Published one year ago today. As you read this, “J”, Mayhem, and I travel to our new home in New England. My convictions and conscience stand as resolute as ever!
Will there be Anyone Left to Speak?
PART 2
Yesterday, I spoke about my concerns about the divided culture and church. I cautioned that the continued and escalating divisions could lead to a point where we will no longer have a voice that speaks for us. Today, I speak for myself and my convictions.
Although there was a time years ago when it wasn’t so, I am one of those independent-thinking centrists who falls slightly on either side of issues based on my convictions as a follower of Jesus Christ. I am decidedly apolitical and have occasionally taken my licks from both the hard right and the hard left within the church and in society. Even so, I continue to serve the Lord of the Conscience and exercise my right of conscience. More importantly, I work hard to love all made in the Imago Dei (Image of God).
I also highly value the words of a rather sage and little known theologian of the 17th Century who wrote:
“In Essentials Unity,
In Non-Essentials Liberty,
In All Things Charity.”
(Rupertus Meldenius)
Meldenius penned these words in response to the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), when political and religious tensions embroiled most of Europe in bloodshed, starvation, and disease, killing millions of soldiers and civilians. By the way, these words are also the motto of my Moravian brothers and sisters in North America.
Now, you may be asking what these “essentials” of the Christian faith actually are. I define them here, and I believe I am on reasonably solid ground here.
- Belief in the Triune God of Grace – Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.
- Belief in the incarnation of the Christ through a virgin birth, thus revealing him as fully divine and fully human.
- Belief that Jesus is the only human in history to live a sinless life until he was nailed to the cross and took upon himself all of the sin of humanity; thus the atonement of love through the shedding of his blood for the forgiveness of sins.
- Belief that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead on the third day. And yes, I mean literally!
- Belief that Salvation comes only through God’s grace (not our actions), and our faith in this gift of love that we have not earned.
- Belief that Jesus will eventually return, calling forth the living and the dead to stand before his glory. Yes, I mean literally!
- And I believe that through this faith, the church is called to:
- LOVE GOD with every fiber of our being: mind, body, and spirit; our whole self.
- LOVE ONE ANOTHER within the Body of Christ as Jesus has loved us.
- LOVE OUR NEIGHBORS as ourselves, no matter who they are.
You can argue all we want about the details of church leadership models, what sacraments are and are not, what sin is or is not, who holds the power of judgement, etc., but if we do not practice charity toward one another, how can we answer the call to be his witnesses in our own backyard, in the regions that surround us, and to the ends of the earth? (see Acts 1:8)
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