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What if We Treated Those Who Gossip Like We Treat… (insert favorite sin to condemn)
Devotional Thought of the Day:
28 Since they thought it foolish to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their foolish thinking and let them do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, quarreling, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They invent new ways of sinning, and they disobey their parents. 31 They refuse to understand, break their promises, are heartless, and have no mercy. 32 They know God’s justice requires that those who do these things deserve to die, yet they do them anyway. Worse yet, they encourage others to do them, too. Romans 1:28-32 (NLT)
10 Whoever breaks one commandment is guilty of breaking them all. James 2:10 (TEV)
800 This is the prayer of a soul who wanted to belong wholly to God, and, for his sake, to all mankind: “Lord, I beg you to work on this sinner, to rectify and purify my intentions, to pass them through the crucible.” (1)
In the church at large, there is a very unhealthy tension that I am noticing grows more and more each day. On one side of it, there is a tendency to overlook sin, to justify it, to claim that it cannot be overcome, that it is even natural. On the other side is the reaction to sin (espcially the sin of others) that wants to immediately condemn and execute the sinner, and purify our church and our communities of those who do “those” things. The first are like those in the days of Noah, or the churches in The Revelation who need to be called to face their sin, not to hear words of condemnation, but to know mercy, and the transformation and healing that God would bring to them. The second, well, like the men gathered around the adultress, with stones in their hands, our condemnaiton of others seems little more than hollow words.
In the former case, a treatment which would bring about healing is found in simply asking the question, where do we find the authority to overturn scripture here? Some will fight it, but again our efforts need to be, not to condemn, but to provide the way yo be free from condemnaiton, to know grace, to say – yeah that’s sin, I own it is as mine, and Lord, have mercy on me a sinner. Then having confessed it, to walk away rejoicing in its absolution. No more hiding, no more justifying, no more denying what we know to be true, and try to deceive ourselves. Quickly, let us confess our sins, confident that He will forgive them and cleanse us from ALL unrighteousness.
I often frin the other case, more frequent. We would condemn others, for a sin, and for their lack of mercy towards our sin. A rule I often use in the latter case, when one sin is being singled out, is to ask whether gossips deserve the same treatment, the same attitude as those who repeat other sins. Most of us know gossips – some quite intimately, even perhaps caught a glimpse of them this morning, as we looked in a mirror to comb our hair. Do we want to treat the gossip like the murderer, the abortionist, the adulterer, those who have sex outside of marriage between husband and wife, those who hate based on race and ethnicity, those who lie, those who disrespect authorities, those who schedme to take what is others, those who commit very public sins, those who commit them very privately, etc etc,
Do we?
Do we want the gossip to hear the same words as “those” people? Do we want to treat them the exact same way, with the same words?
YES!
The more I see people, entrapped by sin, enslaved to it, no matter the sin, the more I want us to hear the same words…
Your sins ARE forgiven, Go in peace, and sin no more….
That’s the Father’s desire. That is why Jesus came and lived and died, and was raised from the dead. It is the mission that God has given us, the church, for it is saving them, delivering them from sin and the fear of death, into the presence of God, our Creator, the One-in-Three who calls us, the beloved….
Lord have mercy on us, the sinners. AMEN.
