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Fine Prints: August, 2009 The World's Oldest and Biggest Idol August 1 Perspectives on Markham Woods Church--the Negative August 8 Perspectives on Markham Woods Church--the Positive August 15 530-Word Rant August 22 It's Rarely "Just" Marital Infidelity August 29
The World's Oldest and Biggest Idol
OK! OK! You’ve got me backing down already. I’ll
admit it. I’ve overstated my case. I’ve exaggerated. The truth is, I
don’t know for sure just what is the world’s oldest and biggest
idol. But I think I can safely point the
finger at one of the world’s oldest and biggest idols. And I may
surprise you by what I’ll say. My answer: religion. Now before you have me hanged, drawn
and quartered as a heretic, give me a moment to defend myself. The
reality is, almost without exception, religion causes the committed to
end up asking the wrong question. We cease to ask, What’s right?
Instead, we ask, What’s good for our religion? Our denomination? Our
congregation? Our religious institution? Even if we have to fudge a
little concerning what we feel is truly right, we assume that the end
justifies the means. That our religion is so important that it’s OK to
take shortcuts that in any other context we’d consider suspect. We turn
a blind eye to a lot of things because our religion has such lofty goals
and such a grand purpose. And when we do so, we’ve turned
religion into an idol. Of course, this is nothing new. It’s
been going on for a long time. Take the spiritual leaders in the time of
Christ, for example. They weren’t about to have some maverick "prophet"
threaten the status quo. It’s better that one man should die than to
have long-established traditions jeopardized. The question wasn’t about
what was right and what was wrong. The question was about what seemed
better for the religious establishment. Although religious powers have come
and gone over the millennia, the question invariably remains the same.
The persecution during the Dark Ages wasn’t about right and wrong. It
was about power. It was about control. It was about the perceived need
for conformity on the part of religious adherents. It was about what
seemed best for the religion. The Inquisition asked the same wrong
questions. It was all part of the same idol worship. The Catholic Church
was no longer a means to an end. It had become an end in itself. And any
who, figuratively, failed to bow down to the idol when the music played
were flung into the fiery furnace or burned at the stake or hacked to
bits by the sword. We see the same going on today in
Islam. Committed people lose sight of what’s right by any objective
standard, and instead do what seems best for their belief system.
Unfortunately, Protestants don’t have
a stellar track record in situations in which they’ve had unfettered
power. You see, power corrupts; and absolute power corrupts absolutely.
Which brings us to our own
denomination. It’s easy to think that as Seventh-day Adventists we’d
never succumb to the pitfalls of other religious systems. That we’d
never take something that should be a great blessing to humanity and
turn it into an idol. But remember, there’s good reason why
the Bible says, "Let anyone who thinks he’s able to stand be on guard
lest he fall." The same principle applies to our collective
vulnerabilities. Even when we’re doing things in the name of God.
Jim Coffin, Senior Pastor
Perspectives on Markham Woods Church––the
Negative
Very recently Markham Woods Church received an
anonymous email that took our congregation to task for the cold-shoulder
reception we gave someone years and years ago. What follows is an
abbreviated version. "Hi, I’m a Seventh-day Adventist from
Iowa. "I lived in Florida for a while. And
I visited your church––once. I would have loved to worship with you
every week, as our family was searching for a home church. But the
reception we got was s-o-o-o-o cold that we never came back. "When I sent my two daughters to
their Sabbath School class, they were told twice that they couldn’t sit
where they were because that was ‘someone else’s seat.’ And not one
child was friendly in any way. Ok, kids are kids. But what about the
adults? "As we arrived, I noticed a group of
people chatting in the parking lot. I parked and walked toward the group
with my girls. Not one ‘Happy Sabbath.’ Not one smile. As we walked into
the church, the person passing out the bulletins was talking to a friend
and just shoved the bulletin into my hands, not even looking at me. Not
one friendly face anywhere. And, believe me, I searched. "So guess what. We moved back to
Iowa, to a church where my non-Adventist husband was loved right into
the fold. But you have to hear this: I was talking with a lady at our
church, after attending for awhile, and told her that we used to live in
Florida. I said we’d found a good congregation there, but I also shared
what we’d experienced at yours––not saying which church it was.
"Her eyes widened as she said that
the same exact thing had happened to her and her two daughters––and it
happened to them at Markham Woods Church! She could hardly believe it
when I told her that was the church I was talking about! "My daughters are grown now, but they
still remember your church. They remember how they begged me to never
take them back there, and how I joked with them for years that having to
go back to your church was going to be included on their list of
possible punishments for misbehavior! What a shame. "I’m not telling you all this to
offend or upset you or anyone else. Every church, including the one I
attend now, has things that members need to work on. But I promise you
this: If you ever attend our church, you’ll feel loved that day. You’ll
go away from there feeling that those people really cared that you were
there. You’ll be invited to eat with us and to come back soon. You wont
be able to get to your car without someone running out to say good-bye.
And there will be ready hugs all around. "It’s something to think about." Two points: (1) Even in the best of
churches "customer service" can fall down at times. Let’s take the
e-mail's reprimand as a helpful reminder. But let’s not be discouraged.
(2) I’d like to think that the experience described above is relatively
rare––as next week’s testimonies will suggest.
