Seeking the good

Our natural inclination is to drawn distinctions - in what ways are you and I different? what is it that marks this group out from that group? etc. We do this all the time quite naturally. For example, when buying a mobile phone we want to know the difference in features and costs between this model or price plan, and that one.

Our western society holds choice as a mark of freedom, to the extent that (I hear today) there are over 300 price plans for gas or electricity currently available in the UK. (I suppose this must prove that we are a very 'free' society!). So we have become totally used to navigating choices when it comes to buying gizmos, utilities or even frozen peas.

But as the choices become wider and wider, we often need to look for help in understanding the finer and finer distinctions between this and that, and turn to a whole industry to help us choose - expert reviews, consumer reviews, comparison websites, etc.

And, when it comes to churches, this materialistic attitude (for that is what it is) naturally comes along too. So I've just typed "which church" into Google, and now have over 300,000,000 results to help me!

Except that maybe it's not the differences between churches that matter.

The more we focus on differences, the more we splinter into fragments until, eventually, we come down to the individual level, for God made us each one of us different. But if we focus on the similarities, the common ground, we may find that we are all human, all made in God's image, all sinners, and all living on Earth together.

It's easy to be critical and find fault (except in ourselves!), but can we seek and find the good? Whatever you focus on will grow. Focus on the differences and faults and you'll find plenty. But Jesus looked at poor people, rich people, women, sick people and outcasts such as lepers, Samaritans (also outcasts), centurions, etc - all with an eye of love. I don't mean he turned a blind eye to their sins, but his attitude was always seeking their good, looking to draw them close to himself.

Can we earnestly seek his forgiveness for our critical spirit which sees only distinction and difference, and ask for his loving eyes, which see all Christians, in fact all humankind, as loved by him?

Then, perhaps, just perhaps, we will be less interested in the distinctions between churches and theological viewpoints, and more interested in getting on with doing his work of redemption - Christians united in one family. Now that would be force to be reckoned with! And the foundation for a fantastic witness (John 17v23).

Practical Christian unity

When you're at the wrong end of a gun, things are simple.

There are many countries in which Christians are persecuted today. Imagine such a place, where a Christian is held at the point of a gun and an answer is demanded: "Are you a Christian? If you say you are, we'll kill you!". Now imagine that person responding with: "Well, it all depends on your stance concerning infant baptism - or the nature of the baptism of the Holy Spirit - or women in leadership"! Ridiculous! Yet these are issues that have divided churches...

Are you a Christian or aren't you?

So why does most of life seem more complicated? And why do so many such issues lead to division, shattering the unity among Christians that is commanded in the Bible?

Problem 1 - usurping God's role as Judge

The trouble is that we aren't content with having God answer the question of whether a person is a Christian, as that individual stands before Him. Instead, we are rather too determined to answer that question ourselves: if you don't meet my criteria for being a Christian, then I won't accept that you are!

We seem consumed by a need to be the judge, and so to usurp God's role.

What would happen if we left God to do his job? Maybe then we'd get on with our job, which is to love the Lord with all our heart and soul and mind, and to love our neighbours (whoever they are - Christian, Buddhist, Moslem, Pagan - it makes no difference) as ourselves (Matt 22 v36-39).

Problem 2 - confusing unity with uniformity

We too quickly turn to thinking: so which is the right group then? And having decided this - probably in our own favour - then the issue becomes: so how do we convince everyone else to agree with us and do the same as us? For then we'll have unity! And thence quickly to giving up, as these other annoying Christians don't seem to want to be 'converted' to our way of thinking!

No, the commanded unity is not about us all agreeing with one another.

Problem 3 - confusion over who we are fighting

Living in unity means understanding that we Christians face a common Enemy - and this is not another Christian denomination, not Islam, not a materialistic world - but the Devil.

Problem 4 - following Paul or Barnabas

We pride ourselves on following Wesley or Calvin or Luther or Wimber or ... or anyone really - rather than following Jesus. Paul dealt directly with this sin in 1 Cor 1 v 10-13.

Does this mean that we are to stop seeking the truth or stop being on our guard against heresy? By no means!

But we are very ready to take this to extremes. Either we fall into thinking that such differences are so minor as to be unimportant - 'we are all the same really' - and so end up with a wishy-washy, 'anything goes' Christianity and all are included.  Or we may be drawn to the other extreme, where we are so clear and firm on the rightness of our understanding of Christian doctrine that all others have already been mentally assigned to hell. (So it seems that heaven is either going to contain everyone, or just you.  But Jesus seemed to have own, different ideas!

