Friday, May 13,
2016
No one sews a piece of unshrunk cloth on an old cloak, for
the patch pulls away from the cloak, and a worse tear is made. Matthew 9:16(NRSV)
Jesus used common, everyday
illustrations to make his teaching clear.
You do that when your message is incredibly profound and complex. The simple illustrations helped his disciples
understand. He talked about sowing
seeds, weddings, wine and tattered clothing.
When Jesus talked about old,
frayed or torn fabric, everyone who ever tried to rescue a worn-out garment by
patching it, understood; they understood because most of them had made the mistake
of doing the worst thing you can do for an old piece of cloth: sew-on a patch made from a new
piece of cloth. The first time the
garment is washed after the patch job, the shrinking new cloth will pull away
from the old, and the garment will be torn again, and in worse condition than
ever.
What you have then is a “Pyrrhic”
piece of clothing! King Pyrrhus won
infamous battles against the Roman army in the 3rd century (AD). The Romans were defeated, but Pyrrhus lost so
many more men than the Romans in doing so, he was quoted as saying:
If we are victorious in one more battle with the Romans, we shall be
utterly ruined.[5]
The point is that, while victory
always comes with a price, sometimes the price is so great you are left
wondering if you would rather have lost.
A Pyrrhic victory is
not something you underline or highlight on your resume’. It’s similar to a shopping expedition my
bride returned from many years ago; she proudly announced she had saved us over
$400 on a furniture purchase. All I
could see is the $1800 we spent.
Let me be clear where I’m going
today, and to do that let me first disclose that I am totally in agreement with
how the United Methodist Church sees homosexuality as published in its
doctrinal tomes[2]: incompatible with Christian teaching.
Here is my point: I have been wondering if King Pyrrhus has
been put to work again in Portland. With
agenda point and counter point, Roberts Rules of Order, positioning, motioning,
amendments to amendments, delaying, disrupting, disobeying and other tactical
worrying of the entire body of delegates, is the cost of this tearing-apart the
soul of the United Methodist Church? Is
this epic (45 year struggle) going to leave anything left to offer to God? Is this a Pyrrhic General Conference?
And, of course, others have
wondered this. But, have my friends in
the LGBTQ “new patch” group considered at all to what old garment they’re
attaching themselves? The United
Methodist Church is an old garment, certainly. And even the thought of LGBTQ
as “normative,” considering historical Christian thinking and doctrine which has
deemed it loathsome and abominative, is garment-tearing territory! There is little chance of “win-win” in this
marriage. And….so….I would ask….what do
you want?
Is there ever a time when homo
and hetero can actually walk together? The
prophet didn’t think so:
Can
two people walk together without agreeing on the direction? Amos
3:3(NLT)
I really don’t think so either.
For You Today
This whole issue has brought
another time to mind – when a pastor friend of mine was asked to lead a prayer
before dinner at a secular gathering where there was known to be much friction
and disagreement. Pastor Al prayed: Dear God, help us be better than two cats
with their tails tied together.
The imagery (for me) couldn’t be
clearer; the stronger cat might win…but at what cost? Even if one kills the other, he will have to
drag his dead conquest around with him by the tail for the rest of his days.
You chew on that as you hit
the Rocky Road today…have a blessed day!
[1] Title Image: By
Stilfehler (Own work), via Wikimedia
Commons
[2]
The Book of Discipline
of the United Methodist Church, 2012
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