"I Told You So?" Let's Not Do That.

All kinds of new things are happening or getting ready to happen. The new year is uncomfortable close. The Episcopal Church in the area of Fort Worth and westward is going through changes. The U.S. will soon have a new president with a completely new administration. I’ve spent a lot of time reading and thinking about these changes. Oh, not much about the new year. I’ve seen a lot of those. I don’t know that they are getting any better for me although perhaps they’re some simpler. No, it’s the stuff happening to my church and my country that is holding my attention.

As far as the Fort Worth Diocese of the Episcopal Church is concerned, that is working itself out in the only way it could. There are now two Anglican related entities in this area and I still don’t see any likelihood that we can end things peacefully among ourselves. I think the civil courts (how’s that for an oxymoron?) will have to eventually decide who owns the property and belongs in the church buildings. It’s hard for me to see it as a case where, as long as you can get a majority vote you can leave the organization behind and take the property with you. Anyway, I didn’t intend to get into that part of it again.

What I do think needs some reflection is how we’re going to treat each other after all these changes take place. I’ve been reading some blogs and forums on both the situation in the Episcopal Church and our national government. What I find way too prevalent in both are those who chortle as they predict doom for either the other side, or for the whole organization because of who “won.” You know, that may be the root of the problem, this whole idea of “winning” or “losing.” If I choose the cannoli does that mean the strawberry cheesecake loses? No, it just means it wasn’t chosen. It happens all the time. Life is a series of choices. We make them and, yes, we then have to live with them.
We won’t know how those things work out for a while. Maybe you’re right, the country, with Barak Obama as president, will go to hell in a hand basket and, possibly, I’ll go to hell individually for believing that we can all worship together whether we agree on all theological issues or not. Obviously, I didn’t think so or I wouldn’t have turned my hand in the ways that I did.

What I am sure of is that we will all survive no matter how it turns out. The country will not be destroyed by the election of Barak Obama. We’ve weathered the administrations of some pretty poor presidents. God’s church will not be destroyed by division. After all, the divisions were already well along in New Testament times and have continued at a pretty steady pace. The point (ah, ha, he’s finally getting to the point!) is that instead of wishing for the worst possible outcome for those who don’t agree with us, we need to be praying with our spiritual being and with our hands for all of us to succeed. It’s not a matter of winning or losing, it’s a matter of success or failure for all of us. I’ll tell you who’s really in the wrong here; it’s the ones who are hoping for the things to fall apart in abject failure just so they can say to those who disagreed with them, “I told you so.”