Scripture: Galatians 2:1-21
Dear Church,
You know what I thought we’d leave behind in the empty tomb?
Conflict.
I used to think that all the misunderstandings and mistakes and tension and emotional pain of community would disappear in the lives and churches of people who really love and follow the Lord.
Like…in the really, really, really sanctified saints and sanctuaries. I thought the presence of conflict in the church signaled the absence of the Holy Spirit.
Sigh.
Turns out conflict, like the Lord, will be with us always. As we’ll see this Sunday, it was there from the beginning in the early church.
So maybe we’ve been thinking about it all wrong?
Maybe the presence of conflict isn’t a sign that we are in the wrong place with the wrong people. Maybe it isn’t a reason to shut down or run. Maybe conflict isn’t a sign of God’s absence, but instead a sign of God’s active loving resurrecting presence?
Conflict itself has never been a sin or a curse, but we have been wounded and separated from God and one another by our unredeemed expectations around conflict and our inability and unwillingness to seek Christ in our conflicts.
We can’t not do conflict; but we can learn to do conflict well. We flourish and cultivate shalom, not by avoiding conflict, but by entering into it with humility, faith and love.
I hope you’ll join me as we learn that conflict will always be part of the resurrection life we share here and now–and that is both a gift and a good thing. The Lord is faithful to bless us, grow us, heal us and save us through conflict.
Peace,
Pastor Kate
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