The Word Abused . . .

LET’S REMOVE THE CONTROLS —NOW!

These paragraphs are inspired in part by that cry of Moses to Pharaoh, Let my people go! But also by that wise saying from Cervantes, the author of Don Quixote: “By the streets of ‘by and by’ one arrives at the house of ‘never’.” It took 40 years of tough discipline from the Lord before Moses was ready to go before a king and demand freedom for an enslaved people. And had not Cervantes been a slave in the hands of pirates and lost an arm in combat he would not likely have cultivated that sense of urgency that the quotation reflects.

Pharaoh was deft in handling Moses’ demands. Once he saw he had to concede, he suggested that the Hebrews go, but not far. Having to concede still more, he bargained that they go but without children and cattle. Then comes those powerful words from the deliverer, Not a hoof shall be left behind! All controls had to be removed —and now! It was a great hour in the. history of God’s people. But it always is when they turn toward freedom.

Cervantes not only had the talent to burlesque the exaggerated claims of chivalry but also to expose the phoniness of the presumptuous. He saw the fallacy of honor without sacrifice and victory without struggle, and he was bored by empty talk. It is one thing to talk of freedom, but another thing to do something about it. There is no shortage of people who give lip service to the cause of unity of all believers, but actions are something else. Some where down the line, “by and by,” they may do something, but not now. Such ones, Cervantes assures us, are certain to land at the house of never. That pleases those that man the System, who have their vested interests, for they don’t want anything much to change, except by and by. Talk is OK, but action? Not now.

C. S. Lewis dramatizes this demonic device in his Screwtape Letters. Screwtape is advising the less experienced devil, Wormwood, on how to handle his client when he has all those noble impulses to do good and to change his life. Screwtape calls for shrewdness. Wormwood is not to discourage the man’s inclination to commitment, but only to suggest that he need not do so now. Satan well knows that “by and by” means never.

One sees this in putting together a unity effort. Everybody is for unity. They all talk of the need to get together and pray for the oneness of God’s people. Nobody is against studying together and seeking solutions. Unity is one of those things we all praise in one way or another. But getting people to do something about it is something else. How about attending? Will you lend your support? What about exchanging views with a Christian Church brother and let the audience question the two of you? When it comes to this sort of thing, the talkers had rather live in the house of never and opine about how someday they might —in the sweet by and by. If Moses had been of that mind, the Hebrews would never have left Goshen. When it comes to the great issues, the now is imperative.

This journal’s purpose is not only to help in that Movement that seeks to chip away at the cruel partisan walls that separate us as brothers, but to call for a removal of those controls that bind our people to a legalistic religion. We want the controls removed now. We want change now. Freedom and unity now, rather than by and by. Let our people go! Let them be free to question, free to think, free to read, free to do and to be and to go. This means the freedom to be wrong, which is a necessary liberty for all seekers after truth. It means the freedom to make mistakes, which has to happen if one does anything at all. It means the freedom to love and be loved for the sake of persons rather than party.

It means to be free from the humdrum, the boring, the superficial, the periphery. It means the freedom to be one’s self, looking to Jesus for authenticity rather than to party for approbation. Now!

It means to be an authentic person in Jesus without being told to go elsewhere “if you can’t submit to the elders” and without being fired, cajoled, threatened, or ostracized if one is a little different from the crowd. People who give years of work and money to a congregation’s life and property are being told, often by newcomers, to leave if they don’t like the way things go. If they want to change it, they must not love! They may have built up the work and paid for the property, but all their rights vanish the moment they call for change — other than “by and by” that is!

It means to be free to face up to issues and to linger with life’s mysteries. Our people are tiring of retreating from the difficult and the mysterious to the superficial and the manageable. Most of us can’t face up to death, so we retreat to funeral arrangements. We can’t deal with sex, so we retreat to the techniques. We fear the lessons that history teaches, so we withdraw into isolation. We can’t really come to terms with Jesus, so we retreat to a blind conformity, talking a lot of nonsense about the evils of “unity in diversity,” We dare not act, so we talk. Not by and by, but NOW!

Our leaders had better listen. If they cannot accommodate themselves to those wise restraints and sensible compromises that make for effective leadership, they may well have congregations on their hands that will cease asking for freedom and start demanding it. Elders who encourage growth and innovation, new approaches to old truths, the reading of material that is out on the cutting edge, and the hearing of “controversial” speakers will be the shepherds of God’s flock tomorrow. We need shepherds who will look deep inside to the needs of the flock, men who can listen and pray and study honestly with their own people. That breed will soon pass that has to browbeat, or ignore, or feel threatened, or pick up the phone to check it out with Abilene. —the Editor
 

Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence. —John Adams (1770)