Get Out of the Way

Through a glass, darkly

Romans 14:13 "Therefore let us stop passing judgment on one another. Instead, make up your mind not to put any stumbling block or obstacle in your brother's way."

Here's my soap box message of the day:  Quit getting in the way of people's faith.
 

Last night I was at our MassBible lecture by Dr. Harvey Cox, who reminded us that liberation theology, which stresses that God's work is to liberate those suffering under oppression, did not begin as either an academic or a clerical movement.  It was Roman Catholic laity, empowered by Vatican II to read the Bible for themselves, who found a God in those pages who cared about their struggles.  It caught fire, despite the best efforts of the church hierarchy to snuff it out.
 

Hearing that history reminded me that a similar thing happened during the time of segregation in this country when most African Americans learned to read from the only book many were able to have in their households...the Bible.  White oppressors thought black families would read about obeying the ruling authorities, but African Americans read the book of Exodus.  They read about moving from slavery to freedom and inhabiting the promised land.  The Civil Rights Movement was born.  It caught fire, despite the best efforts of the political hierarchy to snuff it out.
 

I also thought about my own Methodist tradition, which also spread like wildfire both in England and in America when preachers left the churches and took to the streets and fields, with groups forming under lay leaders at a pace no one could keep up with.  And all of those things together reminded me that my guiding principal as a local church pastor was first to clear the road and then to get out of the way.  Like John the Baptist, we are to prepare the way and then move aside so that people may travel the road with the one who comes after us.
 

Jesus asked for forgiveness for those who crucified him, but for the religious shepherds who were harming their flocks, he had words to make a sailor blush.  Matthew 23 is full of "woes" for the Pharisees and others who blocked people from entering the Kingdom of God by their hypocrisy and heavy burdens.  In Romans 14, Paul reminds us not to let the controversies over religious rituals become a stumbling block to the faith of others. 
 

For both clergy and laity, the message is the same--the Spirit blows where it will so quit trying to block it, direct it, or contain it--either let it flow through you or get out of the way.
 

Oh, most of the time we mean well.  We think we are faith's protectors, keeping the heretics at bay and protecting others from false teaching.  And there is a place for that--it is, in fact, what Jesus was trying to do.  It's just that in the Kingdom of God, things are a bit upside down.  In the Kingdom the last shall be first; you must give in order to receive; you must die in order to live; you can only lead by serving.  It is no different when it comes to "protecting" the faith.  You protect it by stepping aside; you secure it by removing the walls; you bring people in by sending people out.
 

The metaphor I have used for it is the God-Box.  We all need to have a box--to have some sense of what we believe and why we believe it.  Our faith needs structure and content--a box.  What it doesn't need is a lid that closes off our faith to new experiences, concepts, learning, and growth.  It's not what we believe that is the problem--it is insisting that we have the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help us God.  To believe that is to put ourselves in the place of God--and I don't find any place either in the Bible or in history that indicates such usurping of God's position goes terribly well.
 

"Now we see through a glass, darkly," says Paul in 1 Corinthians 13.  There is no problem with sharing what it is we see through that dark glass, but we need to remember that we don't have a clear view and listen to what others see when they look through.  We need to keep the lid off the box just in case we learn something when we approach the glass from a different angle.  And we need to quit being so afraid of being wrong that we block the glass so that no one else can look through for themselves.
 

Jesus said that those who seek will find, echoing a passage in Proverbs that says the same thing.  So let's allow the seeking.  Step aside and let people explore, even when they explore a path you don't like.  Don't stand in the road.  Don't block the view through the glass.  Don't put a lid on the box.  You won't stop the flow of the Spirit, people will just learn that they have to go around you to find it.
 

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