by
The Rev. Gerrit Scott Dawson
(Before each plenary session of the General Assembly, time is given to the
Commissioners and Advisory Delegates to speak their minds on any subject of
their choosing. The following one-minute speech was offered by Commissioner
Gerrit Dawson from the Presbytery of Western North Carolina. It was
delivered after the vote was taken to refer the matter of Christ’s Lordship,
and before the debate on Ordination Standards. It is reprinted here with his
permission.)
In the early years of the church, Rome was the most multicultural society
the world had known. Their success lay in allowing conquered peoples to
retain their religions. You could believe anything you wanted, worship any
way you wished as long as once a year you joined your fellow citizens in
walking by a bowl of incense, picking up a pinch, throwing it in the fire,
and mumbling “Caesar is Lord.” You didn’t even have to believe it, so long
as you followed the ritual.
But the Christians couldn’t do it. For them, Jesus, and, Jesus alone is
Lord. They could not deny that, no matter how harmless the ritual seemed to
be. And so they were persecuted.
Who is the 21st century Caesar? It is the cultural understanding that you
can believe whatever you want to believe as long as you don’t say, “And this
is the one truth.” To say Casesar is Lord means not making any universal
truth claim. As long as you do that, there will be no quarrel with you.
Yesterday, I couldn’t stop crying. I wept in the morning, the afternoon and
the night.
For in our lack of nerve, our lack of resolve that led to a failure to
profess a clear and clarion statement that Jesus, and Jesus alone is the
singular saving Lord, we said instead, “Casear is Lord.”
And I am grieved.