Genesis chapter 13

Sometimes, it is easy to get so wrapped up in what you are doing, in work, in family, in doing things for the church, that you fail to see what is going on around you. You don't appreciate how things look from the outside and you don't realise the impact what you are doing is having on others. Or maybe it is a case of wanting to protect what you have, to look after it, nurture it, no matter what is going on outside.

Here, Lot and Abram had become so rich, had so many flocks, tens, servants and so on, that there was not enough room for both of them. The servants had taken to fighting amongst themselves - Lot's servants against Abram's servants, as each one tried to get the best land, the closest position to the water and so on. Yet there they were, surrounded by enemies on all sides, and they spent their time bickering amongst themselves.

Isn't that just like the church at times? Everyone being so busy to protect their position, their ministry, their roles that they don't realise how it looks from the outside, how non believers see it and how it gets reported in the press? There has, for instance, been a huge thing over here in the local press because someone in the congregation of a local church wrote direct to the Bishop complaining about the minister of the church. There has been such a fallout from this, with the publicity (obviously concentrating on the back biting and infighting in the church) and several church members leaving and going to another church instead. What I do know is that when the minister came, he started making changes and some people did not like it….I don't know exactly what happened apart from that, I don't need to know.

But what a reflection on the church it has all been, when all that gets reported in the press is the fighting. And then all this kerfuffle about gay bishops and the Lambeth conference. I know exactly what I think about having gay bishops and so on, but don't intend to go into that now, but all the press could talk about was the looming row in the Church of England over this very question of gay bishops.

What a message that was giving out about the church, concentrating on the disagreements, the upsets, the negative things. Where is the love we are supposed to show? What about all the work the church is doing in this country and overseas? The people being helped, the starving, the homeless, the hurting? I guess good news makes bad press.

And here with Lot and Abram, it was a similar thing. I bet all the Canaanites and Perizzites could see was the two lots of shepherds quarrelling over who got to the water first, who got that piece of land over there to graze their flocks on and so on. They were a family, uncle and nephew, and yet they were fighting all the time (or at least the servants were).

In the same way as Lot and Abram settled their differences, we in the church also need to settle our differences. It's not a case of one denomination being better than another, of one church in a town being the best one, we are all servants of God, and we have all been called in one way or another. Just because I go to an evangelical/charismatic church doesn't make me better than my neighbour, who goes to a Church of England church or vice versa. Each person is different, unique and will have different ways of worshipping, of giving praise to God. It's not a case of one way being better than another, of God only listening to our prayers if we say them in this way, or that way, of a service only being done right if we use the Book of Common Prayer, and so on. God sees into the heart of each one of us, and we need our hearts to be right with God, not man. We need to love the sinner but hate the sin, let our faith work through us, the love of God to shine out from within and to really be disciples of Jesus here on earth, not people whose disagreements are always being reported unfavourably in the press and who are continually gossiping about others, trying to maintain the status quo or improve our standing in the church.