October 30, 2007
Undelivered
Addressing anger and reconciliation, Jesus said, “Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother 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 5:23-24 NIV) I find it interesting that the Lord says ‘leave your gift’ rather than, ‘take your gift with you and bring it back when you’ve reconciled’. I’ve never seen this passage of Scripture literally practiced in the church. However, if the Lord is speaking spiritually, there could conceivably be lots of invisible gifts strewn about the altar. I think I should probably do some soul searching…maybe there’s a gift or two of my own waiting for me to return
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
Gail;
-----I think if Jesus were talking in absolute terms, then the altar might be unapproachable for the clutter of all the gifts left there. And I doubt if any gift would actually make it to the altar because we almost always give someone cause to have something against us. Granted, they may be trivial offenses, but an offense is an offense, “Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect,” Jesus said (Matt 5:48). Heaven is a very perfect place, and God would be even more so if there were a more perfect than perfect. In that light, is there such a concept as insignificant? Every failure stands out as a pitch black spot on a pure white linen.
-----Maybe it fits better when taken figuratively. We wouldn’t have to loose any weight or worry about splitting any seams. We could just pull it on and move around quite freely. “Oh! That’s a nice idea - leave your gifts and be reconciled! Isn’t Jesus wonderful! Well, let‘s get busy.” Yeah, yeah, we hear. So, like you say, Gail, the gifts are probably all spiritual, or worse yet, imaginary. It is quite shallow to know that one of your brothers has something against you and believe it is dealt with merely by the recognition of the fact. Or even more shallow to understand that other brothers have things against us and to not even bother to explore who they might be or what they might hold before excusing ourselves on a good concept. This only leads to more disobedience in the failure to acknowledge your brethren and the real situations at hand.
-----Then if the figurative pants keep slipping down because they fit like socks on a rooster, and the absolute pants keep splitting at the seam because they just won’t hold all our baggage, let’s try on the practical pants. We don’t live in heaven yet. We have neither our glorified bodies nor our restored hearts (though our hearts have been healed in the sense of your Oct 5 blog.) We live here, on Earth, where the air is more fouled by spiritual pollution than physical, where the twisted and the unreal are far more referenced than the real, where man thinks he knows something, but knows little. We are born into this nature and the innate force is to keep us in it. Our errors are so subtle and many that a line of significance must be recognized. For if we try to claim perfect accomplishment without that line we fall guilty to I John 1:8.
-----So then are we each left to determine what that line of significance is in our own life? When I sat on my brother’s hat it was insignificant, but when I creamed his car in the parking lot it was? Or do we all get together and agree with one another about what offenses are above the line and which are below? Be concerned and go to your brother when you have talked negatively about his preaching, but not too worry when the preachers have forbidden his song? That invites the detestable old rhetorical question, “Whose to say,” to actually take a bona fide place in the discussion. Because really, who is to say?
-----I propose that if we are going to be honest and sincere, the one who was offended should be the one to say whether the offense was above or below the line. Does the injured not have a right to measure his own injury? Or are we going to play American style doctor and tell the patient to keep quiet while we thump around on his chest, knees, and elbows? It is in our brother’s opportunity to measure his own grief that we acknowledge him. At least it is one way of acknowledgment. Acknowledging one another is something Scripture tells us to do. It also tells us to look to the interests of others and to please others. Are we going to also decide for others what their interests are and what pleases them? Or would we look less foolish to allow them to show us what interests them, what pleases them, and what has hurt them? And that really seems to hint strongly as the reason Jesus said go to them. If we know he has something against us we need to actually and really go find out how it is significant to him and what we can do to make it either go away or become insignificant. We share a leg of the practical pants with our brother. We can not get anywhere with any problem without involving him, his feelings, and his measurements.
Post a Comment