Gandhi said, "I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians; they are nothing like your Christ.." In "What if I Stumble" DC Talk sings, "The greatest single cause of atheism in the world today is Christians who acknowledge Jesus with their lips, then walk out the door, and deny Him by their lifestyle. That is what an unbelieving world simply finds unbelievable."
Three young people walk into a bar: a man wearing a cassock and a crucifix while smoking a pipe, a young lady with tattoos cigarette in hand, and a well dressed gentleman with 20 dollars for shots...
...the punch line, there is none.
Growing up with family members that were alcoholics, and a brother who died of such, how could I spend a Friday night with anyone who would drink? More importantly, how could I drink? For isn't this wrong?
We all have our "ideals" of what is right and wrong, but the grey line gets drawn when we bring up the topic of "appearances of evil"--a subject that has damaged many a soul. This subject that has made the strongest of hearts tremble.
I pose a question to you...if these 3 people were walking into the bar singing the Church's doxology would that be any different? Would you look at them any differently? As Christians we find it easy to rally around the "Absolute Truth," and our faithful "moral standards," but hazy is the line of what some would call "worldly pleasures." It has broken many a church to define these worldly delights: from smoking and drinking to tattoos and dancing.
I name these four only, because I have experience with them. The list, however, could go on forever. Differentness pitches its tent among us, and makes us...us. So, why do we spend out time looking at each other with disdain on our faces and disgust in our hearts, when someone who professes the Creed has taken a different outlook on tobacco, alcohol, or permanent body ink?
It is not a matter of grabbing a hand, singing kumbaya and hoping beyond hope that the person standing next to you will learn what they are doing is wrong and embrace what you decide is the straight and narrow way. It is about standing with pride next to the Christian or non Christian beside you and speaking against what really matters. The lines of abortion are not hazy. The lines of judgement are not grey, and the lines of the Creed are not ambiguous. Friends, these are what plague us.
We, as Christians, are called to appear as Christ appeared: holy and set apart. We should be lions who roar against evil, and lambs that lay down next to the lowly. We must all define our appearances against the only one who matters, Christ. To define a standard for someone else is troublesome. We must all trust that our fellow Christians believe and practice Christ as their standard. If Christ is the Rule, it is not our duty to be the exception. It is our duty to measure up.
However, we will always fail. To be human is to err. I heard a quote once, "If we wish to be a saint, we must wake up and decide to be saintly." St. Augustine was a man of no morals in his early years, but ran to Christ with a heart of clay and begged to be molded into the likeness of his Lover. David, "the man after God's own heart," broke the covenant of marriage and slew his competition for the body of a woman.
Men like these didn't worry about what the world thought. They embraced their humanness and ran to the only One who could give them holiness. We, like them, are rags in the sight of God, and yet the children of the Most High God. Our humanness was bought with a price of which we struggle to repay. But how? Through kindness and openness and love toward our fellow brothers and sisters...not judgement.
My fellow Christians, I speak to you, because like you and I, we are set to a standard that is of only love, and yet we fail so miserably. So do not judge me, but if you do judge me, continue to love me. Because I promise, I will "lose my step, and make fools of us all."
Gandhi had a point, but that doesn't mean his point should remain truth.
Three young people walk into a bar: a man wearing a cassock and a crucifix while smoking a pipe, a young lady with tattoos cigarette in hand, and a well dressed gentleman with 20 dollars for shots...
...the punch line, there is none.
Growing up with family members that were alcoholics, and a brother who died of such, how could I spend a Friday night with anyone who would drink? More importantly, how could I drink? For isn't this wrong?
We all have our "ideals" of what is right and wrong, but the grey line gets drawn when we bring up the topic of "appearances of evil"--a subject that has damaged many a soul. This subject that has made the strongest of hearts tremble.
I pose a question to you...if these 3 people were walking into the bar singing the Church's doxology would that be any different? Would you look at them any differently? As Christians we find it easy to rally around the "Absolute Truth," and our faithful "moral standards," but hazy is the line of what some would call "worldly pleasures." It has broken many a church to define these worldly delights: from smoking and drinking to tattoos and dancing.
I name these four only, because I have experience with them. The list, however, could go on forever. Differentness pitches its tent among us, and makes us...us. So, why do we spend out time looking at each other with disdain on our faces and disgust in our hearts, when someone who professes the Creed has taken a different outlook on tobacco, alcohol, or permanent body ink?
It is not a matter of grabbing a hand, singing kumbaya and hoping beyond hope that the person standing next to you will learn what they are doing is wrong and embrace what you decide is the straight and narrow way. It is about standing with pride next to the Christian or non Christian beside you and speaking against what really matters. The lines of abortion are not hazy. The lines of judgement are not grey, and the lines of the Creed are not ambiguous. Friends, these are what plague us.
We, as Christians, are called to appear as Christ appeared: holy and set apart. We should be lions who roar against evil, and lambs that lay down next to the lowly. We must all define our appearances against the only one who matters, Christ. To define a standard for someone else is troublesome. We must all trust that our fellow Christians believe and practice Christ as their standard. If Christ is the Rule, it is not our duty to be the exception. It is our duty to measure up.
However, we will always fail. To be human is to err. I heard a quote once, "If we wish to be a saint, we must wake up and decide to be saintly." St. Augustine was a man of no morals in his early years, but ran to Christ with a heart of clay and begged to be molded into the likeness of his Lover. David, "the man after God's own heart," broke the covenant of marriage and slew his competition for the body of a woman.
Men like these didn't worry about what the world thought. They embraced their humanness and ran to the only One who could give them holiness. We, like them, are rags in the sight of God, and yet the children of the Most High God. Our humanness was bought with a price of which we struggle to repay. But how? Through kindness and openness and love toward our fellow brothers and sisters...not judgement.
My fellow Christians, I speak to you, because like you and I, we are set to a standard that is of only love, and yet we fail so miserably. So do not judge me, but if you do judge me, continue to love me. Because I promise, I will "lose my step, and make fools of us all."
Gandhi had a point, but that doesn't mean his point should remain truth.
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