Last Sunday (June 15th) was the Fourth Sunday after Trinity. The Gospel reading was Luke 6:36-42. This is a famous passage in which Jesus tells us that we are to “be merficul, even as your Father is merciful,” and to “judge not, and you will not be judged.” This Scripture is often used by people to state that Christians should never judge others, but this is not the case. Jesus follows these words with how we are to judge, by first taking “the log out of our own eyes…then we can see clearly to remove the speck from someone else’s.” This is a serious matter and Mercy is the overarching rule for us to remember. We are all sinners in need of God’s mercy and no one is an exception to this.
One of the great challenges for us as Christians today is to overcome the perception that we are a bunch of intolerant hypocrites bent on judging other people. This perception has been growing in our society so that many non-Christians have a negative view of us. Some of this we have brought upon ourselves. I don’t think we have always done a good job of communicating the message that the cross of Jesus is a message of Mercy from our Creator. We sometimes appear to be more angry at those within American culture who seem to have taken society from us. Yes, the gay marriage debate is currently looming large in the ongoing “culture war.”
We have to understand that the Father of Lies is at work in the world today. Satan is the one who deceiving humankind to believe a life lived apart from God is freedom. Satan is the one who is deceivng people to believe that being “true to themselves” and allowing others to live the same way is the supreme virtue. We are no different from them. Saint Paul, in Ephesians 2. reminds us that we too were once:
dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.
Thankfully, our Father, who is the Father of Mercy, had mercy upon us:
But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved— and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.
The message of the Gospel is one of Mercy, but it is also one of Truth. The Gospel states that Mercy and Life can only be had through Jesus Christ. This is the inherent challenge we face. Intolerance has become the only “sin” in our society today. Intolerance of others violates each individual’s right to be free and true to themselves. The Truth of the Gospel contradicts this lie and says quite plainly that the only way we can be truly free is through the Cross of Jesus. The irony is that this is where real freedom is found. Jesus said that is “truth that will set you free” (John 8:32). Only in submitting our lives to the Creator and receiving the love, forgiveness, and mercy that He offers will we find the freedom that we are looking for.
Lastly, in thinking about how do we live out and proclaim the Message of the Gospel in today’s society, I am posting a clip to a new documentary called “Lord Save Us From Your Followers.” I believe this should help us think about how we are engaging society now.
For the Video, I give out a h/t to Micah Monroe.
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4 responses so far ↓
1 Sarah d // Jun 19, 2008 at 12:01 pm
Cool documentary!
2 Stewart Black // Jun 19, 2008 at 3:46 pm
Excellent words, excellent video! I think that if all of us as Christians began by simply apologizing and asking forgiveness of every unbeliever that we know for not loving him / her as we should, we would go a long ways down the road of creating a better — and, let’s face it, a more accurate — impression of just who Jesus is! Thanks for sharing this.
3 Jim Pruitt // Jun 24, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I also think your words, Shane, and the video are excellent. Sincere, authentic apologies are definitely in order. Loving people and showing God’s love are definitely in order. Many of the gay and trans-gender students at the high school where I taught hung out in my room because, they said they felt “accepted” and “loved.”
However, there is the reality of the work of the Holy Spirit convincing and convicting “the world concerning sin, and righteousness, and judgment;” (John 16: 8+). In other words, no matter how nice we are, we will ultimately walk with the unbeliever to the place each person meets God and God says, “I am the way, the only way…” And the unbeliever’s response to that reality will become their response to us. Jesus is very clear about the hatred of the world for Him and His followers, and He is equally clear about loving people in spite of their hatred.
My concern here is that when we use the criticisms of those who oppose God as a standard to measure our behavior, we will become trapped in an situation where there is no winning. Jesus expressed this frustrating situation when He said, “But to what shall I compare this generation? It is like children in the market places, who call out to the other children, and say, ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not mourn…’” (Matt. 11: 16-19).
The manipulation of the modern and post-modern world is that if a person can make how you say something the issue, then they have avoided letting what you have said be the issue.
Let us speak in love, with loving words and soft hearts. Let us be gentle and meek like our Master. Let us strive to be peacemakers, but let us be wise enough to not expect that to make the world love us and give us their hearty approval.
4 Shane Copeland // Jun 25, 2008 at 8:24 am
Jim,
Good words. We can only do our best to faithfully present the Gospel in humility. We are not responsible for how people respond. God is the one who saves.
Shane+
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