Red Letters

On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”  “What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”  He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”  “You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”

You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.

But to you who are listening I say: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets.

“Therefore, if you are offering your gift at the altar and there remember that your brother or sister has something against you, leave your gift there in front of the altar. First go and be reconciled to them; then come and offer your gift.

For if you forgive other people when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.

My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s friends. You are my friends if you do what I command.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘Eye for eye, and tooth for tooth.’ But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If anyone slaps you on the right cheek, turn to them the other cheek also. And if anyone wants to sue you and take your shirt, hand over your coat as well. If anyone forces you to go one mile, go with them two miles. Give to the one who asks you, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.

“You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

“You have heard that it was said to the people long ago, ‘You shall not murder, and anyone who murders will be subject to judgment.’ But I tell you that anyone who is angry with a brother or sister will be subject to judgment. Again, anyone who says to a brother or sister, ‘Raca,’is answerable to the court. And anyone who says, ‘You fool!’ will be in danger of the fire of hell.

“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you. “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.

Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven.

Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”

Luke 10:25-28, Matthew 5:43-48, Luke 6:27-28, Matthew 7:12, Matthew 5:23-24, Matthew 6:14-15, John 15:12-14, Matthew 5:38-42, Matthew 5:14-16, Matthew 7:1-5, Matthew 5:19, John 8:32

The Opposite of Faith isn't Doubt...

  One of the pastors at my church recently made the statement that “the opposite of faith isn’t doubt, it is certainty.”

Through my 27 years of working in the church, I have seen over and over again this statement ring true.  

The first time I learned this lesson was in college when I had a professor ask me “Kevin, do you believe your understanding of God is 100% correct?”  The answer to that question is obviously no (hopefully it is obvious).  It would be rather arrogant to think that I have God 100% figured out.  When I told my professor that no, I don’t think my understanding of God is 100% correct; his follow up question disarmed me a bit.  He simply said, “well…what do you think you have wrong?”  

Up until that point, within my religious studies at Greensboro College, I had been rather certain.  I had been taught that doubt was the opposite of faith, so I left no room for it.  The problem is, certainty wasn’t allowing for any tension in my faith, and I have learned that our faith grows the most through tension.  Much like working out at a gym, if we don’t provide tension to our bodies, our bodies do not have the opportunity to get stronger.  If we provide no tension to our faith, our faith won't grow.  

I left that conversation much more open to listening to other people’s understanding of God.  I allowed tension, even when it was uncomfortable.  

These days, I spend far less time on social media than I used to.  As I scrolled through comments and posts this morning, it hit me one of the things that I struggle with the most on social media.  I struggle with certainty.  Primarily, I struggle with the certainty of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ.  

Through my years in ministry, I have had the opportunity to work with lots of young people wresting with their faith.  One very consistent theme throughout the years, is that they love Jesus.  They love Jesus’ message.  They love the way Jesus treated others and that he simplified the “law" to "Love God with all your heart, soul, strength, and mind, and love your neighbors as yourself."  To them, it is simple...if you love God with all you have, and love your neighbor as yourself...you won't lie, cheat, steal, murder, gossip, etc.  

They may love Jesus, but they really really struggle with the church.  In a conversation with a young man that had gone off to college, but drifted from the institutional church, he said something that has always stuck with me.

“It doesn’t bother me that the church is full of hypocrites, it bothers me that the church is full of people trying to prove they aren’t hypocrites.”  

In our conversation, he explained that he expected the church to be full of broken people…after all scripture tells that “All have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” (Romans 3:23.  This young man expected the church to be full of broken people…because we are all broken, but said every church he had visited was full of people trying to prove they had it all together.  He quoted 2 Corinthians 12:9, “But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore, I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me.”  

He struggled because he found no vulnerability.  He struggled because he found people compartmentalizing their faith…only applying Truth to certain areas of their lives.  He struggled because he saw the church taking a zero tolerance approach to some sin, and completely ignoring others.  Conveniently, the sin that was generally ignored was how folks in that church struggled with sin, and the sin that there was zero tolerance for was sin that folks didn’t struggle with or understand.  

Like to gossip?  Come on, we will mask our gossip as prayer request! You belong!

Struggle with drunkenness?  Well, get your life together and then we would love to welcome you.  

Don’t mind a little favoritism or backbiting?  Come on (well, as long as you are in the same socioeconomic status as us and want to bad mouth the people we don’t like)! You belong!

Wait, you are living with your girlfriend/boyfriend?  Nope, not here, we don’t tolerate sexual immorality.  

Want to hate a certain group of people?  Well, we hate them too!  Let’s go! You belong!

You want to welcome all people and leave the judging to God?  Get that out of here…the church needs accountability!  

