Sin Management or Careful Discernment?

There are a lot of occasions when I can't tell the Christians apart from the non-Christians.  At parties, grocery stores, courts of law, even in church.  Seldom do the actions of Christians distinguish them as Jesus followers.  We are these walking contradictions to grace.  For example:

We preach a gospel of grace that is inclusive of all - yet our churches are frequently cliquish and exclusive.

We preach against marriage rights for homosexuals - yet our divorce rates and adultery indicate we don't know much about heterosexual covenant keeping.

We proclaim that Jesus became powerless on the cross  - yet are unwilling to give up our own idols of power.

It's impossible to measure the distance between what we do and what we say we believe, partly because we have made following Jesus about sin management instead of a life of careful discernment.  We have exchanged Jesus' radical way of pursuing the spirit of the law for the actual law, perhaps because quick absolutes are easy to grasp in a life that moves at warp speed.  The problem is that absolutes don't flex, and they certainly don't allow for grace.  And, oh by the way, the law is impossible to keep.

Paul dealt with this in his letter to the church at Corinth.  It appears that they were struggling with whether or not it was right to eat meat that had been used as a part of pagan sacrifice ritual.  It all seems strange to our modern ears because we mostly buy our meat at a store, but pay close attention, because the case makes extremely clear that careful discernment about right and wrong trumps moral absolutism.  

Paul says that the meat ought not be a problem because those pagan rituals mean nothing, and, after all, the Christians there knew there is only one true God, so the meat was fine to eat.  Except for one little caveat.  Paul points out that not everyone had this knowledge, and so everyone must be careful "that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak."  In other words, if eating the idol meat might cause problems for others new to the faith, don't do it.  The fact was that love for others had to trump freedom to eat the idol meat.  The implication for us?  We must question our moral proclamations as Christians and admit that not everything in life is so black and white.  

Sometimes the answer to "is this right or wrong?" is "it depends."   

And "it depends" means we have to think carefully, pray carefully, and live carefully.  "It depends" is a heavier burden than strict adherence to the law because it requires that we ignore the sound-byte theology of pop religion, and engage in the utterly serious question of, "Is this right or wrong for me in the here and now?"  To fail to ask - and answer - this question is a diminishment of Jesus' grace that frees us from the law.   It is a stark refusal to appeal to love, rather than knowledge or law.  Hence, it is always easier to manage sin than to discern carefully.

This Sunday our church family will renew our covenant with one another.  It's something we do every January.  The sermon is going to hover over the issue of careful discernment because it is the task of any congregation trying to faithfully follow Jesus.  We'll talk about how to walk this path of discernment together in a sermon called Wii Church.  It's based on 1 Corinthians 8.1-13.  Bring your Bible and join us at 10:45 or 11:45.

Carefully,

Pastor Gary

Nathaniel and Barak

Nathaniel and Barak

The lectionary assigned us John 1.43-51 for this Sunday when we will be two days out from the inauguration of our nation's 44th president.   Is there a connection?  

Christian Century reported this week that Jacob Javits, a Republican senator from New York, predicted in a 1958 essay that America would elect it's first black president in the year 2000.  While Javits was off by 8 years, his prediction was right on one front.  Kavits wrote that, "despite his other characteristics, he will have developed the fortitude to withstand the vicious smear attacks that came his way as he fought to the top of government and politics."   You can read it for yourself in Esquire.

Just four days from the inauguration of our country's first black president, I have been reminded by a new flurry of racist emails and jokes about the President-Elect that our nation is still a long way from being unified on matters of race.  Whether you are a Democrat, Republican, or neither, it's time for us to enter into some honest dialogue about our differences so that we can find some operational ground where we have similarities.

Nathaniel, when hearing about Jesus from Philip, asked, "Can anything good come out of Nazareth?"  It was a slur against Jesus based on Nathaniel's prejudices.  He took the reputation of Nazareth as a whole and hung it on the individual named Jesus.  Nathaniel had an awakening, though, and the proclamation he makes after his encounter with Jesus is "You are the Son of God!"

This is not an exact comparison because Mr. Obama is not the Son of God and he may end up being the worst president in US history.  However, Nathaniel exposes the need in all of us to examine our prejudices and make a conscious effort to withhold forming our opinion until we get to know a person.  As Nathan gawked in wonder at who Jesus really was, Jesus told him, "I will show you even greater things than these."

So, this Sunday we're going to talk about discipleship, and how following Jesus begins with examining our inner stuff that must be changed.  We'll start with our prejudices, look for God in some unusual places, and try to accept the fact that God wants our faith-lives to evolve from where we are.

If you're in Houston this Sunday you are invited to worship at Willow Meadows Baptist Church at 10:45 or 11:45.  And if you're off for MLK's holiday on Monday, I challenge you to make it more than another day to lounge around and barbeque, but to find a way to work for equality.  We are diverse by design.  

Jesus Calls Philip and Nathanael - John 1

 43The next day Jesus decided to leave for Galilee. Finding Philip, he said to him, "Follow me."

 44Philip, like Andrew and Peter, was from the town of Bethsaida. 45Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one Moses wrote about in the Law, and about whom the prophets also wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph."

 46"Nazareth! Can anything good come from there?" Nathanael asked. 
      "Come and see," said Philip.

 47When Jesus saw Nathanael approaching, he said of him, "Here is a true Israelite, in whom there is nothing false."

 48"How do you know me?" Nathanael asked. 
      Jesus answered, "I saw you while you were still under the fig tree before Philip called you."

 49Then Nathanael declared, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel."

 50Jesus said, "You believe^[a^] because I told you I saw you under the fig tree. You shall see greater things than that." 51He then added, "I tell you^[b^] the truth, you^[c^] shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man."

  

Another take on Israel

So many in my Christian circles automatically jump to the defense of Israel given the current news.  I'm still undecided about who's right and who's wrong in the current Gaza occupation.  I do know that I hear a lot in favor of Israel, so for another side, I include a quote that came in today's email via Sojourner's.  I welcome your thoughts on this: 

Most people agree that Israel, like any other country, has the right to defend itself from outside attacks. However, in this unequal conflict between Israel and Hamas, Israel, as usual, has overdone it. When it comes to dealing with its enemies, Israel has a pattern of being extreme. “An eye for an eye” does not satisfy. It has to be more like one hundred eyes for one eye and one hundred teeth for one tooth.

- Alex Awad, dean of students at Bethlehem Bible College in the West Bank of Palestine. (Source: God's Politics)