July 23, 2007
Leave Your Gift
The media reports that after years of negotiation the Los Angeles archdiocese has agreed to a $660 million settlement in sex abuse claims. I have trouble with this situation on so many different levels. One thing bothering me is seeing Catholic priests and Cardinals continue serving in their designated roles during these ongoing investigations. Legally men are innocent until proven guilty, however Jesus said even if you remember that someone has something against you, "… leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to your brother; then come and offer your gift." (Matt 5:24 NIV) I wonder if their gifts, whether service or tithes, have any value when reconciliation hasn’t first taken place.
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Gail;
-----In the accounting world the idea of a level of significance is ever present. Cents are ridiculous when reporting cash flows of millions of dollars. It is also important in the scientific world. Inches are ridiculous to distances between the stars. And it should be much more relevant in the concerns of environmentalism than it is. But what should we make of significance in the world of relationships to the Lord and to one another? Usually, the neophyte in the Lord measures to a greater level of significance than does the old-timer, so also do those who have had a near miss experience with death, financial, or marital disaster. A person’s level of intensity and/or sincerity of conviction also heightens significance.
-----The situation that exists under the carpet in your church is a good example of how level of significance is perceived differently by different people. Many folks who had built your church from great sacrifice were very hurt and resentful after certain men used influence and control to change the church into something unfamiliar and unacceptable to them. As far as they were concerned, their worship of God was being denied them. And they held it against those whose changes denied it, for they felt it was very significant.
-----But to the men who had taken control of the church, what they changed were just old hymns, old practices, and old church furniture that had lost its usefulness. They were totally insignificant. The lost, the seekers, and the unchurched had to be attracted into the services where they could find Jesus amidst an atmosphere in which they were more comfortable. That was totally significant. And they held it against those who resisted the change (they claim they didn’t, but I assure you from experience, they did.)
-----Although most folks who resisted these changes left the church, both sides of the division continued to bring their gifts to the altar in the ways and practices that were meaningful to them. Yet, each side knew that the other side had something against them. Who was right and who was wrong? Whose offense was significant, and whose was insignificant? Who did the Lord see as having something against the other?
-----Let’s look carefully at what Jesus said, and didn’t say. He said, “…and there remember that your brother has something against you…” He did not say, “…and there think your brother has something against you…” The difference is great, especially when you consider the principle of looking to the interests of others, pleasing one another, serving one another, and agreeing with one another. The difference is sensitivity. Are you going to be soft enough to allow your brother’s feelings to be important to you, just as your own feelings are? Or are you going to just pick what about your brother is important to you? If it is important to your brother, can it not be important to you, if indeed your brother is important to you, and think the rest insignificant? If it is left up to what you think, that may well be what happens. Jesus did not say, “…there analyze just how significant your brother’s complaint might be…” If sensitivity is going to live in your life then you can not discount what your brother counts. It does not matter how much you know of the insignificance of the matter. Paul tells us not to destroy our brother with our knowledge. We are simply to leave our gift at the altar and go to the point of our brother’s perceived significance. For the genuineness of our relationships are not made by our given services to the Lord. The genuineness of our given services to the Lord is made by our relationships.
-----Jesus said, “…first be reconciled to your brother…” He did not say, “…first reconcile your brother to you,” or, “…go give yourself to your brothers convictions…” When (if) you reconcile your bank statement and your checking account, you are identifying transactions recorded on the one which are not recorded on the other, and visa versa. People get confused about it because they think in terms of reconciling a bank statement to the checkbook, or the checkbook to the bank statement. But that is not the process. The reconciliation is the process. And they are both brought into agreement by it. That is why Paul does not tell us to agree with one, or to agree with the other, but to agree with one another. So, it is not my level of significance that matters, or his. It is not my list of points that matter, or his. It is first) the heart to lay yourself down for your brother that matters, then second) how a new coexistence of all levels of significance and lists of points emerges from two selves laid down. There is enough complexity in every situation that plenty of material can be found for constructing agreement with each other. The new mix is the reconciliation, not the one brother or the other. Each must die some for the other.
-----In the case of what lies under the carpet at your church, it is sad that the very leaders of the church are the ones who have failed to be sensitive enough to leave their gifts and be reconciled. Even after the Word has called for it, and others have challenged them to do it. But they never completely left their gifts at the altar, nor did they involve themselves in reconciliation as much as they did in logistical self-defense mixed with self marketing. That is why the carpet at that church is more important now than any laying of selves down. The example has been given.
-----So, reconciliation will not always happen. When it does not, was it by the lack of your effort? If you left your gift at the altar and went, and if you did all you could to be reconciled, then your efforts have both validated and deepened your sensitivity and sincerity. The Lord will have to forgive the rest. At least He will not have to forgive it all.
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