One Size Doesn't Fit All- and Thank God for That
I tried to start this post here at least a half dozen times, all with little to no success. And the "little to" part is being overly generous. I had planned to write about the Christian Right, but couldn't get into my flow. I was going to do a review/explication of Casting Crown's new song "Jesus Friend of Sinners."
Instead, I'm going to talk about both of those things, and yet neither of them.
Today in Bible study, we read an article talking about how church shouldn't be cool. In trying to be cool, churches lose the hard-core believers, the faithful who liked the status quo, and with them the truest sense of who they are as a church. And the "coolness" becomes a distraction from what really matters: Jesus. This seemingly innocuous article led to a discussion lasting a good half hour where each person basically gave her opinion about which churches are trying to be "cool" and how that's wrong and she doesn't like what it entails.
We had a new girl come tonight who was "extreme Catholic," in her own words, who had a problem with the singing and swaying of nondenominational churches- "singing songs and having fun" rather than worshiping God- the way said churches treat the Eucharist, etc etc. She also had a problem with people from that church judging her (negatively) for her Catholicism. And I thought, "Well, isn't that what she herself is doing?"
So we spent a long time going on about how X church does this or that or the other thing wrong and really never learned much, because we all had different opinions about what is right or wrong for a church to do. And probably each of us thinking, as I will admit I was, "who is she to judge?"
Well, who are any of us to judge? Who are we to say, Your style of worship is wrong. This is my problem with the Christian that have this my-way-or-the-high-way thing that the only true Christian is the one who believes exactly as they do. That is a logical fallacy called No True Scotsman. By claiming to speak for all Christians, they give us a bad name and make us seem like hypocrites for going on about a God of love and compassion and showing neither.
I love "Jesus, Friend of Sinners" because it captures this perfectly. "We cut down people in Your name, but the sword was never ours to swing." And the wonderful story of Jesus writing in the sand rather than condemning the adulteress and joining in the stoning. That, to me, is the epitome of God's love. Forgiveness. And I love the song so much for putting it into words, for trying to make people understand how we need to be welcoming and loving and not judgmental.
And then I realized- I'm judging here. By decrying judgement, I'm passing it on those who don't see eye-to-eye with me. It's intrinsically a judgement of that person's faith and the "trueness" of it when I say, or even think, "You shouldn't act like that. You're not showing God's love." Is it at all possible to talk about judgement without being judgmental?
Another line from the song reads, "The world is on their way to you/ But they're tripping over me." It struck me for the first time that this is referring to our limiting God. He is this but not that (i.e. loving, not vengeful), we have to worship Him this way but not that way. When we try to define God or explain Him to others, we inevitably sell him far short because we talk about the God we know and the God we see when in reality He is far bigger than our conceptions of Him. He's multi-faceted, playing different roles for different people or in different situations.
This is why it is possible that I and members of the Christian Right worship the same God; He's bigger than us. Neither of us is necessarily "wrong" or "right," just different. We emphasis different characteristics of the one God, and the various emphases work for each of us to give us the faith we need. And isn't that all that matters in the end? That we have faith in God and Christ Jesus?
John 4:1-26 was the Bible story of the day at Bible study, and there's one thing that particularly struck me. Verses 21-24 read, "'Woman,' Jesus replied, 'believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.'"
What is true worship and true belief here? Worship in "Spirit and truth," genuine devotion to God. Where you worship doesn't matter (mountain or Jerusalem), or I think how you do so, so long as you do it whole-heartedly. I think that the coming "time" for worship "neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem" is anytime we realize that everything we do can be an act of worship. Worship is the relationship with God moreso than any specific action.
This isn't necessarily saying there's some things Christians oughtn't to be doing. Because God does forbid some behaviors. But I think the immense focus on the hows and wheres of worship- denomination, type of service- and of living the Christian life- political partisanship, abstaining from this or that- limits God. He is bigger than all of us, even all of us combined. And He can work in our lives in ways we haven't even thought of. He can reach someone in the middle of a brothel just as easily as in a sanctuary.
So the world is "tripping over me" because I am limiting God. I'm not allowing Him to do His will as He sees fit, not as how I think He would see fit. He is so much bigger than me and my feeble mind, and all of my shortcomings- the judging, the pride, the sloth. And thank God for that, because if He wasn't- well, He'd be those things too, wouldn't He? Instead of the perfect Creator and Savior that He is.