Was Jesus wishy washy? Did he have an 'anything goes' attitude? Or was he so exclusive in his purity that he shunned all contact with regular sinful people? No, he held together absolute and unwavering truth with a loving embrace for all sinners who would accept him. We seem to find combining these two very difficult.

Practical unity

So how do we square this circle, hold this tension? Is it really possible for there to be Christian unity where people are so different, and have such different interests and emphases? It would have been so much easier if God had made all people the same!

Can such diversity really live in unity? Humanly speaking, no. But the church is not a human creation, and the qualities required - humility, forgiveness, love - are God-given, if we ask.

Maybe it starts with moving away from focusing on what's wrong with the other's position, to humbly seeking and learning from what God has revealed to them and which we haven't yet grasped? In what ways do they reflect God's grace better than ourselves?

For example, in my case, I may look to Protestants for a solid exposition of Biblical doctrine, but when it comes to being God's loving hands and feet in reaching out to ordinary people, to down and outs, or bringing God's love to slum-dwellers - then give me a Catholic any day.

So for me personally: I need to be living and working alongside Catholics in order to learn more about being God's loving hands in a hurting world, and alongside the Amish to learn more about God's simplicity in a materialistic and greedy world, and amongst Charismatics to listen more carefully to the Holy Spirit, and with Evangelicals in searching the scriptures, and with the Orthodox in better understanding sanctification, and with ... (Your list will be different.)

But now we're beginning to talk unity.

The power of Christian unity

Jesus was uncompromising about unity; it was even a central point in his prayer for all Christians: "May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me", (John 17v23).  So, what does Christian unity mean?

Does unity mean doing what Christians do today - getting together only with people of like mind?  No, for this has resulted in literally thousands of Christian denominations, with more being formed all the time as groups fall out over some new distinction or issue so 'important' that a further split is necessary.

Nor does Christian unity mean remaining in our little silo, whilst attempting to have 'friendly discussions and occasional shared events' with the Christians in a neighbouring silo; talking with them on occasion but returning immediately to the security of our own ghetto.

Friends, this is not protecting the precious truth of the Gospel from the latest error or heresy - this is focusing on our differences when we should be focusing on our Lord.  And the Devil laughs in delight!  And everyone sees the hypocrisy.

It means remaining in fellowship and loving relationships with those with whom we don't necessarily agree.  It means costly loving relationships that transcend differences in preferences, culture and theological understandings. It means demonstrating Christ's love through Christians loving other Christians!  Now there's a radical idea.

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I am reminded of a poem I like:

Outwitted

He drew a circle that shut me out -
Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout.
But Love and I had the wit to win:
We drew a circle that took him in.

Edwin Markham (1913)

But does it work?

People flock to where the action is, not to where the talking is.

Considering Jesus' message was about forgiveness for sins and eternal salvation, have you ever wondered why he did so many miracles? What did healing people, stilling a storm, or even turning water into wine have to do with forgiveness or salvation?

Jesus was interested in and met the real needs of the ordinary people who surrounded him - for healing, for acceptance, for love. Sometimes a miracle, sometimes a loving look, sometimes taking a person by the hand.

People flocked to him because they knew that what he did worked! Not just fancy words, but actions that worked, that made a practical difference.

Nowadays still, people flock to where the action is - where their needs will be met. If the local pub offers friendship and belonging, is it any wonder that people go there? If the lottery offers hope, people who are short on hope will queue up there. If the local medium or spiritual healer offers answers or cures, people will go there.

If the local church is all talk and theological arguments, who needs that? Plenty of words but nothing that works - who wants to queue up for that? (And don't respond by saying that people's deepest need is for salvation.  If that's not where people are currently at, that's not the place to begin. Jesus didn't make that mistake.)

I'm not preaching a social gospel or salvation by works, but Christianity isn't first about getting the theology right, it's about getting the loving right. Get the loving right - and then people will be interested in the message. It's not the other way around! Jesus knew this.

We may not be doing regular feeding-the-five-thousand and raising-the-dead miracles, but practical loving in the name of Jesus, meeting people's needs: those are conspicuous miracles in our greedy and selfish world.

Where do you draw that boundary?

Probably without thinking much about it, we all carry in our minds ways in which we judge others to be 'like us', or 'not like us', no doubt with a grey area in the middle of 'people who are somewhat like us'.

What interests me is how very differently people make this judgement - whether their definitions of 'like me' are very narrow, or very inclusive - and the reasons that may be behind this difference.

For some, 'like me' means only those who support the same team, or (in case you think I am stereotyping sports fans) just people who have the same lifestyle or educational background, or share the same theological outlook. After all, this seems like a good way of maintaining a sense of personal security: by avoiding much difference and thus potential awkwardness.

