Messy Christianity
The thing is of course is that we Christians have made a right mess of things from time to time. And while I don't approve of these messes in anyway, let's look at the Hebrew Scriptures and the incredible messes the people there got into. And then read Hebrews 11 and note the names of all those on the roll call of the righteous. All the same folks who royally screwed up in the Old Testament!! And what got them onto the roll call? Most certainly it was not their behavior. It was that they loved God and He loved them and these people lived daily with God.
I am not saying that as long as a person loves God, they can get away with anything they want. Far far far far from it. But what I am saying is that God's standards are not the same as those who criticize Christianity. They never will be anything but different from the critics'. So when we engage with the critics, we have to be prepared to do so from the position of the truth, from what we know of God.
Someone wrote to me saying "Regarding the church being humans - I always have a difficulty with these most obvious things. That is to say, I long to find some humans who .. well, like I say, perhaps I am naiive."
Some humans are very hard to love, I agree. Some humans impress me as wasting oxygen, I agree. Some Christians drive me up the wall, down the other side, screaming all the way, I agree. We have to be honest with ourselves. The truth sets us free, after all, and conversely unless we face the truth we can't be free. Unless we face up to the truth of how people affect us, we cannot choose to change our responses.
Perhaps the most challenging thing for me to do is to love everyone. I'll be honest, the only reason i even attempt it is because Jesus commands us to do so. And by golly, He loved all of us enough to die most hideously on our behalf. I am not proud of the fact that by nature, I would not be struggling this way. By nature I am a snob and as a result i can be pretty darned judgemental and critical. In other words, by nature I am just like all those people in the Hebrew Scriptures, cads and scoundrels; by nature, i am just like every other
Christian who contributed to the ugliness in our Christian history.
Thanks be to God, He loves me and He wants me. And thanks be to God, He doesn't demand perfection from me the way the critics of Christianity do, who are no closer to perfection than any of the rest of us, yet they blame us Christians for not being so. In fact they criticize us for something we have never claimed for ourselves. And that is something we have to make clear to them.
Anothert thing we have to make clear to them is that Christianity is not a religion of results, of goals or standards achieved. Christianity is a relationship of love: love of God, love of neighbor, love of self. A relationship to be nurtured and cherished. Not a religion of do's and don'ts... that is goal-oriented, results-oriented thinking. Daily life as a Christian is not goal-oriented or results-oriented. Jesus invites us to live with the tension of knowing that we can never achieve any standard of holiness in our lives but that we must accept with faith to keep on trying. All that we are asked is to try. We know that we will fail, that isn't what matters. Jesus asks us to put our foot on the first rung of the ladder of holy living and spend the rest of our lives trying to get the foot up to the second rung, knowing we will never make it. The glory of Christian living is in the trying, the striving. We get up every morning and every morning we place our foot on that first rung of the ladder. We get up every morning, haul up our socks and keep on keepin' on with God's business.
Holiness is in the trying and the striving, not in the results. This may be topsy turvey in the eyes of the critics of Christianity. So be it. The critics need to adjust their vision to see what it is God asks of us and then criticize us in terms of that, if they can. Because the greatest common denominator there is all of us are sinners and all of us fall short of the glory of God.
I am not saying that as long as a person loves God, they can get away with anything they want. Far far far far from it. But what I am saying is that God's standards are not the same as those who criticize Christianity. They never will be anything but different from the critics'. So when we engage with the critics, we have to be prepared to do so from the position of the truth, from what we know of God.
Someone wrote to me saying "Regarding the church being humans - I always have a difficulty with these most obvious things. That is to say, I long to find some humans who .. well, like I say, perhaps I am naiive."
Some humans are very hard to love, I agree. Some humans impress me as wasting oxygen, I agree. Some Christians drive me up the wall, down the other side, screaming all the way, I agree. We have to be honest with ourselves. The truth sets us free, after all, and conversely unless we face the truth we can't be free. Unless we face up to the truth of how people affect us, we cannot choose to change our responses.
Perhaps the most challenging thing for me to do is to love everyone. I'll be honest, the only reason i even attempt it is because Jesus commands us to do so. And by golly, He loved all of us enough to die most hideously on our behalf. I am not proud of the fact that by nature, I would not be struggling this way. By nature I am a snob and as a result i can be pretty darned judgemental and critical. In other words, by nature I am just like all those people in the Hebrew Scriptures, cads and scoundrels; by nature, i am just like every other
Christian who contributed to the ugliness in our Christian history.
Thanks be to God, He loves me and He wants me. And thanks be to God, He doesn't demand perfection from me the way the critics of Christianity do, who are no closer to perfection than any of the rest of us, yet they blame us Christians for not being so. In fact they criticize us for something we have never claimed for ourselves. And that is something we have to make clear to them.
Anothert thing we have to make clear to them is that Christianity is not a religion of results, of goals or standards achieved. Christianity is a relationship of love: love of God, love of neighbor, love of self. A relationship to be nurtured and cherished. Not a religion of do's and don'ts... that is goal-oriented, results-oriented thinking. Daily life as a Christian is not goal-oriented or results-oriented. Jesus invites us to live with the tension of knowing that we can never achieve any standard of holiness in our lives but that we must accept with faith to keep on trying. All that we are asked is to try. We know that we will fail, that isn't what matters. Jesus asks us to put our foot on the first rung of the ladder of holy living and spend the rest of our lives trying to get the foot up to the second rung, knowing we will never make it. The glory of Christian living is in the trying, the striving. We get up every morning and every morning we place our foot on that first rung of the ladder. We get up every morning, haul up our socks and keep on keepin' on with God's business.
Holiness is in the trying and the striving, not in the results. This may be topsy turvey in the eyes of the critics of Christianity. So be it. The critics need to adjust their vision to see what it is God asks of us and then criticize us in terms of that, if they can. Because the greatest common denominator there is all of us are sinners and all of us fall short of the glory of God.
posted by Gloriamarie Amalfitano @ 1:03 PM
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