Filed under: Bible, Missional Living | Tags: Bible, Christianity, Christians, God, Grace, James 2, Jesus, Judgement, Love, mercy, Post-Christian, Spirituality
This might be beating a dead (or dying) horse, but here goes anyway.
As I was writing in my last post, I want to be known by what I do and what I am for. To often our society stereotypes and categorizes people and beliefs by what they are against: Republicans are against big government, Democrats are against the wealthy, Christians are against homosexuals, and reasonable people should be against any coffee shop with stores on every corner. OK maybe not that last one, but I think you get the point. Perhaps we define ourselves and other by what we are not because its easier to see what we hate in others then in ourselves, and by extension can say “I’ll never be/do that.” Yet the reality is, that all of us, when faced with the right circumstances are capable of the darkest evil. In my reading today I came across this thought in James 2.
“Speak and act as those who are going to be judged by the law that gives freedom, because judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!”
Wow, mercy triumphs over judgement. I may be reading too much into that, but is it saying that rather then judging people by what they do or think, we are called to speak and act out of mercy?
And what is the law that gives freedom? As I understand scripture, it’s grace. The new law of Jesus is based on the fact that all of us are offered forgiveness that we do not deserve. That we all blow it and fall way short of what God created us to be. James seems to be reminding followers of Jesus that, as those who have been forgiven solely because of God’s love, we need to treat others the same way. How quickly do I forget. If anyone in the world should be agents of forgiveness, love, and reconciliation, it should be Christians who rest their entire faith and eternity on these things.
Perhaps that is what is bothering me the most. Rather then being know for what we (Christians) are against, we need to stand for what we are for. How much different would our world be, if, when people thought of Christians, they thought of the most loving, forgiving, inclusive, and creative people they knew. Maybe, it’s time for us to reframe our culture’s view of Christians. Maybe it’s time we take a stand for who we are. It can be done, but it can only be done by each of us living it out. What are we waiting for?
Filed under: Bible, Missional Church | Tags: Bible, Forgiveness, Grace, Hypocrisy, Judgement, Spirituality
Last week we had some great thoughts on forgiveness, judgment, and grace. It’s so freeing to see Jesus through fresh eyes. One of the things we’ve spent a little bit of time talking about on Sunday evenings the last 2 weeks has been different types of judgment (Thanks for pointing this out Omar). Is it OK for me to have a problem with the way some followers of Jesus represent God? How am I supposed to respond to this? If Jesus didn’t come to judge and I am sent the same way what do I do? I’ve really been thinking about this the last week, and just about fell off my chair when I read this “contradiction” in the Bible (gasp). So having said that what do we do with passages like this? I’d love to hear your thoughts:
John 9:24-41
A second time they summoned the man who had been blind. “Give glory to God,” they said. “We know this man is a sinner.
He replied, “Whether he is a sinner or not, I don’t know. One thing I do know. I was blind but now I see!”
Then they asked him, “What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?”\
He answered, “I have told you already and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you want to become his disciples, too?”
Then they hurled insults at him and said, “You are this fellow’s disciple! We are disciples of Moses!
We know that God spoke to Moses, but as for this fellow, we don’t even know where he comes from.”
The man answered, “Now that is remarkable! You don’t know where he comes from, yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners. He listens to the godly man who does his will. Nobody has ever heard of opening the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing.”
To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.
Jesus heard that they had thrown him out, and when he found him, he said, “Do you believe in the Son of Man?”
“Who is he, sir?” the man asked. “Tell me so that I may believe in him.”
Jesus said, “You have now seen him; in fact, he is the one speaking with you.”
Then the man said, “Lord, I believe,” and he worshiped him.
Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, so that the blind will see and those who see will become blind.”
Some Pharisees who were with him heard him say this and asked, “What? Are we blind too?”
Jesus said, “If you were blind, you would not be guilty of sin; but now that you claim you can see, your guilt remains.
What!? For judgment He came into the world? Isn’t this exactly opposite what Jesus says in John 3 and 12? And yet to me it all makes sense.
Heres the rest of the story for context and some other “judgment” verses for you to add to this:
Before I spew my thoughts I’d love to hear yours. So hook it up and write it down.
Oh, one more thing. We are not meeting this Sunday evening for discussion (we’ll be out playing), so if your part of the actual Sunday gathering feel free to post your thoughts here and come hang out with us. If your a virtual part of our community we want your thoughts too even if your too far away to come play 
Next week I think we’re going to jump into Jesus’ words in the gospel of Luke and spend some time with that account of Jesus’ story. It should be fun.
