You demanded security from your relatives for no reason; you stripped people of their clothing, leaving them naked. – Job 22:6

Today’s Scripture Reading (May 8, 2015): Job 22

There is possibly no more painful experience in the church than being removed from a ministerial position. Unfortunately, I know firsthand that pain. The problem is even worse when you have not committed the sins of which you are being accused. This not to say that we are without sin and blameless. I think every pastor and board member and church leader does something during their tenure that they wished remained undone. Sometimes in the heat of the moment we are backed into a weird spot where we are trying defend ourselves and our own reputations while knowing that there are things that we have done, or left undone. This is our sin, one we share with all leadership. It reminds me of an old MeatLoaf song – “I’d Do Anything for Love (But I Won’t Do That).” It is not that I am perfect and sinless – but these aren’t my sins.

On November 2, 2014, the elders of Mars Hill Church wrote a letter of confession and apology to two pastors they had released from staff positions at Mars Hill in 2007. They admitted to these Pastors, Brent Myer and Paul Petry, that they had erred. They should not have jumped onto the bandwagon, they were sorry that they got caught up in the moment. They apologised for instructing Church Members to treat them like unrepentant sinners. They were innocent of the charges that they had been applied to them, and now they realized that and all they could do was say “we are sorry.” The reaction seems woefully inadequate, but that is part of the problem when we react too quickly. The damage that we do cannot be easily undone.

A church disciplinary act of this magnitude is extreme. It’s perhaps the most powerful that can be enacted upon a pastor. We now think that motion was hasty and harmful. We should have challenged the motion rather than approving it. Instead, we used our voting power as elders in a way that resulted in further harm to you. Further, we brought disrepute on the Church and its responsibility to exercise church discipline in a godly, loving and redemptive way. We failed to love you as a fellow elder and brother in Christ. (from the Letter of Confession to Pastors Brent Meyer and Paul Petry).

That last line might have been the biggest sin committed – a failure to love.

 

As Eliphaz begins his last speech, he begins to list the crimes of which Job stands accused. Job has already admitted that he is guilty before God, but it is always good practice to get the crimes clear. But there is only one (okay, maybe more than one) problem. This hideous list of crimes are not the crimes of which Job is guilty. And Job is placed in the awkward position of having to maintain his innocence while admitting his guilt.

What is really amazing to me in the saga is that Job’s friends never really ask Job what he is guilty of – they assume guilt based on the trials that Job is suffering through. If there is a clinic on how we should not be a friend, this may be it. There is no love and no understanding. There is no compassion. And yet, this is often how we work in real life. The reality is that there are times when sins have to be confronted and action has to be taken. But the two things that we need to be sure of is that the sins are accurate and the action is filled with love and compassion.

This is where Mars Hill seems to have missed in dealing with Brent Meyer and Paul Petry. And I wish we could roll our eyes and say “only at Mars Hill.” But the truth is that we are all guilty at some point and on some level of this very crime. And this may be a sin that will cost us dearly when we take our turn to stand before God. Mars Hill had the guts to publicly apologize. Do we?

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: Job 23

Note: The latest message from VantagePoint Community Church (Edmonton) "The Practice of Stillness" is available on the VantagePoint Website. You can find it here.