Way back in July I laid before the congregation my views on schism at this time of dispute and division within our denomination. I do not ask you to agree with me; just to try and understand whre I am coming from.
This morning I
would like to address the subject of schism. A number of congregations, I do
not know how many, are in such profound disagreement with the recent decision
of the General Assembly to explore the possibility of the acceptance and
blessing of same sex partnerships they are dissociating themselves from our
denomination the Church of Scotland. I have no wish this morning to enter into
the arguments for and against the acceptance of same sex relationships I have
made my views on that plain elsewhere. This morning I simply want to say where
I stand with regard to schism, should the Church of Scotland make decisions I
profoundly disagree with. Let me say at the outset I can only foresee two sets
of circumstances in which I would leave the Church of Scotland over this issue.
The first would be if the Church of Scotland required me to bless a same sex
relationship then they would have to put me out because in all conscience I
could not bless that which Scriptures teach is unholy. The second set of circumstances
I will outline later. I do not ask you to agree with me I simply want to
explain where I have come to in thinking about schism and share with you how I
have got there.
In thinking
about schism why begin with our reading this morning the Parable of the Sheep
and the Goats? In this haunting story Jesus taught about the last day that
those who will be welcomed into Christ’s Kingdom will be those who clothed the
naked, gave drink to the thirsty, fed the hungry, cared for the stranger,
nursed the sick and visited the prisoner. One of the main things this parable
teaches me is that the holiness that our Father seeks from us is not a form of
piety that takes us out of the world and expresses itself in some kind of moral
and religious purity but a holiness that does not mind getting dirty in order
to bring the compassion of God to others.
This is seen
in the Parable of the Good Samaritan, the two religious leaders who were
concerned to keep themselves clean and so avoided the man in the ditch and
passed by on the other side are condemned in the parable; it is the man who in
compassion risked uncleanness and went to the aid of his neighbour who is the
man who truly loves God and his neighbour.
In Matthew’s
Gospel the parable of the sheep and the goats is set down as the last parable
Jesus teaches before he is arrested, tried and crucified. This is the amazing
thing about Jesus His death upon the cross is set before us the ultimate
expression of God’s holy love yet at Calvary Jesus is executed by a church who
rejects Him as their Lord, fails to see His glory, think it is good thing that
even though innocent He should die the most cruel death imaginable and stir the
crowd to seek His death. More than that His disciples fail Him and deny Him and
on the cross he bears the guilt of their sin and dies in ignominy, shame and
desolation abandoned by His Father.
Now I know
there is great deal of teaching in scripture about moral integrity and living
by the word of God. I remember a minister telling that he once met one of
the business leaders from the stock exchange here in Glasgow and saying to this
man that one of the finest members of his congregation worked in Stock Exchange. He then spoke of his shame when the man replied ‘I wish she was one of
our finest workers, she seems to spend all her time on the phone to her
friends.’ Christians must exhibit uprightness but that does not mean dissociating
ourselves from those we disagree with and whose lifestyle we cannot consider
conformable to the word of God.
But Christ
Jesus did not abandon Israel and His disciples when they abandoned Him. Christ
Jesus did not reject His disciples and Israel when they rejected Him. He bore
the shame that His disciples might be restored and even the priests who stirred
the crowds against Him might experience His saving mercy and grace.
The second
reason why I cannot walk away from the Church of Scotland is my understanding
of what it is to be a minister. The minister has to have a number of skills.
The ability to take a passage of scripture and explain it faithfully in a way
that people young and old can grasp what it means. One also has to have some
basic pastoral skills in caring for people at different points in their lives.
One has to be able to chair meetings and bring a disparate group of people to a
consensus and so the list goes on and on.
But undergirding
all that the minister, I think, has to live out the covenant love of God; God
is a friend who is always, always there. When David all but raped Bathsheba,
had her husband murdered and then tried to cover the whole stinking mess up,
when he was found out David confessed that there was nothing he could do to put
matters right, he was blood guilty he deserved to die for what he had done; yet
still he could turn to God and plead for mercy and God in His compassion
provided a way of salvation for him. I think in some small measure the minister
the elder has to reflect such covenant love to God’s people; to be a friend who
is always, always there no matter what has happened or what may have been done.
This love is
seen very clearly in the life of Jeremiah. Jeremiah lived at a time when
idolatry and immorality was rife in the little kingdom of Judah. The agony of
endeavouring to be faithful to Jehovah at such times came to a head for Jeremiah
when the men of his home town of Anathoth plotted to kill him. Jeremiah brings
a heart breaking complaint to God about the unjustness and unfairness of it
all. God listens but then does something extraordinary. He tells Jeremiah
things are only going to get worse! but then He opens up His heart to Jeremiah
and tells him of His agony over the unfaithfulness of His beloved Judah.
