February 3, 2006
Nose
It has been said of Reinhold Niebuhr that he had a nose swift to sniff out the irony and the ambivalence of things in general and of piety in particular, an eye sharp to perceive that the children of darkness are apt to be not only wiser but often more appealing and plausible than the children of light.
When we pray in our churches, insofar as we ask for anything, let us ask for that. For as we sharpen those skills do we also strengthen any capacity for love and servant leadership that might be latent in us. There’s a seductiveness, a quaint charm in the order now so many seek. The terrible anxiety of losing it and of not always being right provokes the anger — and often the meanness — to defend it. When that happens, fear has then taken the place of love and we are left with a not very secure place from which to exegete and understand.
The Great Commission to make disciples, as noble as it be, can blind us to the Great Commandment to love, thus leaving us merciless with numbers galore and no church at all.