I follow no doctrine. I don't belong to a church or a temple or a synagogue or an ashram...So I've always been really, deeply interested, because I think I can understand the solace that's available in the whole construct of religion. But I really don't believe in the power of prayer, or things would have been avoided that have happened, that are awful. So it's a horrible position as an intelligent, emotional, yearning human being to sit outside of the available comfort there. But I just can't go there...
When asked from where she draws consolation in the face of aging and death, she responded: Consolation? I'm not sure I have it. I have a belief, I guess, in the power of the aggregate human attempt – the best of ourselves. In love and hope and optimism – you know, the magic things that seem inexplicable. Why we are the way we are. I do have a sense of trying to make things better. Where does that come from?
So there are answers, good ones, arrived at by far more intelligent philosophers than I. But the truth is that many who ask that question, how can there be an all-powerful all-loving God who allows suffering and misery and pain?, don't really want an answer. They don't want to hear the answer, and they most assuredly aren't seeking an answer. But they do have to try to fill that emptiness and address the something missing in their lives. The sad truth is that many of the atheists and agnostics I know are some of the most outwardly kind, accepting and compassionate people. I say this is sad not because I wish they weren't so, because I think it's great when anyone is kind and compassionate. No, what is sad is when someone who does not believe in God, or claims not to believe, has more of the compassion of Christ than those who claim to follow Jesus.
In this case, the woman I am writing of became concerned with social issues and managed to amass some wealth. She became bit famous in her little pond, and everyone in the area knew her by sight. Remember that this is someone who said, in a newspaper interview, that all in the area could find and read if they cared to learn a little about her, that she is interested in the consolation that comes from God, that she wishes she can believe it, but she can't reconcile the evil in the world with a good God. She wants relationship with God. She needs it. But she can't go there. She is hurting and unconsoled and afraid. She's in her 60s now, the end is near, and she has no comfort or hope.
Like most people who do not have a relationship with God, she responded to some things that she cares about in a way that made the religious in her little circle of influence wince and feel that she had seriously stepped over the line of what is acceptable. This story may not be that different from a tale heard in many a small town, especially in the Bible belt. Isn't there almost always that rich and or powerful man, woman or family who doesn't believe as the majority of the "good" folks in the area and offends them with their humanism and heathenism?
See, here is my problem, and it's not the first time I have run into such things, as I have lived in small towns and communities most of my life,....the problem is what do we do? How do we fix it? This woman is suffering in her soul, and it is the calling of Christians to be heartbroken at her longing for God and inability to find Him. It's our calling to be the light that shows her the way to Jesus. This is someone in desperate need of spiritual healing, and we know the One who can do it. But she has offended some of the moral and religious sensibilities. And rather than love her to Jesus, the religious attacked.
Now, she didn't believe or say anything different than a lot of non-believers say and believe. Her views were not anything so outlandish that there isn't at least one person in every fast food joint, every grocery store and every shopping center in the area who agrees with her and says and does the same. But because she is a big fish in the little pond, because her words were quoted in print and because of I don't know, people who ignore the fact that the check out girl at the grocery store completely agreed and shared the woman's words on her public Facebook page and continue to shop at the grocery store without hesitation, they are trying to put this woman out of business. They will not support her businesses if she continues to believe and act like she does.
So the people responsible for showing her the way to love are adding to the pain and misery. They are bullying her into a moral change rather than leading her to a heart change. I don't know... It's heart breaking. To see someone admit that they need and want relationship with God but hurt prevents them from believing and then see people who claim to follow the Lord of love add to the hurt and confirm the way the one in need feels makes me angry and breaks my heart.
I am not speaking to recovery this morning, but I am addressing the ones in spiritual recovery already. This is a wake up call for me and for you and all who profess to follow Jesus. Jesus said love God and love others. That's it. That's what we are supposed to do. Nothing more, nothing less.
