Do you know the truth about the power of the tongue? Have you ever experienced being lied about
and rumors spread about you? Have you
ever passed a rumor only to find it isn't true and hurt someone? Indeed the pain of slander is greater than physical
pain because it touches the soul and spirit.
In leading a church I have certainly experienced the power of the tongue
to destroy. In the early days of our
church planting we had a woman who had great gifts and talents that helped us a
great deal. In the past she had become
addicted to prescription painkillers as the result of a botched surgery. She had shared this with one of our other
leaders. That woman was jealous of the
first woman and began spreading it about that the first woman had been a drug
addict without supplying the context. Soon,
others began to question why we would allow such a person to be a leader in the
church. The truth is that all of us are
redeemed sinners, saved by grace, and that even if the circumstances were
different it wouldn't disqualify someone from being a leader, but the rumor
damaged trust, damaged the person's heart, and damaged the church. I wish that were the last time I dealt with such
things.
It is the stuff inside us already that defiles us. We are full of envy, covetousness, and anger
and occasionally it either bubbles out or comes rushing out in torrents. The reason the world doesn't come to the
church is because of us, we are indeed hypocrites. We need more of the Holy Spirit if we are to
progress in the inner life, we need discipline and confession. In our tradition there are forms of worship
for morning, noon and night and all of them have the reality of sinfulness
embedded in them either by a confession or other acknowledgment. The forms of Morning and Evening Prayer begin
with a confession and our Sunday worship begins with an acknowledgement that we
need to be cleansed, has confession just before Communion, the Eucharistic
Prayer has the cross at the center, the acknowledgement of our sin, and the
last thing before we come to the table is the acknowledgement that we are
unworthy to come without mercy. We need
to be reminded that we need mercy and grace, all of us, all the time. That will keep us humble and away from
slandering others.
After the vision of the heavenly host proclaiming the reign
of God's kingdom we see the battle being waged against the woman pregnant with
child. If we look back to the second
chapter, in the letter to the church at Thyatira, we will see something about
the identity of this child who will rule all the nations with a rod of
iron. We see Jesus described as "authority
over the nations—`He will rule them with an iron scepter . . . . just as I have
received authority from my Father".
At the end of this passage we see Him taken up protectively to heaven and
the woman fleeing to the wilderness, to the place prepared by God, for 3 1/2
years. We are already in a battle but
not with flesh and blood, why do we insist on making the battle harder by
fighting one another?
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