell; should the President have made the statement that he did, should he have said more, less, nothing at all?
And the whole thing has become a feeding frenzy, Republicans feeding on Democrats and
Democrats feeding on Republicans and newscasters feeding on everyone and, when the dust settles two years from now, everyone will lose. As the news prognosticators once again affirmed this morning,
Washington’s approval rate, Republicans and Democrats, has fallen to an all time low of twenty four
percent. It is hard to beat excellence, but then, we are the people who put those people in office … this may say something about us.
And excuse me, the whole thing sort of reminds me of what I have been dealing with in churches
all these years, the brokenness, the anger, the pride, the lying, the backstabbing, and if it is true that we
descended from monkeys, it looks like it may have been a step down.
And then there are the obvious questions that come from the President’s statement, saying what was obviously not thought out or scripted; did he say what he said because it was the beginning of Ramadan, a month long celebration of fasting observed by Muslims? In other words, was he being more a politician and less the president? Or was he being too sensitive to the constitution and less sensitive to the victims of 9/11? And his critics, are they being more the politicians and less the Americans? Are they too being too sensitive to the victims of 9/11 and less sensitive to the constitution? Like I have said, you could debate this for the next fifty years and still have any answers, except about keeping one’s mouth shut!
But then, as a minister, I begin looking beyond the obvious, if you are going to stay in the ministry you have to do that, looking beyond the anger and name calling and into what it is really about. Point is,
I am convinced that the fighting in Washington has less to do with what people are saying than the baggage all parties bring to the table.
Sort of like the rich young ruler that came to Jesus saying that he had observed all the commandments and wanting to know if that was enough to enter the kingdom of God. Interestingly, Jesus never did address his question; instead, Jesus addressed the baggage the man was bringing to the table, in this case, his wealth.
Point is, most controversies in churches and households rarely do have to do with the issue that we think is on the table; most of them have to do with the baggage we bring to the table. And this, like I said in the beginning, takes time to discern.
Which explains why it is important for us as Christians to walk the walk, why it is important for us to keep our arrogance and our anger and our fear in check. If we don’t, it is going to come out somewhere, when we least expect it, disguised as something else.
Point is, the recent controversy in Washington may have more to do with anger and fear and
arrogance than what we thought it was all about. In the same way, the rich young ruler walked away from Jesus, sorrowfully, because his arrogance and his fear and his anger were his masters.
