David Bercot, in his "Will the Real Heretics Please Stand Up" illustrated his point about the church at the time of Constantine with one of Aesop's Fables. The story goes like this:
One day the Sun and the Wind got into a dispute over who was mightier. To settle the issue, they subjected themselves to a test in which both attempted to make a man take of his coat. The wind tried long and hard with violence, but the man actually held tighter to his coat amidst the chaos. After a long time the wind gave up and the sun had its shot. The sun simply emerged from behind a cloud and gently beamed its warm rays onto the man. Within minutes the man removed his coat.
Bercot's point is that Satan tried for about 300 years, via persecution, to take the church off course. But persecution only made the church hold tighter to truth. And so, later, Satan finally gave up and offered the church gifts, praise & honor. The latter method was far more successful from Satan's point of view. I probably don't have 'as' negative a view of Constantine as Bercot, but I think his point is made well. And as much as we don't like to hear it, I suspect that the best thing for the North American church, today, would be some good old-fashioned persecution. We've been enjoying the sun too long. What do you think?
5 comments:
I think you're right. And so's that guy you're quoting. The Church in the west looks way too much like the World in the west: materialistic consumerism, comfort, complacent, and generally selfish. Myself included. My fear is that persecution might just make us complain more. But probably in the long run it would do us some good. Hopefully it won't have to come to that, though.
Good comparrison. I wonder if other Aesop's fables would work as well:
The Raven and the Swan
A RAVEN saw a Swan and desired to secure for himself the same
beautiful plumage. Supposing that the Swan's splendid white
color arose from his washing in the water in which he swam, the
Raven left the altars in the neighborhood where he picked up his
living, and took up residence in the lakes and pools. But
cleansing his feathers as often as he would, he could not change
their color, while through want of food he perished.
And the moral is:
Change of habit cannot alter Nature.
Hmmmmm I say the Swan represents Matthew Rose. And the Ravens represent everyone else in blogdom. We enter his world looking for validation but none of us have the faculties or the time to match what he creates. Therefore we all die a slow death of starvation right to the end clinging to the faint hope that you could be recognizedby the Swan as a thing of beauty.
Or
Swan represents Jesus and we are the Raven trying to imitate the Swan. We will always fall short but if we don't realize that we become no earthly good because we are more concerned with our appearance to the world rather than our function in the world.
Both work.
i think if we focus on what would be best for the church in the west then we are simply rechanneling selfishness. the best thing for the church in the west would be to realize the resources it has put them to use. whether or not that can happen without some kind of catalyst (like persecution) would require another fable.
ah haha. ya'll are too funny. good stuff.
Kirk, 90% of your comments are fascinating. One day, I think you can become a swan like me in blogdom.
Robin, AP, Jo...thanks for the comments. I'm not sure I totally understand your comment AP. I certainly agree that the best thing for the church, anywhere, to do is utilize its God given resources, but I don't really know how noticing the historical principle that the church thrives in persecution is a selfish observation. I don't think a discussion here or there about what the church needs demonstrates we are 'focused' on such things. Let me know if I'm misunderstanding you, which is quite possible since your words often seem somewhat cryptic to my eyes :)
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