Apparently I'm not blogging enough...darn decaf...
So, here's a really long post that might or might not make sense - it's from some stuff I wrote a while back... AND - I might have already covered some of this material...sorry if it's just recycled thoughts...
So what are we to do? Should we have no standards? Is it just "I believe what I believe and you believe what you believe and then we buy the world a Coke and keep it company?" Heh, I'm getting old...
Of course we can't just let anything go... We have to hold ourselves to a standard, a high standard. Indeed, to the highest standard - in imitation of Jesus Christ. This would be the highest moral and ethical (and, dare I say it, DOCTRINAL) standard possible. To be like Christ. "Conformed to His image." "...let the same mind be in you as was in Christ Jesus..."
To look like Jesus. There have been studies about why people start to look alike as they age. It's a common MIS-conception, apparently. People don't ACTUALLY look more alike - people as they live together begin to ACT more and more alike. We begin to parrot each other's expressions, moods, movements, likes & dislikes. So, it isn't that people actually look more like eather other, but in all of the remarkable traits we ACT more like each other (same is sometimes true of parents a
nd children. A friend calls his daughter his "mini-me" - and in many ways Elie is my mini-me and Rachel is Lori's).
Jesus said, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you."
We should hould ourselves to that standard. WWJD is a much mocked concept today, even in the church, but it's not stupid. It really IS the question - maybe WDJD? (You know What DID Jesus do?) may be a better question. We have to ask ourselves that, even if it isn't fashionable anymore because JESUS IS THE STANDARD.
Some of the most unloving people I've ever met are Christians - and they run the gamut from Ultra-Liberal to Ultra-Conservative, from Fundamentalist to Universalist, from the "Three services on Sunday and Bible study and Wednesday night and the prayer chain and the women's tea society (or the men's softball team)" to the the C&E (that would be "Christmas and Easter")...and every position in between. AS SOON as any Christian makes a statement, stand, declaration, manifesto that says "You are not..." then they probably just lost the love...
I don't know if this is coming out right. Here's the thing. I had a good frind recently rail against anybody who has any negative opinions about homosexualit. My paraphrase would be, "If you people can't just accept homosexuals, I don't want any part of you." Um...what? You demand inclusion by...um...exclusion? What?
Okay, that might be a little harsh...but who hasn't heard it?
Are you pre-trib or post-trib?
AIDS is God's punisment on fags...
If you can't accept the Nicene creed...
We have to be all-inclusive...
Sigh... I was reading a book called One Step Closer -- Why U2 Matters to Those Seeking God by Christian Scharer. He tells a story about when he was pastoring a church in Connecticut. Two men began causing trouble at the church because he "was willing to say that God would have mercy and offer love and forgiveness to anyone. They desperately wanted to draw up lines with some in and some out. Because I didn't draw lines, I was clearly permissive, liberal, and probably loved sinners. Which was true, at least insofar as I tried to embody God's prodigal love for everyone without regard. But they didnt' buy my arguements about the fact that even after being baptized and born again we remain sinful, and thus we can't trust onrselves to judge others -- that must be left to God.
"As I carefully dissected these arguements publicly and asked that the mean leave, I thought I was being patient..."
What? Now, he was writing this to demonstrate how UN-loving he had been in his anger. BUT, how did he even attempt to show love. How was he trying to "embody God's prodigal love for everyone without regard?" Everyone, it would seem, except these two guys...sigh...
Me too. I remember using an illustration once - a guy from the band O-Town (anybody remember them? yeah...) was trying to make a comeback but he needed cash and he applied at a temp agency. Turns out the only thing he was qualified to do was (I think I have this correct) Human Directional Advertising. Basically, holding a sign on a street corner for a business (Little Caesar's Pizza or something...) And I made fun of that job...and his obvious lack of...um...skills...
But why should I mock that? During my week at Pittsburgh Project, we studied the stories of some of Jesus' encounters with the marginalized: THe woman caught in adultery, Zaccheus, the Garazene Demoniac. And the point of the week was, "There's a PERSON INSIDE."
Jesus returned people's dignity. People have dignity because we are all created in God's image -- we are ALL children of God. A guy holding a sign for Little Caesar's or H. Jack's Plumbing is EARNING A WAGE - he's not just loafing around. It's not much, but it's something. We complain about the lazy people on welfare or disability - we mock the jobs that are beneath OUR dignity...we push away and push away and push away... ALL IN JESUS' NAME
Believe the right doctrine...
Be completely open...
Whatever.
Jesus somehow managed to walk in complete tolerance (EVERY sinner was welcome to come to him) and in complete holiness.
The one extreme hears Jesus yell, "Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees..." the other extreme sees only the compassion of Jesus (the people were "like sheep without a shepherd..."). The one extreme hears only, "Go and sin no more" the other extreme hears only, "neither do I condemn you."
Yet Jesus managed the in between.
How do we manage the in between? Justice AND mercy. Orthodoxy AND compassion. Love... How to love as Christ loves?
More to come...