Let me tell you, for those who don't know, in the Middle East, especially in ancient times, fellowship with someone was far more important than financial interaction. Nothing said I accept you, I associate with you and I support you like fellowship. That's why the Pharisees kicked the traitorous tax collectors out of the synagogue. The excommunication cut the outcast off from all fellowship and support from faithful religious family and community. They were barely a step above the lepers whom no one would touch.
Jesus had fellowship with tax collectors, with traitors. He ate with them, which was to those who saw it not only the support of these people but Jesus associating with the guilty in a way that made Him appear guilty Himself to the religious. Jesus never supported what the tax collectors were doing. He never approved of their life and sin, but He loved them. He didn't withhold love, affection or support in an attempt to bully them into moral compliance. He loved them and gave them hope for true change and freedom.
And it wasn't just the traitors and the thieves and the whores that He supported. He had fellowship and hung out with the religious too! He spent time associating with His greatest enemies, the ones who thought outward conformity was what mattered, the self-righteous, the ones who preached performance mattered more than the love of God, and the ones who would kill Jesus for His message of love. He didn't approve of their message and beliefs. He openly and plainly called them out for being wrong, but He had fellowship with them and loved them the same as any sinner.
It's time that we who are called to be like Jesus, who claim to have accepted that call and said yes, start loving those folks who need God. We should stop shooting the wounded. We are pushing people away from God, not leading them to Him. You can't expect a jackass not to act like a jackass. It's his nature to act like what he is. And you can't expect a non-Christian to act with the same morals and beliefs as a Christian. To do so is stupid. But we should expect a Christian to act like Jesus, to take care of the wounded on the road like the Samaritan rather than being one of the muggers. Sometimes we look at the story of the Good Samaritan and remind one another that Christians are not to be the religious folk who walk on by. But we're not walking by! The representatives of Jesus are the ones beating up the traveler and taking away what chance he had to believe in a good and loving God.
How can we do that? Jesus weeps! We are not called to bully the heathen into right behavior. We are not called to scare or beat the hell out of anybody. We are called to love the hell out of people by treating them with the compassion of Christ rather than the condemnation of the Pharisee. And it doesn't matter if it's the social structure and politics of a small town like Appleby, Tx, a place so small it doesn't even have a stop light, or the social and political structure of a world wide system. World wide is small when you realize that it is made up of units of single, broken and hurting humans too. Whether we see or hear their heart longing to believe or not, from the gutter crawler to the janitor to the president and the biggest rock star, all of us need Jesus. And those of us who have found and realized that to be true, need to love. We can not be more concerned with someone's behavior than their heart, because Jesus never was. EVER. If you are more worried with manipulating and pressuring people to conform to Christian morality than you are with introducing those hurting heathens who are offensive and wrong to the Jesus who can actually heal, restore and transform them with His love, then please, seriously please, take down your public crosses, remove your Christian bumper stickers and stop wearing that T-shirt that speaks of the love of Christ. Please stop calling yourself a Christian until you can at least agree with His ministry and purpose.
I know we can't be perfect and we will fail to love as we should. We need the grace of God to act like anything other than the muggers, bullies and Pharisees that we are. But to access that grace we have to at lest agree that the method of Christ, love, is the right path rather than pressure and condemnation. And if you do believe, if you do realize it's all about loving God and loving others, then know that you've failed and that's OK. I've failed. We've all fallen short of the acceptance and support and love and fellowship of Jesus toward others. Let us repent. Let us pray and ask Daddy to fill us with His love for those that He wants to share Himself with that He sent Jesus to die in their place.
Abba, Daddy, please fill us, Your children and followers, with the love of Jesus for the need and wounded. Guide our reactions to their offenses. Help us to see the need of their heart instead of trying to control their behavior. Help us to be like you. Forgive us of the times we have been bullies in Your name. Lead us to repentance and give us the grace to love. Remove the weapons of our warfare that we use to attack people and shoot the wounded. Help us to remember that we are not at war with people but with spiritual evil and darkness and let us no longer push the hurting further from You or fail so miserably to represent Your love and acceptance of even the worst of us. Amen.
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