“AGREEING TO AGREE”
Acts 7:55-60
The Rev. Ms. Laurie A. McNeill
Montclair, New Jersey
April 24, 2005
(Acts755.smn)
Pinecrest High School had one word that could clear a room quicker than the word fire.
“Fight!” was all it took to move a crowd. I remember one day, in particular, when I was sitting at a
table off to the side of the library and someone came into the middle of the room and shouted, “Fight!”
That was all it took. Students scrambled from the desks and the aisles of the bookshelves, and we
followed the one who made the proclamation until we found the action. We did not hustle because we
wanted to break up the fight; we scrambled because we did not want to miss it.
Times have changed. Students have learned that fights can be deadly. The one sounding the
alarm functions as a lifesaver, warning everyone else to run away from the action to places of safety. It
is best to flee from a heated battle.
Young people have learned, painfully, that there are some angry students who kill, and it is best
not to be caught near the fray.
We have come to avoid fights, because we know they may yield lethal outcomes.
Fights have ceased to be entertaining. A fight implies casualties. The naivete commonly
evidenced in my high school years has abated. People now know better. Avoid the fight.
Churches are not immune to this cautionary mind set. Churches find themselves sharing this
desire for survival. Churches have learned that it seems easier to survive controversy by avoiding it. If
issues lend themselves to debate, argument, and dissent, many churches steer clear of them. Instead of
jumping into topics that may result in wounds and fractures, churches often keep a distance from
damaging discussions.
We know the sayings that inform such avoidance: “Don’t stir the pot.” “Let sleeping dogs lie.”
The problem with those old sayings is that they fail to look at the consequences of doing nothing. An
unstirred pot eventually becomes ruined by heat. And sleeping dogs eventually wake (unless they are
dead).
The author of the book of Ecclesiastes understands that conflicts are not avoided forever. That
is why it is written in the 3rd chapter of Ecclesiastes:
For everything there is a season,
and a time for every matter under heaven:
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace. (3:1,7b-8)
There will be times when we run from a fight, yet fear and flight will not always serve our needs.
There will be times when we slug it out in a no-holds-barred showdown, yet a knock-down, drag-out
fight may also fail to yield a satisfactory result.
There is a time and a season for everything; however, a good sense of timing is often elusive.
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