 Every few months, a man wanders into our store front looking for food
and clothing, and some money if we have it. I'll call him "Gerry", not
his real name. Gerry doesn't live anywhere in particular. He seems to
be constantly moving from place to place. Gerry dropped in yesterday
to load up on supplies. He told me about his most recent adventures in
Ottawa, and that he was headed to Sarnia now for the winter. Gerry and
I have had a few lunches together, he's grabbed a few things out of our
ReUse store, and he does his laundry here most times when he drops in.
I find him to be a thoughtful and interesting person.
On his
most recent visit, the conversation turned to God, Jesus, the Bible and
heaven. What he said tugged at my heart. When I asked him if he had a
relationship with God, Gerry answered, "Nah, I don't think the Big Guy
would want much to do with an old drunk like me." Gerry wasn't calling
God's character into question. He felt that he wasn't worthy of God's
love.
I tried to tell Gerry that God knows what his life is
like. Jesus spent the last three-and-a-half years of his life
wandering from town to town, helping people and teaching them about
God. Jesus knew the cold of winter nights, and the heat of the
summer. He knew what it was to be dusty and thirsty, and knew what it
was to be hungry and lonely.
Gerry told me that in just about
every place he visits, there is at least one church that helps people
in need. What got my attention was the next thing he said. He told me
that every church he visits as he travels back and forth across Ontario
tells him that God loves him. In my church lingo, Gerry has heard the
Gospel more times that he can remember. He has heard it so much that
it is just background noise to him now. While all those churches are
helping him with food and clothing and showers and laundry facilities
and money, for which Gerry is sincerely grateful, all but two or three
churches tell him his lifestyle is wrong. The message he has heard
over and over again across the province is that to be really accepted
by God, to receive His grace and forgiveness, then he would need to
stop drinking, settle down, get cleaned up and find a job. Oh, and
attend their church. Whether or not that was the intent of all these
churches (I doubt it), the Gospel that Gerry has heard was, " If you
look and act more like us, then God can save you."
In my
years in and around churches, I have seen the conditional Gospel
preached more and more. We say God saves, no strings attached- we
preach it and proclaim it, then add strings with our actions and
attitudes. If you are saved- then you will stop drinking. If you
are saved- then you will dress like we do. If you are saved- then you
will believe what we believe. And if you do not measure up to our
expectations, then obviously you are not saved at all. Our doctrine is correct, but our doctrine doesn't really inform our behaviour or attitudes.
Strings.
"If you want soup tonight, you'll have to sit through the sermon." "If
you want real friendship and community, you''ll have to dress and act
like we do." "Sure God loves you just as you are, but if you really
want God to accept you, stop drinking (or smoking, or doing drugs, or
having sex with the wrong people)." We are arrogant enough that we
think giving someone a loaf of bread entitles us to judge their
spiritual condition, their lifestyle and their very worth before God.
That's not the Gospel. That's the old bait and switch. We advertise
grace, and later on add strings. We preach the Gospel, then perpetrate
'discipleship' on people (I am a strong proponent of discipleship. I
just think there is a long way between asking and telling). What we do
with those in need, we would never dream of doing to our neighbours or
coworkers. "Sure Fred, you can borrow a cup of sugar. God loves you
and accepts you just the way you are. But you really should lose 30
pounds." "Sure Ethel, you can use my rake. God loves you and accepts
you just the way you are. But you really should mow your lawn more
often." Sounds ridiculous when placed in our own social context, but
that is exactly what we do when we think we can be the Holy Spirit in
peoples' lives. Anytime people try to take God's place, bad things
happen!
The Gospel is all about the dead being resurrected.
We are dead in our sin Ephesians 2 tells us. It is God that makes us
alive, through and with Christ. Even the resurrected Jesus displayed
the wounds of his death. Those wounds are the very elements of the
Gospel lived out. Those wounds are life and community, not just to the
Jews and Gentiles and Samaritans of Jesus' day, but to the various
ethnic and social groups of our day. For the Gospel to truly be the
Gospel, our faith communities need to have exactly the same number of
strings as the Gospel- zero. This means that we need to rethink the
Gospel, not its elements or message, but the expectations we have
attached to it. We have turned the Gospel into an event, when we need
to consider it more of a process. A process that we dare not dictate.
Peace
|