May 01, 2007
Serving Hash
Sometimes people get weary of listening to others hash and re-hash a situation. Their attitude becomes, ‘It’s in the past… I’m tired of hearing about it… and I don’t want to listen to it again, so move on.’ For some however, hashing is the way to sort through a problem or a burden while trying to put it to rest. I think Peter needed a listening ear after his thrice-denial of Christ, and likewise Paul for his role in persecuting the church. I can image Martha telling and re-telling her friends she regretted doing household chores when she should have been focusing on the Lord. We wouldn’t tell Peter, Paul or Martha to just ‘get over it’, nor should we turn a deaf ear to someone who needs a listening ear.
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Gail;
-----Most people see things from an emotional point of view. So most people see “sour grapes”. Unfortunately few people are analytical enough to observe whether the sour grapes are laying loose in a bowl, or whether they are still attached to the stem upon which they came. There is an important difference. Sour grapes in a bowl are the aftermath of a situation that has met a just and correct resolution. The situation has been fully and rightfully considered, and just action has resolved the problem. That reality does not always cause proper affect in the minds and emotions of all the parties involved. So improper animosity often continues. And that is tiring.
-----However, not all situations are properly addressed or resolved. For example, consider the resolution given to the abortion issue by the courts in the 1970’s. For thirty-seven years the “progressive” political left has seen “sour grapes” on the part of the progressive conservative right (maybe sometime I will have opportunity to explain why I consider conservative thought to be the true progressive thought.) But conservative thought can not drop the abortion issue because it knows the truths about the matter: it’s not about the woman’s body, its about the child’s body; it’s not about the woman’s health, it’s about the child’s health; and it’s not about a woman’s right to choose to kill, it is about a baby’s right to live. The Bible agrees. Therefore, it is not about “sour grapes”, it is about the stem which supports the grapes.
-----Many issues have been improperly and unjustly resolved in the church over the last two-thousand years. Their stems remain. Many issues are ongoing in the church which need to be addressed. I will not be convinced that merely because a few men get together and call themselves “chosen-by-God” elders with “given-by-God” visions I should lay my Bible aside so that I might follow them in opposition to what God’s given Word reveals. And summary dismissal of the errors of these "pinnacles of authority" does not call upon others to ignore the knowledge of the Lord and His Word which came to them by extensive effort and expense. No! In fact, as the preacher at your church has mentioned occasionally: the church leader is the person who is willing to stand up for what is right, especially in the face of opposition. God help us to increase the leadership of the church - not diminish it! It would always be wise to consider the resolution of the past issue before jettisoning a load of sympathy when hearing again the re-hash of a situation. You may well find that the stem remains intact.
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