Accountability…Through the years when I have pushed folks on this topic, accountability is often what is thrown back to me.  “If as a church, we don’t hold people accountable, then we will morally degrade and become secular…no different than the rest of the world.”  I agree, I think accountability is important.  However, I believe strongly that accountability is most appropriate and has the greatest effect when it is done in the midst of relationship.  The better and deeper we know each other, the easier it is to hold each other accountable without resentment.  My close friend and family can hold me accountable in ways that someone I just met cannot.  I think the key to that is trust…you cannot have accountability without trust…and you cannot have trust without relationship.  Accountability outside of relationship is, well…judgement.  If I am holding people accountable that I don’t know, I lack the context and relationship for accountability to be effective.  I think it is important to note that accountability is only effective when it is in a relationship that allows accountability to go both ways.  Too often in church, we are all about holding other people accountable, but don’t you dare try to hold me accountable.  

It is impossible to develop a relationship with someone that you villainize or exclude.  If I start off a conversation with “you are an idiot” or “you are evil”…I should not be surprised if the other person doesn’t really listen to or respect what I have to say.  Dehumanizing the “other side” isn’t the work of the Holy Spirit…it is the work of the flesh.  Dehumanizing or villainizing the other side ignores the fact that “the other side” are also children of God…Children that God deeply loves.  

Watching post on social media lately…we as Christians seem awfully certain.  We think being confident in our faith means we have to come across as certain in our faith. We think if we don’t come across as certain, that our faith looks weak.  And if our faith looks weak…our witness becomes weak.  However, I believe wholeheartedly that our certainty is killing our witness.  

Our certainty isn’t bring people to God…it is driving them away from God.  My favorite quote is by Oliver Goldsmith, “You can preach a better sermon with your life than with your lips.”   Ultimately, the heart of this quote is that you cannot preach a sermon if your life doesn’t match what your lips are saying.  Our message of God’s love falls short when we show hate.  Our message of accountability falls short when we don’t allow others to hold us accountable.  Our message of Jesus being Lord of our life, falls short when others see that we only allow Jesus to be Lord of only parts of our lives.  

We are awfully certain of ourselves, thinking we are the only ones that understand God fully, and we flash this certainty while compartmentalizing our faith.  It is obvious to those on the outside that we are allowing God to only touch certain parts of our lives.  We act like only the sins of others is the problem, and our sins aren’t a big deal.  If you sin like me, you belong…if you sin differently than me, then you are evil and need to be hated.  We are outraged when it is convenient, but ignore other issues when it doesn’t fit our narrative.  Too many of us are allowing our politics to shape our faith rather than our faith shape our politics.  We are using a political platform to justify how we read scripture, rather than allowing scripture (through the Holy Spirit) to guide our politics.  We seem to think the way forward is to drive people to our political party.  If we can just get them to agree with our platform, they will find salvation.  If we can just get people to agree with us, they will find salvation.

But our salvation doesn’t come 

…through a political party

…through certainty

…our own goodness 

…our own “rightness”

it comes 

…through repentance (which can only come with vulnerability) of our sins.

…through God’s grace.  

…through the cross.  

If I am certain of anything, it is that we are not going to lead people to God by leading them to a political party, a certain platform, or a certain way of thinking.  We will only lead people to God when we lead them to the cross.  We best lead people to the cross through relationship.  I’ve had the honor of leading many people to the cross.  I’ve had the pleasure of seeing people accept God’s into their life for the first time.  Every single time I’ve had that honor…it is because I’ve had a relationship with that individual.   

Our way forward is through building deeper relationships.  It isn’t an easy road, because relationships are hard.  True relationships are messy.  True relationships require honesty, vulnerability, acts of service done in love, encouragement, compromise, selflessness, respect, humility, and more. 

If you want a great passage to guide you in how to build deeper relationships as a people of faith…1 Corinthians 13 gives us a great blueprint.  Yes, it is a passage often read at weddings.  However, in full context, it is a passage that immediately follows Paul’s instructions how to have unity and celebrate diversity in the church body.  1 Corinthians 13 is great instructions for how to have healthy love within a marriage, but it is intended to be instructions on how to love well within the body of Christ.

If I speak in tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing.

If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing.

Love is patient

Love is kind

It does not envy

It does not boast

It is not proud

It does not dishonor others

It is not self-seeking

It is not easily angered

It keeps no record of wrongs

Love does not delight in evil

Love rejoices with the truth

It always protects

Always trusts

Always hopes

Always perseveres

Love never fails. 

But where there are prophecies, they will cease

Where there are tongues, they will be stilled

Where there is knowledge, it will pass

For we know in part

We prophesy in part

But when completeness comes

What is in part disappears

When I was a child,

I talked like a child

I thought like a child

I reasoned like a child

When I became a man

I put the ways of childhood behind me

For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror

Then we shall see face to face.

Now I know in part

Then I shall know full

Even as I am fully known

And now these three things remain: 

Faith

Hope

Love

But the greatest of these is love

Let this be your litmus test.   

Let this be your measure of faith.

If you are to be certain in anything…be certain in this.  

Because the opposite of faith isn’t doubt…

…it is certainty.