Leading Indicators

Winnowing Forks and the Wind

God's people are always being winnowed and refined.  It's not something many Western Christians give a great deal of attention to, although we expect that this will not continue to be so.  When our Lord was about to commence His public ministry the prophet, John the Baptist was sent by God as a forerunner, to prepare His way.  John said of Jesus' coming ministry,

He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire.  His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire. (Luke 3: 16,17)

This winnowing--separating the wheat from the chaff--occurs through the proclamation and ministry of the Word of God.  God's ministers address His people with enjoinders such as, "Choose you this day whom you will serve, but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord." (Joshua 24:15)  But it also occurs through oppression and public rejection and mockery of the Christ and His people.
  When a culture turns against the Christ, it costs people to profess Christ.  Fellow travellers will not pay a cost for belief.  Their hypocrisy is revealed and they drift away.  On the other hand, Christians of different groups and denominations close ranks and pull together.

In New Zealand today the opposition to Christ and His people is slowly mounting.  The opposition is beginning to insinuate itself into the law, into the courts, and into the Parliament.  It has long been found in government schools and the media and amongst the Commentariat.

Here is an illustration of what we have in mind.
  A church in the Wairarapa was to allow a well-known and popular singer to perform in its church building.  However, consternation arose when it became known that the singer was a public lesbian, thereby making her public performances inextricable from her sexual perversions.

Singer Anika Moa has had to switch venues for her Wairarapa concert because an evangelical church objected to her sexuality. She was due to perform at Masterton's Lighthouse Church on March 23, but promoter Mark Rogers said it became clear after the booking was made that some members of the church were not comfortable with hosting her.

A solution was reached when the promoter Anika Moa switched  her performance to St Marks Anglican Church in Carterton.  It appears that the Lighthouse Church endeavoured to be as kind and civil as possible.

Lighthouse pastor Russell Embling said Mr Rogers had decided to move the gig after discussions with church leadership. He would not comment on whether some of his flock were opposed to having a lesbian singer perform. He said the church held to "traditional biblical values regarding marriage and the family". The church had offered, in good faith, to pay for some of the costs incurred, including new concert posters and tickets, and had given the money to Mr Rogers, he said.

Enter homosexual advocate and Green Party MP, Kevin Hague:

Mr Hague, a veteran gay rights activist, said the church had arguably "created a situation where the promoter feels he has no choice but to shift the venue - it could be classified as constructive discrimination, which would be illegal". 

Here is the hint of the winnowing to come.  Constructive discrimination is illegal.  A church, by refusing to allow its venue to be used for a public performance by someone whose morals were offensive, is liable to be accused of constructive discrimination.  The vice of pagan law begins to tighten.

Throughout it all, the Saviour is applying His  winnowing fork to His people.  No doubt the Lighthouse Church members and leaders will have looked at one another, thought, read their Bibles afresh, and concluded that the use of their church for entertainment by a public homosexual was wrong.  They have been choosing this day whom they will serve.  But maybe there will be folk in the congregation who will decide after all that they think their church was wrong to object to Anika Moa's performing in their house of worship.  They may well leave the church.  That's what a winnowing fork does--it tosses the wheat into the wind which then blows away the chaff--the empty, dry bits of straw clinging to the grain.

Then there is the Carterton Anglican Church.  It too is being winnowed, and its chaff is blowing in the wind.  In this case, the church leaders appear to be revealing themselves as the chaff.

St Mark's vicar Jenny Chalmers said she regretted the attitudes of some within the Lighthouse congregation. "I'm really sorry for that, because sexuality is such a small part of a person's makeup."

The reality is that we Christians and churches need refining all the time.  Most often the Lord deploys suffering to complete this vital and holy work.  Many, many older Christians face the attenuation of their bodies and physical capacities together with the attendant pain and discomfort.  As the outer man wastes away, the inner man grows.  This is part of the refining fires of our loving and gracious Lord.  He disciplines those whom He loves.  

But it is likely we will increasingly see and experience the winnowing work being done through pagan opposition to the Gospel and hatred of the Lord and His Church.  But, ironically this also brings great encouragement.  It is a leading indicator that God is at work and is beginning to stretch forth His mighty arm.