Saturday, January 3, 2015

"A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

So there's this.  And it's hard, I won't pretend it's not.  It may be the single hardest commandment we've ever been given.  The standard is just... so... high.  There's no wiggle room, there's no comfort zone.  Christ calls us to an all out, all encompassing, self sacrificial love.  

He calls us to love each other in the SAME WAY that He loved us.  

When I first decided to talk about this topic, I thought "There's no way you can make that fit with the whole "Suicidal Christianity" thing you've got going on..." but not only was it possible, it was absolutely necessary.

I want to talk today about disposable Christians.

That guy that you interact with on that forum who says that weird stuff that you know for SURE isn't Biblical. 

That gal you know who has that absolutely looney idea about that thing you were just certain everyone understood. 

That preacher you heard say that one thing that Sunday... you remember.  That thing that made the hair on the back of your neck stand up.  





And in each of those situations, what did you do?

There are a few responses, but I think the most common one for us in the digital age is simply to dispose of them. 

We throw each other away. 

Oh, she's so entirely wrong about this that I can just discount whatever she says... Oh, he is WAY off on that, and so he's probably way off on everything else too...


It's a coping mechanism.  I get that.  There's a certain Bible teacher I don't like.  Her voice grates on me, and her illustrations make me feel like I'm back in high school, laughing at something I know isn't funny.  So when the small group or the Sunday School class is watching one of her highly successful, widely published videos, I show up late to minimize the exposure.  I find some other thing which has suddenly become important, and Oh, I'm sorry, my *insert-random-relative-here* has this *insert-thing-here* every *insert-day-of-small-group-here* and I really just can't make it.  So sorry. 

 

But here's the thing....  Even Pontius Pilate had something to say.  When he gave the order to crucify Christ, he also ordered the sign placed upon His cross which read "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews," and refused to change it.  But before that, he said "I find no guilt in this man."

Even from those people who annoy us, we can learn truth.

Even from those we would dismiss, we can hear the word of God.

Rich Mullins, before he passed away, told the story at one of his concerts about Balaam.  For anyone who doesn't know, Balaam was a prophet of God who succumbed to temptation.  Some king somewhere paid Balaam a lot of money to tell him how to defeat the Israelites, and Balaam said that if you get them to sin, God will turn His back on them.  So anyway, later on God sends an angel to strike Balaam down dead, but God sends a second angel to warn Balaam (because Grace). 

Balaam is leading his ass (mule, donkey....) down the road, and the ass sees the angel on the path waiting to strike Balaam down.  So the ass stops, and refuses to budge.  Balaam, his eyes filled with the money of the pagan king, doesn't see the Angel... he only sees the ass preventing him from getting to where he was going.  So he pulls on the rope, and he tries to push the ass from behind, and then he starts to beat the ass with a stick hoping to get it to move, when God suddenly gives the ass language and it says "There's an angel about to strike up the path, and you're trying to pull me to your own doom." 

Anyway, Rich ends his story with some of the most powerful words I've ever heard applied to that story.  He says "And God has been speaking through asses ever since.  So if God should call you to preach, you ought not think too highly of yourself.  And if you should, upon meeting someone new, understand immediately that they are an ass, don't dismiss them too quickly."


If I am to hear the voice of God, I must set aside my pride.  I must set aside my own concept that I have all truth, and I must absolutely set aside the idea that I am the final arbiter of truth.  I'm not.  Sometimes, God really does speak through asses.  





Let us seek to be like the Bereans of Acts 17:11.

"
Now the Berean Jews were of more noble character than those in Thessalonica, for they received the message with great eagerness and examined the Scriptures every day to see if what Paul said was true."