Instead, I'm going to talk about both of those things, and yet neither of them.
Today in Bible study, we read an article talking about how church shouldn't be cool. In trying to be cool, churches lose the hard-core believers, the faithful who liked the status quo, and with them the truest sense of who they are as a church. And the "coolness" becomes a distraction from what really matters: Jesus. This seemingly innocuous article led to a discussion lasting a good half hour where each person basically gave her opinion about which churches are trying to be "cool" and how that's wrong and she doesn't like what it entails.
We had a new girl come tonight who was "extreme Catholic," in her own words, who had a problem with the singing and swaying of nondenominational churches- "singing songs and having fun" rather than worshiping God- the way said churches treat the Eucharist, etc etc. She also had a problem with people from that church judging her (negatively) for her Catholicism. And I thought, "Well, isn't that what she herself is doing?"
So we spent a long time going on about how X church does this or that or the other thing wrong and really never learned much, because we all had different opinions about what is right or wrong for a church to do. And probably each of us thinking, as I will admit I was, "who is she to judge?"
Well, who are any of us to judge? Who are we to say, Your style of worship is wrong. This is my problem with the Christian that have this my-way-or-the-high-way thing that the only true Christian is the one who believes exactly as they do. That is a logical fallacy called No True Scotsman. By claiming to speak for all Christians, they give us a bad name and make us seem like hypocrites for going on about a God of love and compassion and showing neither.
I love "Jesus, Friend of Sinners" because it captures this perfectly. "We cut down people in Your name, but the sword was never ours to swing." And the wonderful story of Jesus writing in the sand rather than condemning the adulteress and joining in the stoning. That, to me, is the epitome of God's love. Forgiveness. And I love the song so much for putting it into words, for trying to make people understand how we need to be welcoming and loving and not judgmental.
And then I realized- I'm judging here. By decrying judgement, I'm passing it on those who don't see eye-to-eye with me. It's intrinsically a judgement of that person's faith and the "trueness" of it when I say, or even think, "You shouldn't act like that. You're not showing God's love." Is it at all possible to talk about judgement without being judgmental?
Another line from the song reads, "The world is on their way to you/ But they're tripping over me." It struck me for the first time that this is referring to our limiting God. He is this but not that (i.e. loving, not vengeful), we have to worship Him this way but not that way. When we try to define God or explain Him to others, we inevitably sell him far short because we talk about the God we know and the God we see when in reality He is far bigger than our conceptions of Him. He's multi-faceted, playing different roles for different people or in different situations.
This is why it is possible that I and members of the Christian Right worship the same God; He's bigger than us. Neither of us is necessarily "wrong" or "right," just different. We emphasis different characteristics of the one God, and the various emphases work for each of us to give us the faith we need. And isn't that all that matters in the end? That we have faith in God and Christ Jesus?
John 4:1-26 was the Bible story of the day at Bible study, and there's one thing that particularly struck me. Verses 21-24 read, "'Woman,' Jesus replied, 'believe me, a time is coming when you will worship the Father neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem. You Samaritans worship what you do not know; we worship what we do know, for salvation is from the Jews. Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in the Spirit and in truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in the Spirit and in truth.'"
What is true worship and true belief here? Worship in "Spirit and truth," genuine devotion to God. Where you worship doesn't matter (mountain or Jerusalem), or I think how you do so, so long as you do it whole-heartedly. I think that the coming "time" for worship "neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem" is anytime we realize that everything we do can be an act of worship. Worship is the relationship with God moreso than any specific action.
This isn't necessarily saying there's some things Christians oughtn't to be doing. Because God does forbid some behaviors. But I think the immense focus on the hows and wheres of worship- denomination, type of service- and of living the Christian life- political partisanship, abstaining from this or that- limits God. He is bigger than all of us, even all of us combined. And He can work in our lives in ways we haven't even thought of. He can reach someone in the middle of a brothel just as easily as in a sanctuary.
So the world is "tripping over me" because I am limiting God. I'm not allowing Him to do His will as He sees fit, not as how I think He would see fit. He is so much bigger than me and my feeble mind, and all of my shortcomings- the judging, the pride, the sloth. And thank God for that, because if He wasn't- well, He'd be those things too, wouldn't He? Instead of the perfect Creator and Savior that He is.