Confrontation in the Back Pew

They sat in the back pew,

I wondered who they were,

and what brought them to our worship service.

I’m not sure it was a desire to worship God,

but that is too judgmental, too presumptive.

However what transpired after the service

led me to consider such a possibility.

It seems they felt called to challenge,

to point out the mistakes of our church,

to confront me with my failures in Biblical interpretation.

It was not what I needed at the end of a long day,

I’m not sure it was what they needed either.

But I was not about to let two young literalists

condemn me and my ministry without a word of explanation.

Unfortunately it seems my words fell on deaf ears,

their minds were firm in their black and white convictions,

there was little, if any, humility in their approach,

they could not understand how someone
could think differently than themselves

and still be faithful to the revealed Word of God.

In the end they displayed what is true of all of us:

we chose to believe what we do because it seems right to us,

then we read the Bible to suit our perspective.

At least I admit that such bias functions in myself,

but they understood themselves above or beyond that human limitation.

Arguments from silence go nowhere,

arguments from interpretation go wherever,

and I am tired of arguing…

just let me love others as God has loved me.

And leave me in peace to listen to the Spirit of God

instead of the voices of self-certain young people.

Kyrie Eleison.