PCUSA compared to Bible’s dysfunctional families
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, February 24, 2004
DALLAS – Using the flight of Jacob from his family as her text, Moderator Susan R. Andrews told the Theological Task Force on Peace, Unity and Purity – which is trying to provide some family therapy for the Presbyterian Church (USA) – that Scripture depicts human families as “a sorry mess.”
And so is the PCUSA, said Andrews, citing “efforts to control the family fortune; efforts at schism, euphemistically called ‘gracious separation;’ and, “like Rebecca and Jacob, traditions and rules [that] are being broken in order to receive the blessing.”
In an earlier talk to the task force, she included the renewal effort titled “New Wineskins” – which she termed a “shadow church” – as evidence of the dysfunctional denomination. She did not, however, blame denominational leadership, either elected or staff, as part of the problem.
In her comments about breaking traditions and rules, it seemed that the moderator – for once – was criticizing some of her own constituency. Although she did not make it explicit, her judgment seems to apply to sessions and presbyteries that are defying church law by ordaining practicing homosexuals.
Likewise, she did not criticize the Covenant Network, of which she was a board member until she resigned to become moderator. The network, through its own legal work on behalf of Presbyterians who want to circumvent the denomination’s “fidelity/chastity” ordination law, is training church officers in ways to defy church law by redefining key terms, such as “chastity.”
The Bible is “chock full of stories of dysfunctional families,” Andrews said, focusing on Jacob’s family and his flight from home after he had tricked his older brother Esau out of his birthright.
“One of the conundrums of this story is that, despite sin, brokenness and deception, God is still at work,” she said.
Andrews recalled Jacob’s dream of a ladder, with angels descending and ascending on it, while he was in the wilderness. Then she drew a parallel to the conditions in the PCUSA.
“We’re uncertain where we are going, tired and perhaps lost,” she said. “Isn’t it wonderful in the bad news of Scripture that God blesses us and recreates us.”
Jacob’s experience, she said, was like today’s experiences in the PCUSA – “caught between the glorious days of the Reformed past and the unknown days of the faithful remnant.”
“Jacob’s dreams about a ladder were firmly rooted in the dust of now, but ascending into the mystery of the future,” she added.
And, like the angels of Jacob’s dream, she said, “Scurrying up and down the ladders are the angels, the messengers of God” of today.
She gave her own list of today’s angels:
“A young pastor in a small town in Ohio, serving a 90-member church struggling to survive. She has turned to Hispanics and encouraged them to become a bilingual church.”
“An English-speaking Presbyterian pastor in Pasadena. On any given Sunday morning, they worship in English, Spanish, Korean and Farsi.”
“Another, Joan Griffith, the featured saint on those pages of the Mission Year Book. She served 45 years in Ethiopia and trained many leaders of the church that has grown from 40,000 to 12 million.”
“A feisty woman in San Francisco, trying to create a safehouse. She is opening a computer center. She’s constantly agitating and angering the public officials in San Francisco as she protests budget cuts, tax cuts for the rich.”
“Steve in Ohio, deeply and always will be a conservative. He told me, ‘I’m scared of liberals. I don’t know how to talk to liberals. Do you have any suggestion?'”
“All of the people sitting in this room, who have given years of your life, holding the fragility of the church in your hands.”
“There are many angels scurrying up and down this ladder of possibility,” she declared.