The middle, not so long ago, was a lot bigger.
It shrank and has almost altogether disappeared.
That middle, today, is more of a memory than some measurable
body. I miss it. It was a relatively safe place.
What happened to this middle that allowed people a place
where personal friction and relational confrontation were kept to a manageable
minimum?
My first inclination is to blame its diminished state on what
appears to be the agendas of national politics and special interest groups.
These are, after all, the items that fill the news feeds on all the social
media platforms. News anchors and talking heads have become professionals at
spinning the news in a way that supports the views and opinions of networks
receiving advertising dollars from the same special interest groups that are
influencing the legislators and lawmakers that our votes put into State and
National Offices.
Worse than this [Yes. There is a worse.] is how this mess has
infiltrated and infected the Church with its polarizing and divisive dis-ease.
Even here, in this place that is supposed to be a “safe-haven” from the world
and its ungodly soul-robbing ways, we are forced to guard ourselves against
those that are spinning the Truth to make it fit their own post-modern agendas.
We are forced, even here, to choose between Right and Left … between Conservative
and Liberal.
Both without and within the Church.
We consider the available options and make our choices.
Our choices will always unavoidably define us and consign
us to one side or the other. Both without in the secular world and within in
the Church where the secular world has no rightful place. There is no need to
personally lay claim to being Right or Left, Conservative or Liberal. Other people
will do a good job of labeling and pigeonholing us both behind our backs and to
our faces.
We would do well to remember the injunction that we have
to “Therefore come out from them, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and
touch nothing unclean; then I will welcome you.”[1]
The context of 1 Corinthians 6:14-7:1 insists that the world
has no place in the Church or in the lives of those who by faith, and through
their profession of faith, enter into the Church. Go ahead. Pick up your Bible.
Blow the dust off the cover. Thumb it open and read the words for yourself. The
context insists that we are to put the world and its ways behind us. In
perfecting holiness in our lives, we cease to seek excuses that justify our
worldliness and lack of holiness.
Today is the Feast Day of Saint Lawrence, Deacon and
Martyr. He earned the title of Martyr at age 32 in the year 258. Lawrence
refused to yield to the demands of the pagan Roman Empire. It cost him his
life. The Romans put him on a grid and literally cooked him alive.
We spend so much time wondering and worrying about the
opinions of those around us.
There is a larger and more important audience that we
should concern ourselves with … all the Martyrs and Saints that have preceded
us … that Holy Cloud that not only awaits us but also watches us.
Make no mistake about it.
The eyes of ALL the FAITHFUL of all ages are upon us.
Yes.
That is a scary thought if we are doing something that we
should be ashamed of.
The writer of Hebrews discourses on the meaning of faith and
offers examples of faith in action[2].
He tells us, “Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of
witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight and the sin that clings so
closely, and let us run with perseverance the race that is set before us,
looking to Jesus the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of
the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and
has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God.[3]
First inclinations tend to be knee-jerk reactions to
problems with more serious origins.
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