The Church is a Rag
Tag Army For Sure
In one of the books I wrote, The Christian Skeptic: Caught Between Belief
and Doubt, I used Martin Bell’s image of the Rag Tag Army to describe the
Church. I will share it below but
suffice it to say that “my” Church is behaving like that army yet again.
As a United Methodist pastor for 46
years I observed “us” arguing over and over again about the nature of human
sexuality. In the called session of our
General Conference we will again have this debate.
To put it as simply as possible, and
it is not simple, one faction of our “army” insists that the bible is clear
about all this and that the “practice of homosexuality is incompatible with
Christian teaching and scripture.” The
other faction believes that, as it states in the first part of our Church’s
statement on the subject, “that human sexuality is a gift from God.” If that is so this group affirms that we are
born the way we are born and “God does not make mistakes.”
So here we go again. With all the healing that this world needs we
will again argue over something that really needs to be left alone. It will not take rocket science to figure out
where I come down on this.
What I know is that there are
perversions and inappropriate behavior in both the heterosexual and homosexual
communities. As a pastor I spoke with
gay and lesbian people who realized that they could talk to me “safely.” Not one of them had an agenda or wanted to
“win.” They simply wanted to follow
Jesus and know that they would be accepted for who they are without shame.
Most of them had dealt with enough
shame. All of them clearly stated that
this was the way they were born and that it was not a choice.
One of the big sticking points is
the bible. In my before mentioned book I
have a chapter on the bible in which I state that the bible is not a
“brick.” It is more like a grandmother’s
quilt. A brick is made by pouring a
substance in a mold and out comes a solid result. The bible is made up of many traditions put
together over centuries. It contains
many different “theological perspectives,” not just one.
And yes some of those perspectives
do not match up with each other very well.
They often compete for our attention.
A grandmother’s quilt is hand sewn and is composed of pieces from the
various family traditions. Great,Great
Uncle Frank may have been a rascal but he was part of the family so grandmother
put his “piece” in the quilt. You do not
necessarily have to like Uncle Frank to acknowledge he was part of the family.
There is a line in Ron Howard’s
movie, “The Grinch Who Stole Christmas,” when the mayor of Whoville shouts in
desperation something like, “Why can’t we just get back to Christmas without
all this Grinch stuff?” Why can’t we be
church without all this?
I wonder what kind of church Jesus
would attend….or given the way we sometimes act I wonder would he? I want to be part of a church where all who
want to follow Jesus will be welcomed without shame. We are all God’s children…period.
So I close with Martin Bell’s Rag Tag Army. (I got permission from
Martin Bell’s widow to use this when I wrote the book. The pronouns used for “God” are from the time
he wrote this years ago.)
“Rag Tag Army”
I think God must be very old and very tired. Maybe he used
to look splendid and fine in his general’s uniform, but no more. He’s been on
the march a long time, you know. And look at his rag-tag little army! All he
has for soldiers are you and me. Dumb little army. Listen! The drum beat isn’t
even regular. Everyone is out of step. And there! You see? God keep stopping
along the way to pick up one of his tinier soldiers who decided to wander off
and play with a frog, or run in a field, or whose foot got tangled in the
underbrush. He’ll never get anywhere that way. And yet, the march goes on.
Do you see how they marchers have broken up into little
groups? Look at that group up near the front. Now, there’s a snappy outfit.
They all look pretty much alike—at least they’re in step with each other.
That’s something! Only they’re not wearing their shoes. They’re carrying them
in their hands. Silly little band. They won’t get far before God will have to
stop again.
Or how about that other group over there? They’re all
holding hands as they march. The only trouble with this is the men on each end
of the line. Pretty soon they realize that one of their hands isn’t holding
onto anything—one hand is reaching, empty, alone. And so they hold hands with
each other, and everybody marches around in circles. The more people holding
hands, the bigger the circle.
And,
of course, a bigger circle is deceptive because as we march along it looks like
we’re going someplace, but we’re not. And so God must stop again. You see what
I mean? He’ll never get anywhere that way!
If God were more sensible he’d take his little army and
shape them up. Why, whoever heard of a soldier stopping to romp in a field?
It’s ridiculous. But even more absurd is a general who will stop the march of
eternity to go and bring him back. But that’s God for you. His is no endless,
empty marching. He is going somewhere. His steps are deliberate and purposive.
He may be old, and he may be tired. But he knows where he’s going. And he means
to take every last one of his tiny soldiers with him.
Only there aren’t going to be any forced marches. And, after
all, there are frogs and flowers, and thorns and underbrush along the way. And
even though our foreheads have been signed with the sign of the cross, we are
only human. And most of us are afraid and lonely and would like to hold hands
or cry or run away. And we don’t know where we are going, and we can’t seem to
trust God—especially when it’s dark out and we can’t see him! And he won’t go
on without us. And that’s why it’s taking so long. Listen! The drum beat isn’t
even regular. Everyone is out of step. And there! You see? God keeps stopping
along the way to pick up one of his tinier soldiers who decided to wander off
and play with a frog, or run in a file, or whose foot got tangled in the
underbrush. He’ll never get anywhere that way!
And
yet, the march goes on…