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 2854-2856). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
The Pastor/Watchman’s tears and the Heart of Christ…
Devotional Thought of the Day:
16 After seven days the LORD gave me a message. He said, 17 “Son of man, I have appointed you as a watchman for Israel. Whenever you receive a message from me, warn people immediately. 18 If I warn the wicked, saying, ‘You are under the penalty of death,’ but you fail to deliver the warning, they will die in their sins. And I will hold you responsible for their deaths. 19 If you warn them and they refuse to repent and keep on sinning, they will die in their sins. But you will have saved yourself because you obeyed me. 20 “If righteous people turn away from their righteous behavior and ignore the obstacles I put in their way, they will die. And if you do not warn them, they will die in their sins. None of their righteous acts will be remembered, and I will hold you responsible for their deaths. 21 But if you warn righteous people not to sin and they listen to you and do not sin, they will live, and you will have saved yourself, too.” Ezekiel 3:16-21 (NLT)
673 We can never attribute to ourselves the power of Jesus who is passing by amongst us. Our Lord is passing by: and he transforms souls when we come close to him with one heart, one feeling, one desire: to be good Christians. But it is he who does it: not you nor I. It is Christ who is passing by! And then he stays in our hearts—in yours and in mine!—and in our tabernacles. Jesus is passing by, and Jesus comes to stay. He stays in you, in each one of you, and in me. (1)
674 Our Lord wants to make us coredeemers with him. That is why to help us understand this marvel, he moves the evangelists to tell us of so many great wonders. He could have produced bread from anything… but he doesn’t! He looks for human cooperation: he needs a child, a boy, a few pieces of bread and some fish. He needs you and me: and he is God! This should move us to be generous in our corresponding with his grace. (1)
I heard something the other day, that unnerved me. A pastor told one of his members that he didn’t have the gift of compassion. That it wasn’t his calling to care about people. Part of me wishes I could be so callous, part of me knows that I would be wrecked if I was, i would simply shut down.
The reason I wish I could be so callous is that it hurts to watch those who are entrusted to our care fakk into judgment, to walk away from the love of God that would heal the bruises they don’t want to admit they have. It is not like having a part of you, ripped from your body, and watching it slowly rot before your eyes. I guess you could be callous and realize your body has other parts, that it will survive, that you could ignore the pain. While we can’t brutally force them to stay, we can’t let them go without tears, without praying that somehow they would listen, they would hear – not our voice- but the voice of God. And when they walk away, we should weep, not for the failed efforts, but for their souls, for that which they will endure until like the prodigal, they come home.
I’ve known a few of these tears recenlty – know many in the past.
That is the price of being co-redeemers with Christ, about being the child who brings a couple of fish and some loaves. About being Peter, who grew from his own failure to be God’s voice, to be Dorcas, the Lady who loved and served. Yes, some of us get the “upfront” jobs Others work behind the scenes, others are there when all the chips are down. Yet it is God in all, working through all . It is Christ’s call our to people that we utter, in sermons and in coffee shops covernsations, by bedsides and in Bible Studies.
We have compassion, because He has compassion – it is He that desires to be there for them, through us. There is no option – we must learn to care as He cares. To be there, to bring His love and mercy and healing, things that come from being in a relationship with Him. There in peace, and security, for when we and they, hear the word of the watchman, we find our refuge, our keep, our fortress…. is Jesus. The One who is passing by… and taking us with Him.
So cry hard for those who have not really heard.. but pray even more for them, for the Father desires their homecoming, and Christ is going to go to them…
(1)Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). The Forge (Kindle Locations 2475-2484). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Dare to Be Christian Means Dare to Be Broken
Devotional THought of the Day”
Matthew 9:9-13 (MSG) 9 Passing along, Jesus saw a man at his work collecting taxes. His name was Matthew. Jesus said, “Come along with me.” Matthew stood up and followed him. 10 Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew’s house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. 11 When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and riff-raff?” 12 Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? 13 Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.”
229 Teacher: may you be eager to make your pupils understand quickly what has cost you hours of study to see clearly. (1)
I’ve written about this Bible passage recently – maybe a month ago. But I was rereading it this morning – and I thought about the context.
The calling of an apostle.
The choice of God of who would write the gospel! The future bishop of Alexandria, Eqypt, from whom all of North Africa would hear the gospel.
And if you hear it carefully … as the pharisees critique Jesus because of who He hands out with.. you will realize this incredible truth.
Matthew was one of the broken. He was one of the crooks and riff-raff, the undesirable because of how broken he was. Broken by the work he ended up doing, I have wondered before if all the quotes of the propehts in Matthew weren’t just about the need to prove Jesus was the Christ, but perhaps even more, that Matthew knew the need to be re-assured that these promises, that this Christ, came for Him.