Of course, this is also a handy shortcut to deciding whether it is worth striking up a conversation with this other person, or considering the potential of friendship with them, or even caring what happens to them at all. If they support the wrong team, come from a different background or are from the wrong side of the spiritual tracks, then there's little point wasting any effort on them. They can live in their world and I can live in mine.

There are at least two problems with this: it's a lousy strategy for building your personal sense of security, and, secondly, like it or not, we actually live in the same world.

From time to time, though not often, I admit, I meet people who seem able to relate to others who are very different to themselves, and do so very easily and naturally. They are interested in people from quite different lifestyle, cultural and spiritual backgrounds. How do they do this? Sometimes it looks like they are 'making an effort' to relate, but there are definitely some people for whom this comes naturally - they are open, curious, genuinely interested. And they tend to be people who are very secure in themselves.

It takes a considerable degree of security to relate comfortably to people who are very different to ourselves, to stay with the discomfort and to not feel somewhat threatened.

It is said of the Christian church that it is one of the few places where people of very different backgrounds come together as one, and there is some real truth in this. But Christians don't have a monopoly on personal security: there are people of other faiths or none who care deeply for others and about world issues and live this out in practical ways in their daily lives. And, sadly, there are Christians who cannot relate even to those from other branches of the Christian faith!

There's no surprise that Christians can be insecure, lacking in love or immature. In short, we're sinful; we are forgiven sinners and no more. But we are urged in the scriptures to 'Love your neighbour as yourself' (Mark 12v31) - which Jesus said was the second most important command of all - and it is made very clear that the call to reach out to 'our neighbour' is to reach well beyond just 'people like us', as the parable of the Good Samaritan makes clear (Luke 10v23f).

It's easy to love and deal decently with people like us. But if we draw tight boundaries around those we feel are like us, then it's time to get on our knees and seek forgiveness, and to ask the Lord to increase the love in our hearts. Growing in love is synonymous with expanding the boundaries of those who we consider like us.

Where do you draw that boundary? Honestly?

If you really want to grow in love and personal security, don't wait until you feel more loving or secure! Get some Godly practice in reaching out to people who are not so like yourself. It'll take some effort and probably won't come naturally at all; you'll need to ask for God's help.

But He's good at this, and by his grace you'll get better at it. And a greater sense of personal security will, in time, follow. And your heart will beat with Jesus' love.

Are you good enough yet?

The TV has just told me (so it must be true) that nine out of ten women are unhappy with their appearance and over half of these want to change the way they look using plastic surgery or the like. This probably applies just as much to men.

But the following, I know is true:

The TV, magazines and advertisements all conspire to tell us “you’re not good, or thin, or beautiful, or wealthy, or successful enough … unless you buy this product, or have this nip and tuck, or...”. And even when we do buy the product or have the uplift, then we’re still not good enough, as we should be even thinner, more beautiful, wealthier, more successful. It's a never-ending treadmill – driven by greed and encouraged by the Enemy: offering happiness, but delivering despair.

We want to be accepted – who doesn’t? This means behaving acceptably in others’ eyes, by the world’s measurements: fitting in, turning a blind eye, keeping up with the Joneses. It's a never-ending struggle – driven by insecurity and urged on by the Enemy: promising contentment and self-esteem, but delivering deceit, a hollow façade, emptiness.

We want to be forgiven and have peace – why wouldn't we? This means trying to be good, be better, be perfect in fact; trying hard, trying harder, trying even harder. It's a never-ending striving – driven by pride and celebrated by the Enemy: guaranteeing self-improvement and satisfaction, but delivering failure.

How odd of God to not realise that we need to earn our salvation! Created? Chosen? Adopted? Accepted? What – for free?

Yes. I was created by God, chosen, adopted, accepted, redeemed and forgiven. I don't need to struggle or strive, to try harder, or be anything other than I am.

But it wasn’t ‘for free’! It was accomplished at Jesus' enormous cost.

Choose carefully who you listen to.

An Atheist's prayer

Charles Darwin who art dead,
Hallowed be your name.
Thy evolution happens
and it will be done on earth.
As I'm fitter than you, I'll get my daily bread
even if I have to tread on you to do it.
Thank god I don't have any sins,
but heaven forbid anyone sins against me.
And lead me not to consider any alternative,
but deliver me from these blesséd Christians, who should be extinct.
For the science, the intellectual high-ground and the intelligence are mine
now, and until we have evolved enough to wipe out all life on Earth.
Amen.