The pain
Jeremiah knew was as nothing as to the agony Jehovah knew over the
unfaithfulness of His people and the judgement that was to come upon them Jehovah
was to be faithful to Judah through all this, throughout her idolatry and
immorality, through the days of judgement and exile right to the time 70 years
on when Judah would be restored, long after Jeremiah was dead. Jeremiah had to
live out that faithful covenant love. I believe God is calling us to the same.
Strangely this
leads me to the other circumstance when I would leave the Church of Scotland.
If the Kirk Session of BVP were to decide, against my advice and pleading, to
leave the Church of Scotland and called a congregational meeting as they have
just done in Stornoway and you voted to leave against my pleading and advice
then I would leave with you for I must live out covenant love to you. I must
remain committed to you in love even though I may think you are profoundly
wrong. My thoughts and must come second to living covenant love.
In thinking
through rights and wrongs of schism my guide has been none other than John
Calvin and the opening chapters of Book 4 of the Institutes.
Calvin lived
away back in the 16th Century at the birth of the Reformation.
Calvin had been raised as a Roman Catholic his father was one of the important
officials in one of the cathedrals of France. Then as a young man he had
discovered the wonders of free grace, that we are put right with God not
through our religious practices but through what Christ has done for us one the
cross. This meant that as a young man Calvin was hunted across Europe with a
price on his head and lived to see many of his friends martyred. But he played
a pivotal role in rebuilding the church across Europe and around the world. On
the one hand he had to deal with what he saw as the idolatries of Rome and on
the other with a myriad of smaller splinter churches grouped under the umbrella
title of the Anabaptists.
Calvin
understood that wherever the word of God was taught and the sacraments of the
Baptism and the Lord’s Supper were celebrated there was the church. Despite
Rome martyring his friends and what he saw as the iniquities of the Mass Calvin
refuses to anathematise the church of Rome instead he writes: ‘Among the Corinthians, quarrels divisions
and jealousies flare, disputes and altercations burgeon together with greed an
evil deed is openly approved of which even pagans would detest; the name of
Paul is insolently defamed; some mock the resurrection of the dead, to the destruction
of the whole Gospel as well, God's free gifts serve ambition, not love and many
things are done without decency or order. Yet the church abides among them
because the ministry of the Word and Sacraments remains unrepudiated there. Who
then would dare snatch the title ‘church’ from these who cannot be charged with
even a tenth part of such misdeeds.’
Then in his
next chapter Calvin humbles me greatly and painfully. I was greatly exercised
by the question of whether or not I could attend a Presbytery meeting presided
over by a minister in a relationship declared sinful and outlawed by the Word
of God. Calvin writes that whilst the church must make every effort maintain
proper order when we come to the Lord’s Table we are not to examine our
neighbour, examine the church, examine the person presiding but examine ourselves.
That hit me like a bucket of cold water shocking me out of my self-righteousness;
we all come to the Table on the same basis the gracious invitation of our Lord
we are not to look round about us and weigh the worthiness or unworthiness of
others but to marvel that Christ should have us here at all.
Then finally
Calvin writes: “that an ill-advised zeal
for righteousness is born of pride and arrogance and a false opinion of
holiness than of true holiness and true zeal for it and he quotes Augustine who
wrote: ‘The godly manner and measure of church discipline ought at all times to
be concerned with the ‘unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.’”
So Calvin
comes to the conclusion that a true expression of holiness is not to separate
ourselves from those we disagree with but to work, pray and preach and teach
the Word of God for the up-building of all God's people.
Calvin then
writes; “True indeed that Christ gave himself
up for the church that he might sanctify her; he cleansed her by the washing of
water in the word of life, that he might present her to himself as his glorious
bride, without spot or wrinkle.’ Yet it is also no less true that the Lord is
daily at work in smoothing wrinkles and cleansing spots. From this it follows
that the church’s holiness is not yet complete.’
You will
remember that Jesus said to Peter that he was giving to him the keys to the
kingdom of heaven and the cross keys remain to this day the symbol of the
Romans Catholic church. For Calvin the keys to the Kingdom of heaven is the
preaching of the free grace and unmerited mercy of Christ so that the wonders
of Christ’s forgiving redeeming love are unlocked for all God’s people to
enjoy.
True holiness
is no be found not in dissociating ourselves from a spotty wrinkly church but
by so praying and preaching the free grace of God in Christ that the wrinkles
are smoothed out and the spots healed.
