Rodent Regatta

Tolerance and dogma. Doctrine and freedom. Conservative and liberal. Fundamental and advanced. Works and faith. Judgment and grace. Justice and mercy.

What do these pairs of ”opposing words” have in common? They describe the debate that has long raged among people of faith. No one has been able to resolve a single one of the debates in anything resembling a conciliatory way.

Churches split. Denominations split. Denominations look down on other denominations. Religious leaders rationalize their own public ridicule of other leaders. People fight, persecute and die over matters of religious doctrine and disputes.

There is a constant through it all. God saw the fall of the Roman Empire. God saw His creation. God saw the fall from the garden. God saw Presidents assassinated. God saw the Crusades.

God sees the crimes of Islamic fundamentalists. God sees the Massachusetts legislature. God sees our elections. God sees our leaders.

God sees the scientists studying things we couldn’t imagine even ten years ago. God sees our ethical dilemmas. God knows our hearts. God understands a nation’s debts. God sees our sickness, our confusion, our worries and our dreams.

God also sees two of His people wrestling with their own attempts to understand and communicate God’s love to a needful world. If you read this, you’ll understand how one of the two men views the work of the other.

Never forget that the God that has seen all of recorded and unrecorded history will still be viewing it long after this country is consumed. Someone said, ”as a commercial culture, we think more about what we buy than what we read.” Never was that statement truer than when it is applied to matters of the faith. In America today it’s also a fitting assessment of so many church-goers. In too many lives the church is merely one part of the shrewd person’s network. Like the business lunch, the country club or the Tuesday night Bunco game, ”church” becomes just one more of the tools of the social climber.

Just remember that while God is viewing history, He also determines how it will play out. The end of recorded history on this earth is uncertain only with respect to a specific date and time. Otherwise, God has given us His creation, His Son and His directives for how we are to live and how we are to treat one another. The judging is His to do.