Herewith some thoughts running through our mind in the early hours of the morning.
While reading the current issue of Newsweek in the doctor's office yesterday (indeed, as unlikely as it might seem, the current issue), my emotions were touched by the feature article concerning American casualties of the Iraq war whose needs, physically and emotionally, are not being met - the Walter Reed hospital scandal in some ways being somewhat representative of the situation. Equally disconcerting was an article concerning the great numbers of Iraqui casualties with even less resourses available. Given the good report that would be mine upon seeing the doctor, I was struck on the way home by the thought that what was for me a good day would, for others, be a day of considerably different nature. I am blessed.
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A sideline detail relative to an essentially pointless, yet perhaps somewhat amusing, episode surfaces in the biblical account of Absaloms's attempt to seize his father David's throne. Having mounted a full-scale coup attempt, an intense battle ensued between Absalom's followers and those loyal to the king. The story is in II Samuel 15-18).
Upon the defeat of Absalom and his forces, Ahimaaz asks Joab, general of David's army, for permission to run and advise the king that victory had been achieved. Denying his request, Joab commissioned Cushi to deliver the communique. Pestering Joab that he too be allowed to run with the message, Ahimaaz is finally granted permission. Being the faster of the two, he outruns Cushi and reaches the waiting king with an enthusiastic "We won!" Asked for further details, however, his reply was, "Well, there was a lot of noise and confusion. I really don't know what it all meant." David's response: "Stand aside. We can do better than that." At this point we leave the reader to draw his or her own analogy to sometimes present realities.
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We continue to be encouraged by what we observe among many believers in terms of a growing sense of identity derivative faith in Christ. In the words of Abraham to Lot: "We be brethren" (Gen. 13:8). Significance here cannot be overstated relative to the moving of God's Spirit in the interests of effecting both Christ's last recorded prayer (John 17:21) and Paul's vision of an ultimate "unity of the faith" among true believers (Eph. 4:11-13).
As we have before noted, such becomes an expression of commitment to the biblical defining of Christ's Body as: "All who in every place call upon the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, their Lord and ours" (I Cor. 1:2); "all who love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity" (Eph. 6:24); and, "all those who love [Christ's] appearing" (II Tim. 4:8).
Within the realm of professed faith, however, the alternative is oftentimes a confusion of ends and means as gimmicks, organization promotion and ecclesial politics take the place of spiritual dynamic and Christ centeredness. We shall, in fact, be meeting with a pastor later today (at his request) whose present ministry is experiencing difficulty in consequence of tensions largely related to such concerns. Does such constitute a call to fight this or that denomination? No. As some of us have experienced, the facts and realities of such situations may, or may not, ultimately require a change of status. The fundamental point nonetheless remains that when focus and relationships within the community are brought into alignment with a viable love for God and fellow believers on the basis of personal relationship with the Father through faith in Christ, the rest will increasingly come into place - in one way or another.
Within this general frame of reference, there are those in various liberal settings who still love the Lord and adhere to the authority of His Word (note, for example, the present division within the Episcopal Church.) It is not easy. Such are our brothers and sisters in Christ. We need to pray for them.
Thus our thoughts something after midnight.
Burl Ratzsch
