I like flowers. I have petunias and they produce lots of flowers if I rip often the dead ones and clean up the dead stems and old leaves. However, no matter how careful I am, I always end up breaking off a dead stem that actually had a live flower at the end of it. I always feel bad, because I want to clean it up to make it look pretty, and I don’t have the patience to wait for the entire stem to be dead. For those who do not know, petunia plantas have many long stems that wraps itself on each other, so that the flowers that come through in one single section might be from several different stems.
The other day, it made sense to me: the Lord is patiently waiting for the wheat to be separated from the chaff, so that no one is lost but the chaff. I think we are being sieved. We can see this happening amongst families as well, not only in the church…
Reminds me of when a Democrat lady who once was our Senior Warden stopped coming and switched to an Episcopal Church. (I can understand switching to an orthodox church but the TEC??) We were not and are not a very political church. But I think she resented that we were not completely disinfected from politics, even in discussions after the service.
It’s just a matter of addressing issues from scripture. I’ve done that over the years and been accused of being political when it was just teaching bible.
This all depends on which Left and Right is pulling and holding. There is not a lot of difference between the cultural Left and the theological Left, which helps their efforts in pulling both the church and the culture. On the other hand, the theological Right (or, “Orthodox”) cannot allow the often nostalgic and distrustful cultural Right dictate what needs to be held on to, and why.
I like flowers. I have petunias and they produce lots of flowers if I rip often the dead ones and clean up the dead stems and old leaves. However, no matter how careful I am, I always end up breaking off a dead stem that actually had a live flower at the end of it. I always feel bad, because I want to clean it up to make it look pretty, and I don’t have the patience to wait for the entire stem to be dead. For those who do not know, petunia plantas have many long stems that wraps itself on each other, so that the flowers that come through in one single section might be from several different stems.
The other day, it made sense to me: the Lord is patiently waiting for the wheat to be separated from the chaff, so that no one is lost but the chaff. I think we are being sieved. We can see this happening amongst families as well, not only in the church…
Good analogy!
Reminds me of when a Democrat lady who once was our Senior Warden stopped coming and switched to an Episcopal Church. (I can understand switching to an orthodox church but the TEC??) We were not and are not a very political church. But I think she resented that we were not completely disinfected from politics, even in discussions after the service.
It’s just a matter of addressing issues from scripture. I’ve done that over the years and been accused of being political when it was just teaching bible.
Yep. And that is what my Rector does.
Awesome!
This all depends on which Left and Right is pulling and holding. There is not a lot of difference between the cultural Left and the theological Left, which helps their efforts in pulling both the church and the culture. On the other hand, the theological Right (or, “Orthodox”) cannot allow the often nostalgic and distrustful cultural Right dictate what needs to be held on to, and why.