To restate it this way – if we work with Christ, if we have a relationship with Him, if we follow Him- – that means – we have been broken. Broken by our own sin, by our own narcicism, by the sins committed against us, that we struggle to forgive and we sturggle to heal from.
And this is a lesson that we learn the hard way, those of us who have grown up in the church, those of us who have studied for ministry and are trained to be theologians aren’t taught this lesson in Bible Colleges and Seminaries. We don’t make sure people have learned it beore sticking them in Sunday School classrooms, or elect them as leaders of the church, or help them
I love what Josemaria Esriva says – we need to teach our people this – that lesson that has been so brutal for us to learn, that we are often dqueamish about about even remembering, never mind discussing. It’s uncomfortable to dare to do this, to be that transparent, to relive those pains, to remember being that… broken.
Being a Christian is about following Christ, as He comes to us in our brokenness – as He is healing us, He takes us to others whom He is going to heal.
We can teach them about His work in their lives – only because we know.
But that means – we have to dare to be broken…
So we can teach them what has taken us so long to learn…..
and we find it even more incredible…..
God’s come to us. to all of us…
Words in Red Gospel of Matthew (6) (Photo credit: Lex Photographic)
(1) Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 1157-1158). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
Related articles
- Churches aren’t for good people…. (justifiedandsinner.com)
- Have We Shut Down…the church (justifiedandsinner.com)
- Back to School… Flashcard Knowledge and Faith.. (justifiedandsinner.com)
Churches that are full of sinners… can be a great blessing to you!
Devotional thought of the day….
15 This is a trustworthy saying, and everyone should accept it: “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners”—and I am the worst of them all. 16 But God had mercy on me so that Christ Jesus could use me as a prime example of his great patience with even the worst sinners. Then others will realize that they, too, can believe in him and receive eternal life. 1 Timothy 1:15-16 (NLT)
What compassion you feel for them!… You would like to cry out to them that they are wasting their time… Why are they so blind, and why can’t they perceive what you—a miserable creature—have seen? Why don’t they go for the best? Pray and humble (original mortify) yourself. Then you have the duty to wake them up, one by one, explaining to them—also one by one—that they, like you, can find a divine way, without leaving the place they occupy in society.
Yes, I know, churches are full of hypocrites and sinners – spectacular and plain. Some of the most obvious are those that are at the microphone – the pastors/priests, the worship directors, the singers, and those guys that make announcements.
Some people have used this as an excuse to not go to church – they don’t want to affiliate with a low life sinner like me. And that is with only partial knowledge. Only God knows exactly how sinful I can get… even I can’t calculate that.
It may sound odd — but the fact that you can recognize me, a pastor, as a sinner is a good thing. Because if you combine that with the fact that God has promised that my sin won’t count against me, that what i’ve done, ans said and thought isn’t beyond forgiveness, that means that your forgiveness is as assured. Look at it this way, the greatest leader of God’s people in the Old Testament was David. An adulterer, a murder, a politiician who used his office to be able to do all these sins- and as God worked in David’s life, David became a man know as a man after God’s own heart. This was God’s work in him. (side note – that we are such doesn’t justify our continuing to sin)
If God can work with that kind of material, God can work with you – and this is God’s desire. It is what God wants. If God can initaite a relationship and wanted to reveal Himself to a murderous pharisee like Paul – He can do the same with you – and desires to do exactly that.
The same thing – if the guy in the pulpit, if the people surrounding you as you sit in the pew are sinners, and we all are, then this is the place where you belong. For if God can call us saints, if He calls us, despite our scars His children. Then you know He will accept you to, that He will adopt you as well. That He will, through word and sacrament, bring healing to your brokenness, and peace to your soul.
A church full of sinners and hypocrites – that’s my kind of place. Come and join us…please?
English: The Last Supper of Jesus Christ (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Escriva, Josemaria (2011-01-31). Furrow (Kindle Locations 974-978). Scepter Publishers. Kindle Edition.
