05-08-24

ECCLESIOLOGICAL ETCHINGS
May 8, 2024
What’s important to you? I’m sure the answer might change depending on one’s current circumstance or maybe a recent life event that has suddenly consumed one’s attention. I saw a little snippet online recently that suggested that fewer and fewer people have conversations with other people about what they believe to be important. As a society, we tend to sit in front of the TV, and if by chance we watch a so-called news station, we more often hear speculative commentary or general pontificating. I’ll get off my soapbox long enough to point out how the church, at least Cypress Creek Christian Church, has serious conversations about what is important. In the last ten days or so, I have spoken to church members about immigration, freedom of expression, health care, end-of-life decisions, and who was the best 80’s band. Guess what? There were differences of opinion, yet I appreciated people trying to determine how the thoughts of a first-century nomadic teacher were important to the conversation, except for the question about the best 80’s band. There is no debating that I am opinionated and can even push my thinking pretty hard, but at the end of the day, I love our tradition that encourages thoughtful people to engage in conversation around important matters. But instead of simply saying what we think, we also need to talk about why that is important to us and how we came to that determination. It’s much easier to offer the speculative commentary and general pontificating. Not every problem will be solved, but the deeper conversation on the WHY and HOW requires us to step from self-defended citadels and into the public square, where we meet one another's humanity. That, in my opinion, would at least be a small step in the right direction.

For every person I meet, there are all kinds of life experiences and insights. Holy God, help me to step from the haughty defense of some specific idea and into some real conversations in which both listening and engagement occur. Amen.