Faith Venture

At a recent software conference, the Chief Technology Officer developed a theme of what if we could solve some problem and iterated with their solutions.

I thought, what if we took the Apostle Paul at his word when he wrote to the Jesus followers in Galatia, There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.

What if we ended the game of dividing people into groups deciding which we liked and which we didn’t?

What if we accepted each person for what they are perhaps also seeing what they  could be?

What if we ended all this nonsense of gender politics, racial politics, culture politics?

Well, the political part can’t happen—that’s how politicians build enough of a coalition to get elected only to reward some of their followers.

But, for followers of Jesus, for those who proudly proclaim themselves to be Christian, what if we put aside those divisions in favor of treating each person as the child of God that they are?

What a wonderful world it would be.

I’ve experienced two types of Christians.

Judgement

The picture that immediately comes to mind is the preacher who comes to No Name City in the play/movie Paint Your Wagon. Dressed in black, aggressive attitude, crazed look in his eyes. But that is a caricature.

Most judge like “death by a thousand paper cuts.” A critical comment tossed out here. A Facebook post hurriedly typed there. A focus on sins, foibles, failures—of others.

Grace

The popular song Amazing Grace describes the grace that can come to an individual. However Mother Teresa’s image popped quickly to mind. She symbolizes not my grace but the grace shared outward to others.

Grace shared outward can be a large focus of an entire life. It also lives in every small act of kindness toward humans and even animals. That’s because it emanates from who you are, from deep within the heart.

Maybe it’s just me. When I was taught the stories and sayings of Jesus as a youth, I really believed that Jesus meant what he said. And I believed that as much as was within our power we should strive to do likewise.

Then I came across people calling themselves Christian who seemed to have such a smaller view of Jesus. Judging by words and actions, they seemed to have a smaller version of Jesus. It’s like they whittled him down to make an easier to understand, less demanding version. In the end, following Jesus became doing what we really wanted to do anyway.

We must cultivate the humility to step outside our own opinions and desires and learn from what Jesus actually said and did. 

When he told us to love our neighbor (and gave the example of the “Good Samaritan”), and when he told us to pray for our enemies, we must set aside our prejudices and do exactly that.

When have you (or I) reached out beyond our generation or race or cultural state and helped someone different or prayed for someone outside our circle of comfort? Yes, you “liberal”, pray for the “white supremacist.” And you white supremacist  pray for someone with a different color of skin. Pray for that outcast. Pray for the person possessing great wealth. 

Jesus is big. Let’s treat him as such.