I once visited an artist friend who had been working for days on a large painting. When I saw him next, he was in the process of finishing a similar painting but one that was significantly different. I said, “Where is the picture I saw you working on last week?” He pointed to the current canvas and said, “It’s right there underneath this one.” He explained to me how difficult it became for him to fix all the proportions of the one he started. “Sometimes,” he said with the voice of an old sage, “it’s better to start over with a clean canvas than try to correct all the flaws.”
Such a decision brings a mixture of sorrow, that a venture failed, and joy, that it is never too late to start over. My artist friend invested his time in trying to create something that he could not complete. Consider all the marriages that come to a place where each partner must admit, “It is pointless to go on with this relationship.” Consider all the times you have said, “I think it is time to look for a new job.” It is not an easy decision to break away for an endeavor, especially, when the relationship is built on a covenant: where promises were exchanged that were now reconsidered. The Quaker poetic, John Greenleaf Whittier, wisely observed that “For all sad words of tongue and pen, the saddest are these, 'It might have been'.” This is always the lament of those who end any kind of significant relationship.
Since the watershed event passage of the provision to ordain homosexuals, is just now a present reality. Since we have declared that the Bible is no longer the ultimate authority in the PC(USA) and that human wisdom is superior to God's wisdom, many of us are resolved to distance ourselves from the Church body that nurtured and ordained us. It feels like the Presbyterian Church (USA) has changed the terms of the covenant I committed myself to honor in 1979, when I took vows of ordination. When I promised to obey the teachings of the Bible as they are interpreted by our Confession, I assumed the PC(USA) held strongly to that same principle.
There is a mechanism in place, through our Constitution, for the PC(USA) to severe it's covenant relationship with me. Should I decide to offend our decency and our order; should I preach serious error, my presbytery may and should vacate their decision to ordain me to the office of Teaching Elder. My decision would have that consequence. However, what decision can the presbytery or General Assembly make that would justify my severing my relationship with them? What about a congregation? They freely joined one of several former Reformed bodies or, in a few cases, the PC(USA). They joined themselves, just as I did, with the the understanding that we shared a set of doctrinal and ecclesiastical assumptions. Among those assumptions might have been that we would continue to share a set of principles concerning the authority of Scripture as interpreted by our Reformed confessions.
There is serious talk of a “New Reformed Body” – that is, a new denomination based on the theology and structure of Presbyterianism. It is impossible to know precisely where such plans will lead. It is certain, that God hates the breaking of any covenant relationship – a marriage or a denomination. As much as God hates divorce He hates faithlessness more. That is why Jesus declares that God’s law “allows” divorce because of the hardness of the human heart.
Malachi 2:16 (RSV)
16 "For I hate divorce, says the LORD the God of Israel, and covering one's garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless."
16 "For I hate divorce, says the LORD the God of Israel, and covering one's garment with violence, says the LORD of hosts. So take heed to yourselves and do not be faithless."
Is reconciliation possible? Is it better to clean the canvas and begin something new?
2 comments:
I've been asking some of the same questions.
Your journey helps us all!
Do you think that Jesus is our example when he entered the temple and over turned the tables with righteous anger. He had harsh words for the established leaders, priests, Saducees, and Pharisees. They had every example of the mission when they made daily sacrifices, but missed the truth of Christ. Christ's mission was for the church, but the established order of that day rejected Him. He carried out the Mission within (fulfilled every prophesy and was Jewish)but also outside the "church". Renewal of the church form (N-FOG and A-10)is not what God wants, but changed hearts, ready and open to His will. I am praying for a place and a people prepared and chastened and ready to receive God in the power of the Holy Spirit and ready to obey
the Word. I hope the Fellowship PC(USA) group might be such a place. Man's efforts to be progressive, inclusive and even for renewal programs are inadequate. I long for that deep revival from God where the Holy Spirit comes. If you knew there was such a place, would you not run to that place?
Whatever denominational structures MAY come about, how do we reconcile the fact that, though mostly vicariously, we all now participate in the ordination of folks who ought not to be ordained? (Ordination is an action undertaken by one council of the church on behalf of the WHOLE church.) And what about being forced to financially subsidize illicit relationships when the directors of the Board of Pensions approve the extension of benefits to
those "couples"? The GA has already approved a 1% dues increase for that purpose. And every congregation or employing organization MUST pay dues to the Plan for its staff who are teaching elders and who are also required to participate in the Benefits Plan. These, and some other matters, leave me with a kind of scalded feeling on my conscience and a barb in my heart and soul.
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