orthodoxy

Sunday May 18^th, Acts 7: 55 But Stephen, full of the Holy Spirit, looked up to heaven and saw the glory of God, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. 56 "Look," he said, "I see heaven open and the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God."  57 At this they covered their ears and, yelling at the top of their voices, they all rushed at him, 58 dragged him out of the city and began to stone him.  New realities are often seen as a threat to our entrenched way of life.  Orthodoxy is not always bad; it is the keel in the water that keeps the church from being blown off course by every little change that blows through.  Sometimes however it can prevent the winds of change from taking the church in along the path of relevance.  Orthodoxy is what today keeps part of the church from being blown off into the stormy waters of fundamentalism; it helps keep the message of God’s love and grace alive.  But it is when it closes the door on possibility and clings to absolutes that bow to the power of a few that it goes astray.  Good theology is always on the cutting edge between orthodoxy and change, some say on the cutting edge between heresy and orthodoxy.