It is inevitable

It is inevitable that you won’t always agree with your child’s coach’s choice of plays or playing time doled out to the players. It is inevitable that you won’t like the pastor or elders or another member confronting you with your lack of worship attendance. It is inevitable that you won’t always appreciate your child’s teacher contacting you about late assignments or trouble in school.

We live in a time when tempers are short and nerves are raw, while at the same time that communication is easily accessible and social media is everywhere. It is very easy for us to get our feelings hurt or assume the worst and immediately think negatively and become publicly critical.

Martin Luther wrote very eloquently about this very problem (minus the social media):

“It is inevitable that one member occasionally jostles the other, just as a foot or a toe of our body bumps the others, or as a person injures himself. Such bumps and trials do not fail to come, especially because we are sojourning here in the realm of the devil, who tempts us uninterruptedly, and also because the flesh is still weak and full of flaws. This explains why even dear and faithful friends fall out or become irritable with one another. At times the devil injects poison and suspicion into a heart because of a single word or glance and thereby stirs up mutual animosity. … Trifles can lead to such quarreling and enmity that great harm results to many. The blood soon begins to boil; then the devil shoots his venomous darts into the heart by means of evil tongues, and finally no one says or thinks anything good about the other person. The devil keeps on fanning the flames and is eager to set people against one another, to spread misery, and to incite them to murder. …

“Therefore it behooves us Christians to be on our guard against the devil’s craft and cunning, to exercise prudence, and to beware of letting such poison develop in our hearts. We must repel any suspicion and antipathy that may be stirred up in us and remind ourselves not to let love depart and die out for this reason but to hold to it with a strong hand. And if aversion and discord have arisen anywhere, we must restore and improve the love and friendship.

“[The devil] strives for nothing else than to destroy love among Christians and to create utter hatred and envy. For he knows very well that Christendom is built and preserved by love. In Col. 3:14 Paul speaks of love as “binding everything together in perfect harmony.” And in 1 Cor. 13:13 he calls love the greatest virtue, which accomplishes and achieves most in the Christian realm. For in the absence of love doctrine cannot remain pure; nor can hearts be held together in unity.” – Luther’s Works, Vol. 24: Sermons on the Gospel of St. John: Chapters 14-16

We have some big decisions coming this month: Repairing the exterior of our church and lower school; Expansion of WLS for both short and long term needs; Increase of School Choice students at WLS, etc. That is why we are having informational, congregational and joint voters meetings all this month. But if you have questions or concerns, please direct them to the appropriate people – not riling up other members or parents, but talking to the pastor, principal, elders, council or IPSC members. We have the information and we want to give it to you. You simply need to ask.

Some Scriptural advice on how to deal with each other:

“Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen” (Ephesians 4:29).

“Hatred stirs up dissension, but love covers over all wrongs” (Proverbs 10:12).

And I always like what Martin Luther had to say in his explanation of the 8th Commandment: “Put the best construction on everything.”

Your called workers and congregational leaders have your church, school, family, and especially God’s Kingdom’s best interests in mind with all the important decisions you have asked them to make. Please trust them. And as you do, it is inevitable that God will be glorified in all we do together for Him.

Working together in unity,

Pastor Michael Zarling