Perspective on Markham
Woods––The
Positive
Last week I shared a recently
received email complaining about a visitor’s experience at Markham Woods
Church years and years ago. I’m not quite sure why she suddenly decided
to contact us. I suggested that we should take the reprimand as a
helpful reminder but not be discouraged. Now let me share excerpts from
three letters that describe an altogether different perspective of our
congregation. Letter 1 (from a member who had moved
away but whose parents were still in the area): "‘Thank you’ is hardly
sufficient for the gratitude I feel for your taking care of my parents
as you have. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. "Knowing my parents’ furnace has been
broken has made me feel sick. I’ve called them every night to check that
they’re warm enough––and I’ve woken up every morning with the same
worry. Our having no money to assist them is such a helpless feeling. My
dad’s health has been poor, and all the stress they’ve been bearing is
just too much. "Thank you for being the light in
their lives and mine (alluding to the financial help the church
provided). I’m so glad to call you family. Thank you again for acting as
the hands and feet of God. Please share my heartfelt thanks with any and
all who played a part." Letter 2 (from a visitor): "Pastor
Coffin, I wanted to drop you a quick note in appreciation to you and
your congregation. I’m Catholic––a practicing Catholic. But I’ve had the
pleasure of attending your Sabbath services with my boyfriend’s family. "I must say I’ve felt a peace and
genuine sense of family at your church. I wanted to share my feelings
with you. I’ve visited churches of various denominations, and most just
criticized Catholics. So you can imagine how refreshing it is just to
hear the Word and to worship. "I pray the Lord will continue
blessing you and your congregation. Your friend in Christ." Letter 3 (from a member who has moved
away): "I want to start by saying, yes, I’m taking the easy way out by
writing a letter––but only because it’s too painful to say good-bye. I
love Markham Woods Church so very much, and in moving the hardest thing
to leave was all of you. "I want to say thank you for all the
years I’ve been part of this congregation. My family has had a lot
happen since we became members, and nobody has ever judged us in any
way. Rather, you’ve supported us in every way you can. "I started coming to this church when
I was 14––and pregnant. Yet everyone at Markham Woods stood by my side
and never made me feel I was anything but equal––even though no one even
really knew me at the time. I thank you for everything you’ve done for
us. "I’ll never forget the memories I’ve
had here––like the dedication of my children, my baptism, getting
married, women’s ministries, Pathfinders and so much more. I love you
all." Let’s learn lessons from last week’s
negative email. Let’s act in a way to ensure even more correspondence
like I’ve shared this week. Jim Coffin, Senior Pastor
530-Word Rant
Periodically, the Orlando Sentinel makes a few
column inches available for readers to indulge in a "30-Word Rant." In
some cases I get the feeling that 30 words may be more space than the
writers should have been allowed! In writing my weekly Fine Prints for
the church bulletin, I limit myself to 530 words. And today I feel like
using all of them to rant. Because I’m ticked off. So if you have an
aversion to rants, I’d recommend that you stop reading right now. Anyway, while on vacation recently, I
visited a service-station restroom just off Interstate 75. The walls of
the restroom’s stall dividers were covered with graffiti. There were
suggestions concerning both males and females I might want to phone.
There was "artwork." There were a few jokes written with felt pen. Not
to mention a poem or two, which I don’t think were learned in Sabbath
School. I hope not. And to top it off, the sink was
filthy. In general, I found the place disgusting. However, I took it all in stride
until I got to the hand dryer. The graffiti there was of an altogether
different variety. At the hand dryer, some no-doubt-well-meaning soul
had decided to "preach a sermon." And I greatly doubt that it was the
establishment’s owner who did so. There, affixed at a cock-eyed angle
to the top of the hand dryer was a well-adhered sticker that said, "For
God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son . . ."
Someone else must have felt the
sticker didn’t belong there so had tried, unsuccessfully, to scrape it
off. In the process, quite a lot of paint had been scraped from the hand
dryer, leaving it rather scarred and ugly. The sad thing is, the zealot who
placed the sticker there probably felt he’d done a great service. It
probably wasn’t the first or last sticker he’ll affix in someone else’s
restroom. I’m sure he felt he’d witnessed
effectively. I mean, in a room where people had scribbled such
obscenities on the walls, wasn’t a Bible text like a ray of sunshine?
Not from my perspective. To my way of thinking, his action had
dragged a beautiful spiritual truth down to the level of vandalism.
(While I’m on my rant, let me also
express my displeasure at seeing Christian outreach literature left
cluttering up phone booths. Or worse still, having a restaurant patron
give the waiter/waitress a piece of literature instead of a
gratuity—because it’s "even better than a tip!" I not so sure that most
service providers would agree.) I believe in trying to fulfill the
gospel commission. I believe we should share the good news of God’s
great love. I believe we should take seriously our responsibility to
share the good things with which we’ve been blessed, be they material or
information. But do the ends justify the means?
Would these Christian proselytizers like to have Islamic or Hindu or
Buddhist stickers plastered throughout the restrooms of a business they
run? And if they wouldn’t, I hope they’ll
recognize their own impropriety when they choose to "vandalize or
Jesus." Jim Coffin,
Senior Pastor
It'd Rarely "Just" Marital Infidelity Seemingly, a lot of people think the
recent, highly publicized dalliances of South Carolina’s Governor Mark
Sanford shouldn’t be a factor in determining his ongoing fitness for the
state’s highest office. And they have a point.
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