So, here's a really long post that might or might not make sense - it's from some stuff I wrote a while back... AND - I might have already covered some of this material...sorry if it's just recycled thoughts...
So what are we to do? Should we have no standards? Is it just "I believe what I believe and you believe what you believe and then we buy the world a Coke and keep it company?" Heh, I'm getting old...
Of course we can't just let anything go... We have to hold ourselves to a standard, a high standard. Indeed, to the highest standard - in imitation of Jesus Christ. This would be the highest moral and ethical (and, dare I say it, DOCTRINAL) standard possible. To be like Christ. "Conformed to His image." "...let the same mind be in you as was in Christ Jesus..."
To look like Jesus. There have been studies about why people start to look alike as they age. It's a common MIS-conception, apparently. People don't ACTUALLY look more alike - people as they live together begin to ACT more and more alike. We begin to parrot each other's expressions, moods, movements, likes & dislikes. So, it isn't that people actually look more like eather other, but in all of the remarkable traits we ACT more like each other (same is sometimes true of parents a
nd children. A friend calls his daughter his "mini-me" - and in many ways Elie is my mini-me and Rachel is Lori's).Jesus said, "As the Father has loved me, so I have loved you."
We should hould ourselves to that standard. WWJD is a much mocked concept today, even in the church, but it's not stupid. It really IS the question - maybe WDJD? (You know What DID Jesus do?) may be a better question. We have to ask ourselves that, even if it isn't fashionable anymore because JESUS IS THE STANDARD.
Some of the most unloving people I've ever met are Christians - and they run the gamut from Ultra-Liberal to Ultra-Conservative, from Fundamentalist to Universalist, from the "Three services on Sunday and Bible study and Wednesday night and the prayer chain and the women's tea society (or the men's softball team)" to the the C&E (that would be "Christmas and Easter")...and every position in between. AS SOON as any Christian makes a statement, stand, declaration, manifesto that says "You are not..." then they probably just lost the love...
I don't know if this is coming out right. Here's the thing. I had a good frind recently rail against anybody who has any negative opinions about homosexualit. My paraphrase would be, "If you people can't just accept homosexuals, I don't want any part of you." Um...what? You demand inclusion by...um...exclusion? What?
Okay, that might be a little harsh...but who hasn't heard it?
Are you pre-trib or post-trib?
AIDS is God's punisment on fags...
If you can't accept the Nicene creed...
We have to be all-inclusive...
Sigh... I was reading a book called One Step Closer -- Why U2 Matters to Those Seeking God by Christian Scharer. He tells a story about when he was pastoring a church in Connecticut. Two men began causing trouble at the church because he "was willing to say that God would have mercy and offer love and forgiveness to anyone. They desperately wanted to draw up lines with some in and some out. Because I didn't draw lines, I was clearly permissive, liberal, and probably loved sinners. Which was true, at least insofar as I tried to embody God's prodigal love for everyone without regard. But they didnt' buy my arguements about the fact that even after being baptized and born again we remain sinful, and thus we can't trust onrselves to judge others -- that must be left to God.
"As I carefully dissected these arguements publicly and asked that the mean leave, I thought I was being patient..."
What? Now, he was writing this to demonstrate how UN-loving he had been in his anger. BUT, how did he even attempt to show love. How was he trying to "embody God's prodigal love for everyone without regard?" Everyone, it would seem, except these two guys...sigh...
Me too. I remember using an illustration once - a guy from the band O-Town (anybody remember them? yeah...) was trying to make a comeback but he needed cash and he applied at a temp agency. Turns out the only thing he was qualified to do was (I think I have this correct) Human Directional Advertising. Basically, holding a sign on a street corner for a business (Little Caesar's Pizza or something...) And I made fun of that job...and his obvious lack of...um...skills...
But why should I mock that? During my week at Pittsburgh Project, we studied the stories of some of Jesus' encounters with the marginalized: THe woman caught in adultery, Zaccheus, the Garazene Demoniac. And the point of the week was, "There's a PERSON INSIDE."
Jesus returned people's dignity. People have dignity because we are all created in God's image -- we are ALL children of God. A guy holding a sign for Little Caesar's or H. Jack's Plumbing is EARNING A WAGE - he's not just loafing around. It's not much, but it's something. We complain about the lazy people on welfare or disability - we mock the jobs that are beneath OUR dignity...we push away and push away and push away... ALL IN JESUS' NAME
Believe the right doctrine...
Be completely open...
Whatever.
Jesus somehow managed to walk in complete tolerance (EVERY sinner was welcome to come to him) and in complete holiness.
The one extreme hears Jesus yell, "Woe to you Scribes and Pharisees..." the other extreme sees only the compassion of Jesus (the people were "like sheep without a shepherd..."). The one extreme hears only, "Go and sin no more" the other extreme hears only, "neither do I condemn you."
Yet Jesus managed the in between.
How do we manage the in between? Justice AND mercy. Orthodoxy AND compassion. Love... How to love as Christ loves?
More to come...
Comments