The Lord Told Me to Post This.

Last night I was drinking an excellent wine with two Anglican clergy friends. They get together to smoke cigars and drink most Friday nights. (Gosh, it’s great to be an Anglican!) I don’t smoke, but I often join them for the drink and talk.

One mentioned something he saw on T.V. (And since I’m repeating it second hand, I’ll leave names and claims of 100% accuracy out.) A self-proclaimed apostle was on the program of an obnoxiously prominent Christian author. Mr. Apostle was telling of a flight delay at an airport. And he said, “The Lord told me, ‘This isn’t about them; it’s about you.’” In other words, Satan was delaying the flights to prevent him from getting to a conference.

Yes, a bit self-important. But I’ve noticed this is a pitfall church people of various stripes often fall into – it’s all about me.

Now, I understand that God acts personally, very personally at times. And He can and does communicate very personally with individuals. I’ve seen it happen. But we can be a bit quick to claim we’re at the top of the Lord’s cell phone directory. And when we claim he rings us up in ways that glorify “me” more than Him, something is probably wrong with our claim. It’s probably “private interpretation” run amuck.

I’ve just mentioned one episode from one segment of the theological spectrum. Any number of episodes could come from one Gene Robinson. It seems every time he opens his mouth, “it’s all about me.” In 2003, he insisted he wouldn’t be “the Gay Bishop.” Not only has he become the Gay Bishop, he’s become the Me Bishop.

Dr. Mabuse exposes this well with her painstaking transcript of Robinson’s talk at Vanderbilt. She points out this particularly revealing quote:

And I tell you, the greatest blessing of this last 3 and a half years is that God has seemed so close. Prayer sometimes seems redundant…God is so right there. Now, how can you regret something like that? People say, ‘If you had to do this all over again, would you do it?’ Well, my God, of course! Because look at what it’s done in terms of my relationship with God!

Never mind what it’s done to relationships between churches in the Anglican Communion. It’s all about Me!

Now I don’t mean to pick on Robinson. I really don’t. My point is that this “It’s all about me” tendency crosses various theological lines. It’s just about everywhere in the church, especially in America. And it’s something for people of all theological stripes to be aware of both in themselves and others.

And the Lord told me to tell you that.