Justice, Silence, and Grace.

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.  By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.” John 13:34-35

Racism, child abuse, slavery, the fate of the lost, abortion, poverty, war, pornography, doctrinal compromise, substance abuse, etc.

Which of these is the MOST important?

Which of these MOST deserves your "speaking out"?

If you had to rank them, which would come out on top?

Which is the one which demands the church's voice NOW more than ever?

If you are simply consulting yourself, you might be able to find a clear place for one or two, but I'm betting there'd be one or where you'd have trouble deciding which went where.

If, instead, you are consulting someone else, you might be able to agree on one or two, but I'm betting there'd be one or two where you couldn't find common ground.

If planning a course of action, you might be able to agree on THE correct policy for one or two, but I'm betting there'd be one or two where you and a friend come to diametrically opposed ways forward.

If one of you thinks that a quiet approach is better than confrontation, the other may think that a strong public statement is in order.

If you think contemporary events demands that X be emphasized, your friend may think that it is Y that needs more attention.

You may decide to dedicate your Twitter/Facebook feed to "raising awareness" about one of these real problems, but your friend may find that the "dialogue" is doing nothing to help.

You may find it incomprehensible that anyone could remain silent about one of these, while your friend finds your silence on another one just as morally baffling.

You may conclude that it is best to stand up to those who support an immoral activity, but your friend may decide that this will only feed the fire.

How many people today blame the politically active evangelical church of earlier years for driving away nonbelievers because of the church's attention to abortion?

How many people today blame the politically inactive evangelical church of earlier years for driving away nonbelievers because of the church INattention to racism?

Maybe in twenty years you'll decide that the church's focus today was too much on one issue, your friend will find that the focus was too little.

Maybe in twenty years you'll decide that it was you who had the focus too much in one place and that maybe your friend was right.

We may tell ourselves that each of these issues is valuable and that they each deserve equal attention, but we can never be as engaged with any one of them as we'd like, let alone all of them. With only twenty-four hours in the day, and the daily grind of providing for our families taking up most of those, we cannot be fully "on" for each of these all the time.

It is inevitable that members of Christ's body will disagree about what is the most pressing issue of the day. Sometimes this is a matter of disagreement, but sometimes it is a matter of discerning what was needed at that moment. James, at his time and place, found it necessary to warn the church against abandoning works in the quest faith. Paul, at his time and place, found it necessary to warn the church against abandoning faith in the quest for works.

Sometimes this is a matter of a particular sensitivity you have towards one or another problem. Perhaps the pain of that issue in your own life will lead you to focus on it. Perhaps the realization that the comfort of your life was not shared by others will lead you to focus on another. Perhaps, seemingly out of nowhere, God will have led you to care about one of these more than you do another. This is not a failing but the way God has led you to spread his kingdom in this particular way.

For you, in the place where God has called you to serve him, perhaps one of these very real problems will be the thing which dominates your thinking, either for just a season or perhaps your entire life. For your friends, in their places, perhaps it will be another one which will define their moral quest.

As we do this, as we seek to encourage Christ's kingdom in this world, let us keep a few things in mind. We must always make sure that it is Christ and his glory that we seek. Let us not be like Martha, whose tasks serving the Lord distracted her from waiting on the Lord and his leading as did her sister, Mary. We can, like the proverbial cart and horse, all too easily shift our focus from following Christ onto an path to following path whether Christ is there or not.

We must always make sure that we remember that just as we have been wrong before, as a church or as individuals, we may be wrong now. Much of the passion fueling the socio-political debates going on right now flows from the conviction that the church of the past got it wrong and we must now get it right. We look at the past and we say that they believed the wrong things or did the wrong things or didn't do the right things or didn't say the right things.

If we are able to look back fifty years, a hundred years, a thousand years, and say that they were wrong, then what are the chances that our little brothers and sisters in the Lord will not do the same? Will they not look back fifty years, a hundred years, a thousand years, into our time and say that we got it wrong, that we had the wrong emphasis, that we were silent when should have spoken or spoke when we should have been silent? We all like to think that the future will only judge others in this way. But, if others in the past, just like us, were confident that they had chosen the right path, just like us, what are the chances that those of the future, just like us, will not find some great failing in our lives as we have found fault in others?

Finally, we must be gracious with one another. Maybe your friend is wrong, but maybe it is you who is wrong. If you think that your brothers or sisters in Christ are wrong by their emphasis or inattention, by their actions or inactions, by the statements or silence, then by all means plead with them, argue with them, challenge them, try to get them to see it another way, but we must do it in a way that grants to them the grace that they might be right and the humility that we might be wrong. They might well be in the wrong. They might be failing to see how their choice is harmful, or they may even be guilty of supporting an evil in the world. This in no way releases us from the call to love one another.

Love doesn't mean coddling. There is a time for vigorous debate and a time to challenge one another. The Bible is full of prophets and apostles using strong language to condemn evil, but it also full of those same prophets and apostles speaking grace to those same sinners. Love can and, at times, demands confrontation. Love doesn't mean accommodation of evil, but love does mean love. If, in our disagreements with one another, we cannot see ourselves in the words I Corinthians 13, then what are we doing? If our passion for the work of Christ leads us to speak derisively of the Bride of Christ, then perhaps we need to reevaluate our priorities.