To Those Who Are Leaving

Dear Disgruntled Friends,

To those who are considering leaving your church, no longer supporting a missionary, or giving up on a friendship, I'd like to share my spin on a parable. This may be blasphemous, and if so, I beg your forgiveness, as well as soliciting your gracious correction. But if you know me, I hope you'll see my heart, know that I'm mostly orthodox in my beliefs and practice, and have patience with me. Perhaps that's the entire point I'm trying to make.

Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant seeking beautiful pearls, who, on finding one expensive pearl, departed...

because he saw that there were scratches on one side, and although the core was of great value, he could not accept any pearls that had any flaws whatsoever.

If the core of something is rotten, friends, then yes, we must in good conscience depart. If the core principles of something shift so much that we find we no longer have shared values enough to support an organization, it would be foolish and pointless to remain.

But what if the kingdom of heaven isn't, on this earth at least, perfected yet? What if the pearl of great price--God's people, grouped together in various organizations and places--still has some scratches on it? Can we dismiss it so easily? What would it look like to find that we have some disagreements--important ones, even--that need to be addressed and discussed together... yet we don't depart? What can it mean to say to our pastor or that missionary or those teachers, "I still see the good here. We still share a desire to seek God's holiness, and justice, and mercy. But I am concerned about this trend or that movement, and because I believe in this organization, I won't walk away. I'll ask questions, and pray, and strive to work alongside brothers and sisters to see change where needed, and the shoring up of Gospel truths where I may fear we are slipping."

What would that look like?

I'm not Jesus, and I don't claim that this parable is divinely inspired or inerrant. But I will say that I am, in the same way that Jesus sometimes was, being purposely oblique in expressing my views. Jesus did it because he was bringing about the kingdom of heaven, and he knew his father's will. I'm doing it because I don't want to offend, and I hope to make people think about larger issues, and also maybe because I'm a bit chicken to wade into turbulent waters. But all around me, I see people leaving, withdrawing support, and condemning people and organizations which they used to love, and it saddens me.

If the pearl in your hands is crumbling and completely eroded, then by all means--don't slip it on a string and put it around your neck. But if it's not a perfect sphere, or it's lost a little luster on one side, don't assume that there's nothing there of value. Jesus doesn't do that for us, and I don't think he wants us to do that for each other, either.

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, everyone. With love,
Chandra