Jesus said it would be hard to get people to trade in the old wine for the new (Luke 5:33-39).
2000 years after Jesus first started eating with sinners we still find ourselves gravitating toward the old.
One of the ways in which we are most unlike the Jesus we follow is seen in our inability or unwillingness to accept sinners as they are, to love them as they are, long before they ever think of repenting.
The greatest crisis facing most churches in America is not one of dwindling finances or diminishing attendance. It?s that our ministry in the world, our way of being in the world, looks so unlike the ministry of Jesus in the gospels.
Whether we want to admit it or not, if we ask the typical, non-church-going, irreligious “sinner” in our culture to describe Christians, they’re not going to describe Jesus.
They’re going to describe the Pharisees, even though they may not know who the Pharisees are.
They’re going to describe a people whose default setting is condemnation and judgement and exclusion, rather than love and grace and acceptance.
This means that we have to be willing to go above and beyond the usual pleasant courtesies in order to break through the suspicion and the hardness of heart that we’ve helped create.
Before we call sinners to repentance or before we challenge their lifestyle choices, we have to do everything we can to convince them that we love and accept them just as they are. Because what they are, are human beings created in the image of God.
Telling Stories, Asking Questions, Learning Lessons
Ouch! Ouch! Ouch!
Don’t drown us in evasive pleasantries, Wade.
Say what you really think!
I echo Keith’s ouch!
You feed into a longing I have currently to break free of what I have traditionally pictured as Christianity and to DO something REAL…ALL the time! Not just “special projects”. Because, you are so right, we have it so wrong when it comes to “outsiders”.
Hello all, new poster here… Some people have a knack for seeing the forest and not just the trees. Thanks for the great insights.
I think the pharisaical tendencies are evident not only in how we relate to outsiders but how we relate to one another. Our very instinct seems to be to construct ever-narrowing boundaries around ourselves. You’ve put your finger on something quite important IMO. If only we could figure out how to remedy that…
Thanks,
Alan
Wade ?
For me, the answer to this one came from Mark 12:28-34. I had to let go of all the things I thought God was in order to embrace who He says He is. Once I accepted our Father and chose to love Him exactly as He is, then, and only then, was I able to accept myself and make the choice to love myself exactly the way He made me. I knew to love my neighbor as myself, but because of my skewed view of who my Creator was, I just felt incredibly unholy and unlovable, and that was reflected in the way I treated others.
I?m now in the process of developing an intimate relationship with our Father … with Jesus … and with His Holy Spirit. I?m seeing the evidence of His healing in my heart as my criticism gives way to compassion … my judgments are replaced with a desire to help others see Jesus clearly and in my increased capacity to use my talents to encourage others because I finally understand that my enemy isn?t flesh and blood. An accurate understanding of God = a healthy view of ourselves = beautiful treatment of others.
Our culture has settled for merely tolerating one another. Maybe we have to. What better time to spread the Good News to the world … and to ourselves … that there is a more excellent way … the way of love. No wonder Jesus called these the greatest commands.
Steve
I’m slowing starting to realize that the root of so many of these attitudes is pride. We’re proud that we’ve got the rules and beliefs down, we’re proud that we’re a member of a group that has the rules down, we’re proud that our parents and grandparents had the rules down, we’re proud our kids are going to have the rules down, etc. etc.
It is tough to resemble Christ to non-church-goers, when a group of believers spends way too much time and energy reinforcing to each other that they’ve got the rules down better than other groups of believers. I think this comes across as simply ludicrous and silly to unchurched; unchurched who just need forgiveness, and hope, and unconditional love.
We just have to lose our pride in our church affiliation and replace it with gratitude for our Christ affiliation. Funny thing, I’m discovering that it’s much easier to witness about my Christ affiliation than my group affiliation.
Cheers.
Hello Wade,
I’m new to the blogosphere & just found your blog as I was linking and linking… just perusing people’s thoughts. This blog really encapsulates a problem I’m having now. I left my job in Nashville & moved home to an obscure little town in Mississippi to explore how to be involved in ministry to homosexuals and helping churches respond to this issue (not much along those lines exists here in the rural south – and none among Churches of Christ). The thinking that you describe is my largest obstacle… Most “church people” do not want to associate with gay people until they change. Even the most evangelistic see gay people as a project and something to pray about (always with an ulterior motive of changing them… without knowing how to just love and accept them in the present). Even church leaders struggle with this. Finding a congregation to support me in this endeavor is only a dream (and I mean having elders to look to and the prayerful partnership of a church rather than financial means. God is providing for me in those ways). I would be a loose cannon in most church’s eyes because loving gay people right where they are is pretty radical. Being a loose cannon is lonely sometimes… so I’m thrilled to see you voice this.
One of the biggest things we have to do is redefine the word “lost”. For the past several decades it has meant “excluded”. When Jesus used it, he meant something like “loved” and “missed”.
Speaking the truth in love!!!
It’s not about us, it’s about Him.
And He’s all about them…the widow, the orphan, the alien, the blind, the prisoner, the poor, the heartbroken…
But, Jody, look closely at them. Those widows, orphans, aliens, blind, prisoners, poor and heartbroken — they’re us.
Brueggemann said in a lecture once that pastors’ jobs were to make their flock distinctly uncomfortable with their current/popular understanding/practice of church and point them to something more real, but something that is likely more difficult. I agree. I don’t know if that’s a road to popularity, but there is a jarring dissimilarity between the life of Jesus and the life of the Church, and we ministers need to get good at identifying it and naming it and giving Christlike alternatives.
Wade, I don’t have much to add to the wonderful comments to this super post. I would say I hope we can work as hard at restoring discipleship that models Jesus as we have worked to restore the New Testament church. That is what we were called to do in the first place! 🙂
Great post, bro!
DU