Sometimes
it is embarrassing to be a Christian. I’ll
give just a couple of examples.
Driving
north on US 127 heading toward Mackinaw, at mile 203 there is a sign along the
side of the highway saying “Jesus come into my heart.” Well, this is not exactly embarrassing, at
least not in itself. But when I first
saw that sign, perhaps ten or more years ago, I thought that the person who put
that there thought that every person who drove by the sign and read or pronounced
the words, even just in their head, were thereby “saved.” That is probably not true at all. It is the thought that occurred to me. Just suppose that was the motivation of the
person who first put the sign there. Is
there really something mysterious or magical about pronouncing in English the
phrase “Jesus come into my heart”?
Imagine the large majority of the world’s population who do not read
English. Or imagine a non-English
speaker driving by the sign, able to pronounce English words without knowledge
of the reference of the words.
A
month ago I was visiting a relative for a weekend and went to church with my
relative. I’ve attended church with them
a few times, and almost always get annoyed with something. But this time it started well, and I thought
it would be a great church service. The
congregation sang a mid-20th century hymn “Heaven Came Down and
Glory Filled My Soul.” After the hymn,
the pastor said that the point of becoming a Christian is not to avoid hell,
escape this earth, and get to heaven.
The point is to bring heaven down to earth, to make our earthly life and
surroundings more heaven-like. Nice, I
thought. This guy has read N.T. Wright
too. Later, the sermon was on
anger. For this week, the sermon was on
divine anger. Apparently the previous
week he had spoken about human anger. In
reviewing that, he said the biblical texts do not proscribe anger. But there are lots of warnings and cautions
about human anger. When we get angry,
the emotion can incline us to do something that is proscribed. We are just not very good at handling anger. So far, so good.
In
the sermon, he addressed several biblical texts that refer to God being angry,
and the pastor wanted to identify several things that get God angry. At one point he quoted Matthew 5.22: “whosoever
is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment.” He proceeded to tell the congregation why
they should read only the King James Version because other versions leave out “without
a cause.” For instance, the New
International Version: “anyone who is angry with a brother or
sister will be subject to judgment,” with a footnote between “sister”
and “will” saying that the Greek text has just adelphos (“brother”) but not adelphia
(“sister”), but that nonetheless the text means it to refer to all people,
sisters, brothers, fathers, mothers, orphans, anyone. In the same place is a footnote reporting
that some Greek manuscripts add “without a cause.” He stated that the King James Version is the
only correct Bible, that the New International Version suggests that anyone who
is angry, with or without a cause, is subject to judgment, and that is just
plain wrong. It is only if you are angry
without a cause that you are subject to judgment. Fine and good; but do you need to believe
that the King James Version is the only correct bible to believe that? Furthermore, think of the consequences of
believing that the King James Version is the only correct bible. If you lived before 1611 it was tough luck
for you. If you read and speak only
Japanese, or Spanish, or anything but English, tough luck. If you understand contemporary English, but
not Elizabethan English, tough luck. If
you were Jesus, or Peter, or Paul, and spoke Hebrew or Aramaic and Greek, well,
whatever bible you were reading just wasn’t up to snuff.
It gets better or, rather, worse.
He identified the Matthew biblical text in his discussion of God’s anger
because he then wanted to go on to show that all the instances in the bible of
divine anger (he said something like 90% of the references to “anger” in the
bible refer to divine anger) were with cause, were justified. While talking about the things that make God
angry, God’s justly caused anger, he at various times in his sermon discredited
nearly every church within two miles of that church. For instance, in speaking about God’s anger
over human excessive pride, he referred to a sign in front of a church down the
road (those in themselves are often embarrassing, the goofy things they
say). It said “You are awesome.” I remembered seeing it as we were driving to
the church, in front of a Nazarene church.
When I saw the sign, I took the reference to be God. But the pastor, in the sermon, took it to be
referring to people. Did he give them a
telephone call and ask? I doubt it. He said “you are not awesome; you are
sinners, full of wickedness. Whatever goodness you have is fully and only
imputed by God. Churches that teach the
nonsense that you are good, that you are awesome are so wrong they have to be
avoided. You come to our church to find
the truth about what you are.” In the
sermon, Presbyterians, Lutherans, Methodists, Pentecostals, and Roman Catholics
were all singled out for leading people astray.
Apparently one thing that does not make God angry is when Christians
denigrate other Christian groups and believe theirs has the corner on the truth
(or if they are a Four Square Gospel church, they probably have all the corners
on the truth).
For a final example, I am in a reading group of guys that meet
Friday mornings at a restaurant. The book
we are reading is kind of boring, kind of repetitive. It is #2 on the
Christian best-seller's list; not sure why. The guy's main thesis or
thought is that if you are not fully committed all-out on-fire for Jesus in
every area and aspect of your life, you are not really a follower of Jesus,
you're only a fan. None of this "my heart, Christ's home" idea,
where we might have Christ in the front door, over time we let him into various
rooms, but sometimes or forever we keep him out of certain closets. None of this, as Anne Lamott says, “God loves
us exactly the way we are, and God loves us too much to let us stay like this.”
None of this "just as I am, without one plea." In fact in one
chapter he talked about an unmarried couple living together who came to his
church. During an altar call they came forward to accept Jesus, and were told
upon making a commitment to Christ that the first thing they needed to do was
to stop living together. So they stopped going to that church. I am never sure what the first thing a person
needs to change when they come to Christ, but having a legal document in order
to live together is likely not #1. That kind of attitude comes through in
the book. Not much grace, not much patience for a christian walk or
marathon. No, it is a christian 100 yd dash from initial commitment to
fully there. If only it were so easy.
I
know. I’ve just been an embarrassment to
you as I have just embarrassed myself. I’ve
denigrated other Christians. I’ve talked
as if I understand what is good, proper, and true, and used my perspective on
the good, proper, and true to judge others.
Not just judge, but sentence and execute. Yes, I am pretty firmly committed to being less
dogmatic, less judgmental, more open and accommodating. I want to exhibit a generous, not stingy,
orthodoxy. And I am pretty dogmatic and
judgmental about that.
