Monday, May 10, 2019
Again a message came to me from the Lord: “Son
of man, take a piece of wood and carve on it these words: ‘This represents
Judah and its allied tribes.’ Then take another piece and carve these words on
it: ‘This represents Ephraim and the
northern tribes of Israel.’ Now hold them together in your
hand as if they were one piece of wood. When your people ask
you what your actions mean, say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says:
I will take Ephraim and the northern tribes and join them to Judah. I will make them one piece of wood in my
hand.’ “Then hold out the
pieces of wood you have inscribed, so the people can see them. And
give them this message from the Sovereign Lord: I will gather the people of Israel from among
the nations. I will bring them home to
their own land from the places where they have been scattered. I
will unify them into one nation on the mountains of Israel. One king will rule them all; no longer will
they be divided into two nations or into two kingdoms. They
will never again pollute themselves with their idols and vile images and
rebellion, for I will save them from their sinful apostasy. I will cleanse them. Then they will truly be my people, and I will
be their God. Ezekiel 37:15-23
I learned
a long time ago that interpreting Scripture is to resist reading-into a passage
what you want to see. But there are immutable
principles contained in Old Testament promises (to Israel, for instance) that
apply across all experience.
God did not
want a divided Israel any more than He would want a divided church. However, God would not approve of a polluted,
but united church either. In God’s
message to Ezekiel, the wooden pieces represented the divided kingdoms, put
back together to be one united Israel. The
caveat for God’s covenant people is that re-uniting isn’t the whole deal; sin, pollution
and apostasy cannot remain. If Israel would
continue to enjoy the blessing of God’s promised covenant they must put away
their rebellious ways. Apostasy (being
fallen) must go!
In keeping
with ascribing the nature of Israel’s relationship with God to the contemporary
church, I see a parallel in the struggle of my own Methodist tribe. There has been a decades-long struggle for
unity in a dilemma over the acceptance of LGBTQ+ persons as normative and co-equally
acceptable with heterosexuality. This conundrum
cannot be resolved absent from the apostate coming home. The question then is, which side is apostate?
That IS
the bottom line. Either the LGBTQ+ are
willful sinners and must repent of their behavior, or the Traditionalists are
being Pharisaical, again-nailing Christ to the cross, and persecuting true
believers; in which case, those are the ones who must come to the altar and
repent. Without humble repentance this impasse
will continue like the two wood pieces of Israel, arms folded, unwilling to face
each other, and refusing to come together; we remain the divided apostate
church.
In this
state I am so reminded of two children, fighting, angry, churlish, truculent,
and so very far from their parents’ heart-hope to see maturity develop. These children are fighting each other and
cannot see how their real enemy is within, each thinking the other is the
problem, when their own attitude is the real issue.
To quote
Forrest Gump’s mama, stupid is as stupid does.
It would
seem to me we are defining ourselves by our behavior, and Father God isn’t at
all pleased with His offspring. Perhaps
it would be a good thing to divide the wood pieces and go to our neutral
corners, face the wall and return to the table when we can be civil.
I would invite you to join me in not worrying too much about the
tremendous stress we see in today’s culture over the sexuality war and how it
is dividing the church into fragments.
End time portions of Scripture predict the apostate church, and we are
inexorably moving towards that day. Keep
your head clear to see the fields white for harvest and keep your heart open to
love everyone!
You chew on that as you hit the
Rocky Road; have a blessed day.
