Logs, Specks, Food Fights, and the Mission of the Church - October 4, 2010

Daily Lectionary Readings for October 4, 2010
Psalm 54
Hosea 6:7-7:7
Acts 22:30-23:11
Luke 6:39-49

Acts 22:30-23:11 and Luke 6:39-49
In the Acts passage we have the blow by blow of a meeting of religious leaders to deal with/judge Paul.  Paul knows just the thing to say to really ignite a blow-up between the Pharisees and the Saducees and chaos ensues.  One can't help but believe that everyone must have felt like they'd accomplished a lot after that meeting.
The Luke passage starts off with Jesus teaching about the difficulty of pointing out the speck in someone  else's eye while sporting a two by four in your own eye.  The faults of others are often so easy to spot, it seems, even given that we have to somehow see past our own shortcomings to get a glimpse of what ails the other. 
Both of these passages give some food for thought to the church today as it continues to do battle within its walls over a variety of social issues.  Primary mandates like sharing the good news of Jesus Christ have been put temporarily on hold while we try to see past the logs in our own eyes to point out the speck in the eyes of those with whom we disagree.  We would probably feel quiet comfortable at the meeting portrayed in the Acts passage because if we've been at all active in larger church life (at least in the PC(USA) - my denomination), we've been to that food fight.  We had different names for the Pharisees and the Sadducees and the attire was probably a bit different, but the basic idea of chucking a verbal tomato at the person we disagree with has translated well to the modern day.  Our temporary hold on sharing the good news has become a thirty plus year hold - give or take - and it grows more and more frustrating even as it continues to suck us in.  This is not to say that the church hasn't done some wonderful things (both in its local and larger governing body modes) in that time, but fight we have, early and often. 
For today we perhaps could decide to have a look at the log in our eye and see if we can't get a better perspective on that other person by working on our log rather than railing about their speck.