If you'd like to read someone else's blog on how we at Transylvania Presbytery are doing here, I invite you to look at Marilyn Daniel's blog. Marilyn is the ruling elder from Maxwell Street Presbyterian Church in Lexington. She is also my roommate this week. http://maxpres.org/md-blog/
Marilyn's blogs are probably much more informative about the actual business and happenings. I'm theologizing mine. I don't mean to. It's just the lens through which I'm processing it, I think. I just read Marilyn's posts. Marilyn is a lawyer so her posts are more matter of fact.
Okay, now for mine.
Please take a moment before you read the rest of this and read Philippians 2: 1-11. I know it's inconvenient to go get your Bible and it's a lot easier just to keep reading this, but it will just take a couple more minutes of your time, and I think the passage really sets the context for this blog post so go ahead. Get your Bible. Find Philippians. And read
Philippians 2: 1-11.
We're a divided people. Last night the assembly went on into the evening and the night talking about divestment of certain companies because of the use of their products in happenings between Israel and Palestine. I consider that the Israel/Palestine issue is a family problem. And everybody knows the family fights are the worst. Scripture records the splitting of families all the way back in Genesis when one brother was chosen as a child of the covenant, and one child was not.
Whether you want to choose as those brothers Cain and Abel, Isaac and Ishmael, or Jacob and Essau our Holy Scriptures describe a family which breaks up. And our story pretty much stays with the Israelites because that branch of the family is who Scripture continues with to tell their story.
I don't know a lot about all of the complex issues which lead us last night to talk about divesting of Caterpillar, Motorola Solutions, and a third company whose name escapes me just now, but I will tell you at one point last night on the floor of General Assembly, our vote was 333 for, 331 against, with 2 people abstaining.
We are clearly divided on how we think the PC(USA) should respond. Still. Through Parliamentary procedure and a lot of comments made for and against the motions, we kept going in our process. I want to stop for a moment and tell you when a person wants to speak, they go to one of 9 microphones which are on the floor. Then they hold up a badmitton racket. No lie. The racket has either a green paper on it or a red paper on it, depending on whether the person is speaking in favor of or against. The humorous irony isn't lost on me that we're using badmitton rackets to let the moderator know our intentions before one of us speaks.
Anyway, in the Philippians passage, Paul urges the people to be "like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose." He appeals to them on a foundation of 'If' phrases which are pretty compelling, saying that it would make his joy complete if the Philippians would be "like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose." But you know, as I have reflected on my work here at General Assembly and the divided state the PC(USA) is in over several issues, I realize that Paul's joy probably never was complete in a sense because the natural state of the church, then and now, is in conflict.
But then again maybe Paul's joy was complete because what I have seen in certain people here at the assembly is that even though they stand on opposite sides of a certain issue, they can still demonstrate deep affection for each other, and not be jerks just because they don't get their way.
Maybe the church can't ever be like-minded on a particular issue, but I have seen glimpses of us having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose because all of us are deeply passionate about living out our righteousness in the kingdom of God, but the tension has been and is how living out that righteousness looks like to each of us.
I hesitate to tell you how the assembly voted last night. Not because I'm afraid you'll get mad but because the recommendation of the committee (divestment) was substitued on the floor by the minority report (not to divest), and the recommendation of the committee included that their motion would speak for all of the overtures of divestment, and the minority report did not. So, basically when we go back into assembly in a couple of hours, we will still have to either vote up or down the other overtures on divestment.
So, keep praying that we could live out Paul's urging to be like minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. And that when we are not like minded, that we could at least have the same love, being one in spirit and purpose. Paul puts those characteristics in the context of who Jesus Christ was in one of the most beautiful passages in Scripture known as the 'Christ hymn' (Philippians 2:5-11).
Paul ties our willlingness to be of the same love, being one in spirit and purpose with the nature of Christ which was the same as God and yet he was willing to humble himself to take on the nature of a servant and the likeness of one of us and to even be obedient to his death on the cross. And somehow. In some incredible way, by God's exalted power, that ugliness was transformed into Jesus' name being a cosmic authority. Universal.
I feel your prayers. Ultimately, I am at peace with whatever General Assembly decides today. Because I believe that I am and we are the body of Christ. It's his church. He did the work of saving us through his death. I invoke his powerful name which shadows any bickering, any hard-hearted stance, any prideful opinion.
Jesus Christ is Lord.
