Rev Craig Mischewski reflects …
I have been spending a lot more time in prayer and reading Scripture of late, and in my time in the prophet Isaiah I read this text. In light of the current proposals from the Assembly, I feel that the text speaks into this situation.
Isa 19:22 “And the LORD will strike Egypt, He will and heal it, they will return to the LORD and He will be entreated by them and heal them…”
In this text, God is in the business of healing one of Israel’s enemies, not healing as indulging their transgressions, but rather healing by not tolerating their sin. We can read the outcome of God’s intolerance,”Blessed is Egypt my people…” (19:25)
There is truth that is evident in God’s actions against Egypt; attack my people and things will go bad for you, there is a consequence. God does not tolerate Egypt’s behavior toward Israel, God says “stop, don’t do or I will strike you.” It is too easy to see God in this context as the punisher God, but in actuality what we see is a gracious God challenging Egypt and changing the hearts and minds of the Egyptians, for their long term benefit.
Intolerance is part of the character of God, we see this clearly in the Garden of Eden narrative where God acts in intolerance toward Adam and Eve after they have eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, by banishing them from the garden , why? So by God’s grace they can’t eat from the tree of life, thus being stuck for all eternity in their sin.
Fast forward a few thousand years and once again God is being intolerant, Jesus is going to the cross to pay the price for our sins, the ultimate act of intolerance, God sacrifices His Son to usher in the ultimate act of grace.
If God is so intolerant why do we think tolerance is a good thing? Tolerance is not a fruit of the Spirit, the very manifestation of the activity of The Spirit in our lives, expressing love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, but no tolerance.
The only place I can find tolerate or tolerance in the Bible is an obscure reference to King Ahasuerus to not tolerate the Jews then again Rev 2:20 in the letter to Thyatira that reads, “I have this against you, that you tolerate that woman Jezebel… (who sic) is seducing my servants…”
If we read that we shouldn’t tolerate what is clearly godless behavior, why then are we being told as a church that we have to reinvent what we have held to be sacred, the covenant of marriage between and man and a woman, and tolerate an attack on the uniqueness of the God given covenant? Why are we being called to reject the Biblical witness regarding sexuality and marriage?
It takes a lot of courage to say no to someone, no one likes to be told they are wrong, so when we say no to same gender marriage we become an offense to it’s proponents. It seems to me that member’s of the UCA are seeking to create and inoffensive church by creating a culture of tolerance presented as unity in diversity and space for grace.
If we follow this path then we cease to be Church but become another social service. The marks of the Reformed Church, to which we belong, are the preaching of the Word, the celebration of the Sacraments and the administration of church discipline. If we do not submit ourselves to the authority of the Biblical witness, then how can we preach the Word of truth with any certainty, or how do accept the validity of the Sacrament or know how, why or when to administer church discipline?
The Church is a unique movement, it is the visible manifestation of the ministry of Christ in the world, as such it is called to be a prophetic voice, populated by an holy people a royal priesthood. Therefore we are called to stand apart from the world and call the world to repentance and stand against anything that comes against the reign of God in the world; Thy Kingdom come…”
It is hard to be intolerant, it takes courage, Jesus said “blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account.” (Mtt 5:11)
The truth is not a matter of propositional ideas for Christians, the Truth is a person and His name is the Lord Jesus Christ and Jesus offends us by not tolerating our sinfulness; He calls us into relationship and repentance. This is the Christian model. The Truth is revealed in Scripture and serves the Church and the world, leading us to the hope of the resurrection.
The Church needs to be an intolerant community underpinned by the Grace of God so we can speak the Truth to ourselves and to the world. Of truth it is said that one thing must be true and therefore all counter truths by definition must be wrong. There are too many so-called truths competing for the market place of our souls, we must decided which truth we will hold onto and not tolerate the lie. The world needs us to be bearers of Truth.