Windows instead of Walls

This has been a sad week for the church of Jesus Christ. The Catholic Church and the pope are again under attack for covering up child molestation charges against priests. Meanwhile, in Michigan, angry "Christian" militia members were arrested by the FBI for plotting to kill policemen. I know that many will say that neither of these represent us, and we may not consider them as Christians. It doesn't matter. Those who read the newspapers will not understand the difference. All they see is the word "Christian" and lump us all in together.


I wish that I could say our brand of Christianity were devoid of sin and foolishness, but I cannot. Our recent divisions regarding Erskine Seminary have proved that. Dear God, what are we doing to ourselves? And to You?

"We wrestle not against flesh and blood," Paul writes, "But against rulers, against principalities and powers in the heavenly realms." Our weapons are not of this world, but are of divine origin. Yet it seems that those weapons of our warfare, our full armor, are left on the shelf to ruse, and we must pick up the weapons of this world--force, argument, political maneuvering, and lawsuits. We speak and act out of wrath, We seek to conquer enemies, not win them. Those sins we have in our midst that ought to make us ashamed, have not only been tolerated, they have been protected, and even encouraged if it suits our purposes.

The Catholic church has become a sore on the face of Christianity because it sought to hide its sin from the world. It covered up the shameful conduct of a few priests, rather than to openly admit its imperfections. The militias who called themselves Christians have embarrassed us, because they though t that they could use guns and bombs to defend against imagined evils, rather than the weapons our warfare. And we--we have allowed have allowed, and even encouraged a handful of manipulative, domineering, belligerent people to operate behind the scenes merely because we agreed with their ends.

One characteristic alone makes us different from the unbeliever. When it comes to moral purity and devotion to our God, Muslims have us beat. How many Christians are willing to go on a month long fast, or pray five times a day, or blow themselves up for the cause of their God? When it comes to church discipline the Mormons have us beat. They will discipline a member for drinking tea. Orthodox Jews are more devoted in their zeal for the Law. The Jehovah's Witnesses beat us on evangelistic fervor. The Buddhists beat us on asceticism, and even the Scientologists beat us in percentage giving. But in one area Christians excel--grace. No other group of people in the world believes in a God of grace like ours, that would sacrifice His one and only Son on the Cross fo we who did not deserve it. No other faith believes in a God who Himself is willing to turn the other cheek. In a world of conflict, grace is the one commodity that is shorter than any other.

I know what some people would say. We have the truth, and they do not. But having the truth is no good unless we live it as well. We can't just say we have the truth, we must demonstrate it.

Grace is the greatest weapon in our divine arsenal. We imitate Christ in his willingness to accept and love the sinner. It is the one thing that will turn an enemies into a friend. Unfortunately, it is the one thing we use the least on each other.

I was discussing a statement I made in on of my former blogs, that we have respect for diversity. A friend of mine told me that he used to think so, but no longer. We often act as is there is something wrong with being loving to our enemies, that it is some kind of sappy sentimentality. used by the weak and the naïve to justify our toleration of heresy. I disagree. I don't see how a Savior who included anti-government Zealots and Roman tax collectors among his best friends could ever be accused of seeking absolute agreement of thought on ever issue. Jesus floated through the denominations of Palestinian Jews, loving them all but joining Himself to any. How can such a Savior's name be used to justify the kind of internecine warfare we seem so prone to accept as normal?

ARPs are only be a tiny fish in the great sea of Christendom. Our influence may not extend very far beyond our walls. But for God's sake, let us at least act like Christians. Let's show grace and humility to those we dislike, rather than trying to run them off. Let's humbly admit that we don't have all the answers, we don't know one another's hearts, and that we aren't the paragons of virtue and doctrinal purity e pretend to be. Let's be nothing but saved sinners in a world of sinners who also need saving, and let's lay off the blustering and bloviating for the purpose of making us seem important. Then maybe we will be window to the grace of Christ, instead of walls.