A Heavy Heart at a Sad Situation

I have a growing awareness of how pervasive sin is throughout the world of Christian organizations and leaders. This is, of course, “nothing new under the sun.” The all-too-common errors and falls of Christian leaders should always disturb us but never surprise us.

Celebrity culture may be nothing new, but it sure does seem to be having a heyday in our time. In preparing a message, I am currently studying the conclusion of 2 Peter:

¹⁴ So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with him. ¹⁵ Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. ¹⁶ He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.

¹⁷ Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. ¹⁸ But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.

The background to Peter’s conclusion includes 2 Peter 2 and Jude, where the “perversion of the grace of our God into a license for immorality” and greed by false teachers is clearly described.

My problem is that I find my own heart growing heavy with this sad situation. Internet blogs now provide a virtually endless supply of stories detailing the ways leaders abuse their followers in the name of Jesus, and the way some followers end up abandoning Christian faith. Subsequent blog comments often unfold the equally endless debates between sympathizers and defenders. And then there is no shortage of polemics from websites from all angles finding fault with everyone else!

I also find myself wondering what my mission needs to be in light of all this. Debbie has proposed that we take a “year of jubilee” from gardening next year to spend some time away from the farm, including me focusing on my writing. Beyond the teaching notes I provide to the small group gathered at Grace Bible Church of Diamond Lake, what might my ministry be? Given the comprehensive impulse of my scholarship, the “endlessness” referred to above often overwhelms and paralyzes me!

I am confident in my own convictions, but those convictions include being convinced that my own thinking is limited, subject to error, and unable to grasp all there is to know. I have biases and blind spots. So, please pray for me as I seek to keep my heart pure in all this. Peter’s conclusion remains: But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.