I am becoming more and more disturbed by the way we, as Christians are acting, not just toward those outside our faith, but to those within our faith. The 24 hour news cycle seems to have made us both more aware of what is going on in the world and more opinionated about it (or maybe I’m just hearing those opinions now). I see things every day, articles in the news, interactions through social media, and more that give illustration after illustration of how ugly we are to each other and it breaks my heart.
We are quick to take sides, just name the hot button topic.
Politics? sides…
Homosexuality and the church? sides…
Literal versus metaphoric interpretation of the Bible? sides…
My issue is that we’re not just content to take sides. We act and react with venom that makes the snake himself happy. We call names, use stereotypes, throw out insults, and lose our tempers all while sporting fish on our cars and WWJD? bracelets on our arms.
Recently, there was great furor over President Obama’s speech at the National Prayer Breakfast. For three days my Facebook timeline blew up with articles from Fox News and other conservative outlets saying that this is one more example of how our president is anti-Christian. Really, that’s fine. It is THE WAY these things are said that bothers me. Many of the comments weren’t just, “I disagree with the President”. They start calling him names, slandering his friends, or saying he’s stupid and only got his education because of his race (yes, I actually read that). It would be one thing for anyone to say these things about our President, but these are professing Christians. And it isn’t just one side. I also read comments slandering conservatives and their agenda to rally people “too dumb to know any different.” This group, rather than slandering the President, is now slandering their friends, neighbors, and even family members. These are people who are also representing Jesus! What are we doing?
I read an interesting and heartbreaking article written by John Pavlovitz entitled “The Continued Crucifying Of Rob Bell, And What It Says About The State Of Modern Christianity.” The article discusses Rob Bell’s fall from “Christian Rock Star” as the founder of Mars Hill Bible [mega] Church to outcast among the more outspoken Christian circles because he dared to ask the questions that many of us have already asked in our minds. His problem was that he did it in print; he wrote a book. Before I go any further, I don’t really know anything about Rob Bell and I have never read his book, although I might look for it now. I’m not advocating for or against his opinions. What I am advocating is that he should be able to express those opinions without becoming an outcast among his brothers and sisters. The opening line of Pavlovitz’ article is, “It’s often been said that we Christians eat our own.” This is a terrible indictment of us. I just wish it weren’t true.
I am in a book club through my home church and we have been reading Philip Yancey’s “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” The thing that comes up over and over again as we discuss the chapters in this book is, “As long as there is us and them, we have a problem.” This is so true but the problem is that “us versus them” is so ingrained in us that we find it difficult to describe things apart from it. Even in trying to write this, I am struggling to get away from “us versus them” and it’s hard because it is just easier to label everyone by his/her differences.
We have conservative Christians, liberal Christians, moderate Christians. We have heterosexual Christians and homosexual Christians. We have traditional Christians and progressive Christians. I’m sure if I sat here long enough, I could fill up an entire page of “us versus them.” Of course, all of this would be absolutely fine if the individual groups got along with each other, but we don’t.
Enter Jesus…
I’m sure it’s an unpopular opinion, but I believe we are more like the Pharisees than we are like Jesus. The Pharisees were threatened by Jesus’ radical interpretation of scripture and His focus on the state of the heart. Like us, the Pharisees liked the Law. They liked having rules to follow and I understand that completely. If I have a rule, then there is no question what is right and what is wrong. There is no gray. Everything is clearly written in black and white and I don’t have to think at all.
But Jesus wants us to think. He wants us to internalize God’s Law to the point that we can see the Law for what it truly is, a measure to show our complete need for a Savior. Jesus wants us to get past the rules and regulations and move to the heart of the matter. He wants us to see how much of the Law is steeped in thought and feeling. So in example after example, Jesus makes us think.
In John 8, Jesus is teaching at the Mount of Olives when He is interrupted by the Pharisees who were dragging a woman out with them.
“4 and [the Pharisees] said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. 5 In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?” 6 They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him….” *
John clearly tells us that their question was a trap. They were trying to put Jesus on the defensive. They were being adversarial. Jesus, however, remains calm and makes them think.
“…But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. 7 When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.” 8 Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.”
Essentially, Jesus was telling them: Think about what you’re saying. Examine yourself. Have you never done anything sinful? And it worked. They did think.
9 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.
Finally Jesus has His first words with this woman.
10 Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”
11 “No one, sir,” she said.
“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”
With everyone gone, Jesus could easily have started spouting scripture after scripture to this woman telling her how wrong she was and how badly she had behaved. That’s my tendency, for sure. Instead, Jesus showed love, grace, and mercy. He was the only one who could have thrown a stone and He chose not to. He knew that she didn’t need to hear how bad she was, she needed to hear how much she was loved.
Jesus didn’t worry people would think that by showing her love, He was condoning her sin. He didn’t worry about what other people thought at all and it was very clear that He was not condoning her sin when He lovingly told her not to do this anymore. But we are afraid. I can’t reach out to “that person” or she’ll think that I think the way she lives is ok! Or I can reach out, but when I do I have to drum in all the scriptures that support my opinion on her life of sin. That way there will be no confusion about my beliefs. Yet, Jesus just loved her. Jesus saw past the Law to grace and He didn’t let fear of how someone else might judge His motives stop Him from giving her exactly what she needed.
In John 17, Jesus has been talking to his disciples during the Passover. He’s trying once more to prepare them for what is coming. Then Jesus looks toward heaven and prays one of my favorite prayers in all the Bible. By the time we get to verse 20, Jesus is praying for us. He says:
20 “My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, 21 that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. 22 I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one— 23 I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
Over and over again, Jesus prays that we would be one. This is not just an arbitrary prayer by someone who thinks it would be a good thing if people see us unified. He prays this prayer with purpose. Jesus says that it’s vital that we stand together in unity so that, “the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.” (Vs 23b) So my question is, what message am I sending to the world every time I stand against a Christian brother or sister? How much damage am I doing to God’s kingdom, when I focus on our differences and ignore all of the things we have in common? How many people have failed to understand that God loves them so much He sent His only Son, because of my words or actions?
Let’s go back to John Pavlovitz. He says,
“We’ve lost the ability to welcome diversity of thought. We’ve made the Church a members-only club, defined by the narrowest of doctrines and the most rigid understandings of God and Scripture.”
We can’t grow in wisdom and stature if we can’t even listen to someone who has a different view than we do. We grow through self examination. If I am presented with a differing view point which causes me to re-examine what I believe and why, then my faith grows stronger. This is especially true if I am forced back into the scriptures to support my position. And there is always a possibility that going back to the source will cause me to realize that my views don’t line up with Jesus. Am I willing to honestly do this?
Is it even possible for us to move away from “us and them”? Can we make the leap to allowing everyone the opportunity to present his/her questions or opinions and discuss them logically and rationally? Can we really allow God to transform us to the unified people that Jesus desired us to be?
I close with the words of Paul, to remind myself as much as anyone else of what I have been called to do.
“1 As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. 2 Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. 3 Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. 4 There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; 5 one Lord, one faith, one baptism; 6 one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” (Ephesians 4:1-6)
It’s important for each of us to recognize how God sees each one of us in Christ. I think it’s just as important to treat each other as the Treasured Possessions we are to God.
*All scriptures are quoted from the NIV translation copyright 2011