Christianity

One of the scribes came near and heard them disputing with one another, and seeing that he answered them well, he asked him, "Which commandment is the first of all?" Jesus answered, "The first is, 'Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one; you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength.' The second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.' There is no other commandment greater than these." Mark 12:28-31 (NRSV)

I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another." John 13:34-35 (NRSV)

As the UMC wrestles with an openly lesbian Bishop and whether or not that is “acceptable” and as we sink deeper into a presidential campaign that has people talking about “Christian Values” I think it’s time I Mused about this faith called Christianity.

To begin with Jesus was a Jew. He wasn’t the first Christian, he was a reformer and a re-interpreter of Judaism. He spent his time trying to get people to see how the Judaism of his day had replaced faithful living with rule following. How they had allowed security and the status quo to be their guides instead of God’s call to radical justice and peace. Jesus did not intend for a new religion to come from his work and he sure didn’t set down any rules, doctrines or requirements for said religion. The only thing he told people was to love.

The basic characteristics of a Christian are love for self, others and God. They are a commitment to justice. They include a willingness to sacrifice your wants and needs for those of another. And they see the helpless, poor, disenfranchised, outcast, foreigner, stranger, widow, orphan and enemy as deserving of acceptance and love and as the ones to be cared for, nurtured and fought for. And they have at their core a willingness to work to see that all people everywhere have enough so that they can live up to their God given potential.

So Christianity isn’t about correct beliefs. It has nothing to do with a set of prescriptions for faithfulness. It doesn’t have any kind of focus upon sexuality. It isn’t interested in making sure that you are saved so that you can get into heaven when you die. There isn’t even a strong sense that it has anything to do with Christ sacrificing himself to make us acceptable to God. Jesus wasn’t interested in heaven, he was focused on life in the here and now and sought to help others find a similar focus.

When did we get to care more about a belief system then about people? When did we start dividing the world into us and them? When did this movement of love and care switch to a movement of rules, doctrines, and narrow understanding of the magnitude of God’s acceptance and love? When did who you love become more important than loving? When did the foreigner among us become suspect and undeserving of our care? When did our faith without borders become a faith reserved for only those within our realm? I agree with Gandhi, “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

We who truly want to be travelers on the way with Jesus must begin to speak up when others try to tell the world what it means to be a Christian. We must claim our faith and then live in such a way as to show what it truly is. And we must let the Christian value of love; unconditional, sacrificial, all-encompassing, all-inclusive be what the world sees in us, through us and from us. If anyone tries to limit access to God, if anyone says Christian values include exclusion, if anyone pushes for a division between who is acceptable and who isn’t that person is not practicing the Christian faith. If anyone preaches that we aren’t to care for the other – friend, family member, enemy, foreigner or person of another faith – they are not practicing the Christian faith. If anyone tries to convince you or another that there is only one, predefined path to God they are not practicing the Christian faith.

That’s what I think about Christianity. My final words are to quote Martin Luther: “I cannot and will not recant anything, for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. Amen.”

Dear God, help me to be the best Christian I can be. Help others who profess to be Christian to be the best Christian they can be. Forgive me and Christianity for any person that we have harmed by our disingenuous practice of our faith. Help me to be a bridge and not a wall, a helping hand and not a closed fist, a bringer of light and not a purveyor of darkness. Amen.