Sunday, October 23, 2005
Letter or Spirit?
Someone I know is having a hard time with "church Christians". He doesn't have a hard time with work people. In fact, he finds that the non-Christians he works with exemplify Christianity more than most church Christians he has experienced over his lifetime.
He explained to me that his work buddies will help him out if in a jam, no questions asked. If he wants to talk they'll listen, but they won't ask him questions if he doesn't want to expound. They are content to just "be". For an example, he told me that if I needed to move immediately...say tonight, he could make one phone call and have 3 guys show up. He wouldn't need to tell them what or why, just where and when. No questions asked. He said that in his previous experience with Christians, in the same scenario he would be hard pressed to have the same thing happen. They would want to know what and why their help was needed. They would want to know what happened. They would perhaps mask it in "we want to know how to pray for the situation", but really they would just be nosy if all pretenses were to be removed. Then of course they would need to give advice.
That, he has found, is a basic difference. Christians always feel they have the "easy answers". He is glad that when he was in church circles he didn't find himself in situations where he had to come up with answers, because looking back he doesn't have many words to take back. Last winter I remember him saying that he no longer has easy answers like he once did.
My friend used to be actively involved in church. Near the end of his involvement he realized this was no longer for him, when sitting in a meeting discussing baptism. Seems pretty non-threatening. But during the meeting the authorities were trying to decide if a person was going to be allowed to be baptised. Not for lifestyle issues, but because they were deathly afraid of water and couldn't handle being immersed. They were requesting an alternate method be used. Another candidate was terminal in the hospital and requested baptism. They too could not be immersed. The panel was seriously considering the request of both people. My friend asked "What does it matter how it's done?" He was an advocate of immersion, but he saw the spirit of baptism eroded by the discussion in front of him. He saw that the mode rather than the intent was more important to too many people, and he was not one of them. That was a defining moment for him.
Someone I know refers to "the letter versus the spirit" of the law. Sometimes we get hung up in the how's of things and lose the why's. And we become so confident that we know the only way.
I had a neighbour who was raised Mennonite. From a strong, religious Mennonite upbringing, was this cussing, smoking, drinking trucker man. He had nothing to do with it when I saw him. But he showed me love and acceptance and that he would help with whatever I needed with no questions asked. He didn't have his act together by any means, but one day I told him that in my life he was the best example of a Christian that I had. By the way, he was probably the only non-Christian I hung out with at the time.
Here's a tidbit for you. We don't know everything. We don't know the mind of God all the time. We don't always interpret the Bible correctly. We snoop too much under the guise of holiness. We wage war in the name of God. No, I don't mean Ireland. I mean here, in ways that don't include bombs in the street. We split churches, as we shout at people and accuse of disobedience to God. We tell them they're going to hell for not listening to God's voice.
Are you sick yet? Are you mad at me for being "negative"? Listen, I've learned that I don't have the answers to all this. I know only one or two things. Jesus loves us and calls us to Him. We are to love as He loves us (like that's totally possible), and love our neighbour as ourselves.
He explained to me that his work buddies will help him out if in a jam, no questions asked. If he wants to talk they'll listen, but they won't ask him questions if he doesn't want to expound. They are content to just "be". For an example, he told me that if I needed to move immediately...say tonight, he could make one phone call and have 3 guys show up. He wouldn't need to tell them what or why, just where and when. No questions asked. He said that in his previous experience with Christians, in the same scenario he would be hard pressed to have the same thing happen. They would want to know what and why their help was needed. They would want to know what happened. They would perhaps mask it in "we want to know how to pray for the situation", but really they would just be nosy if all pretenses were to be removed. Then of course they would need to give advice.
That, he has found, is a basic difference. Christians always feel they have the "easy answers". He is glad that when he was in church circles he didn't find himself in situations where he had to come up with answers, because looking back he doesn't have many words to take back. Last winter I remember him saying that he no longer has easy answers like he once did.
My friend used to be actively involved in church. Near the end of his involvement he realized this was no longer for him, when sitting in a meeting discussing baptism. Seems pretty non-threatening. But during the meeting the authorities were trying to decide if a person was going to be allowed to be baptised. Not for lifestyle issues, but because they were deathly afraid of water and couldn't handle being immersed. They were requesting an alternate method be used. Another candidate was terminal in the hospital and requested baptism. They too could not be immersed. The panel was seriously considering the request of both people. My friend asked "What does it matter how it's done?" He was an advocate of immersion, but he saw the spirit of baptism eroded by the discussion in front of him. He saw that the mode rather than the intent was more important to too many people, and he was not one of them. That was a defining moment for him.
Someone I know refers to "the letter versus the spirit" of the law. Sometimes we get hung up in the how's of things and lose the why's. And we become so confident that we know the only way.
I had a neighbour who was raised Mennonite. From a strong, religious Mennonite upbringing, was this cussing, smoking, drinking trucker man. He had nothing to do with it when I saw him. But he showed me love and acceptance and that he would help with whatever I needed with no questions asked. He didn't have his act together by any means, but one day I told him that in my life he was the best example of a Christian that I had. By the way, he was probably the only non-Christian I hung out with at the time.
Here's a tidbit for you. We don't know everything. We don't know the mind of God all the time. We don't always interpret the Bible correctly. We snoop too much under the guise of holiness. We wage war in the name of God. No, I don't mean Ireland. I mean here, in ways that don't include bombs in the street. We split churches, as we shout at people and accuse of disobedience to God. We tell them they're going to hell for not listening to God's voice.
Are you sick yet? Are you mad at me for being "negative"? Listen, I've learned that I don't have the answers to all this. I know only one or two things. Jesus loves us and calls us to Him. We are to love as He loves us (like that's totally possible), and love our neighbour as ourselves.
// posted by Annette @ 6:37 p.m. 