In Dave's Words

Combine passion, focus and zeal with only slightly misappropriated leadership and you can so quickly have contemporary Pharisees and legalism. Any time we take our experiences and perspectives and turn them into formulas or expectations for other people, we take over the role of the Holy Spirit in the lives of other people…all-the-while using our interpretation of scripture as justification.  There is a razor fine line between using the gift of prophesy, holding out the expectations of God, and turning it into today’s version of Pharisees, prescribing how to live out God’s expectations.

Any time we encounter a persuasive and charismatic leader who has applied scripture (to their context) in a way that looks like success, the first thing we do is try to copy their extra-biblical actions in the same way they did. Out of a very right motive to be effective, we very wrongly make a formula out of our experiences or that of others. And the moment we do that, we assume the role of the Holy Spirit. When something “works” for us, we then presume to prescribe how much money people should give, how people should use their time, how people should pray or worship, who people should spend their time with, how to raise their children and the list could go on and on. You can smell a Pharisee a mile away by the stench of constant criticism on their lips.   

The problem goes waaayyy back. Then Jesus said to the crowds and to his disciples, “The teachers of religious law and the Pharisees are the official interpreters of the law of Moses. So practice and obey whatever they tell you, but don’t follow their example. For they don’t practice what they teach. They crush people with unbearable religious demands and never lift a finger to ease the burden. (Matt 23)

Do we as leaders trust the power of the Holy Spirit in the lives of other followers? Do I really think that He really needs me to change the hearts of people who are not living the way I think they should live? Am I that full of pride that I think I can talk or convince people to change? Am I that self-centered that I don’t assume that the Holy Spirit is working in people on issues that He wants to change rather than behavior that I think they should change? Wouldn’t I be a lot more free and void of unnecessary stress if I really trusted that the Holy Spirit is doing a fine job of changing people without my help in my time?

Unfortunately for me…and those around me…I relate a whole lot more to the religious leaders than the woman at the well; to that oldest son instead of the prodigal. I am terrified at the thought, after a career of “ministry”, to one day hear, “I never knew you.” (Matt 7) I suppose that it’s a good fear.

It doesn’t take us long to become compassionate and gracious to people in need: orphans, widows, and those who seem to always be on the receiving end of the harshness of this world. It’s easy to see a picture of an orphan and widow and become selfless in order to become tangibly compassionate. Somehow, and unfortunately, it’s easier to be kind and patient with people whom we don’t know.

Why is that?

Is it that it’s easier to see past the weaknesses, differences, and annoyances of people we don’t know and therefore able to see their need, and their vulnerability? Ask anyone to put a gift basket together for a family in need in a country we have never been too and there are all too eager to be compelled by compassion. But ask someone to write an encouragement card or empty the garbage of a co-worker that seems to constantly find ways annoy you, and it takes a herculean effort to die to self on the smallest of opportunities to someone you work with everyday. I am all too aware of my own propensity to be more patient with people I know less…and I so wish I was different.

How different would our immediate relationships be at work, home, church, community if we gave each other the same grace we give to someone we don’t know? How different would my life be if I really loved those around me unconditionally…like I loved the small orphaned baby I met today?  How different would my workplace be if I got to know the stories, the insecurities, and reasons my colleagues were they way they were? How different would our relationships be if we chose to give the benefit of the doubt every time there was an opportunity to prejudge actions and motives? Are we so afraid of being taken advantage of or losing control of a situation that we keep people in the categorized boxes we have made for them?  Are we possibly so concerned about what people think of us that we do what we can to control perceptions or never be wrong? Why is it that we so often feel emotionally unsafe with the people we are the closest too?

It would make more sense that as our familiarity in relationships grow so would our ability to extend grace and patience. It would seem right that those who know us the best get the best of us. The more we know someone, the greater the responsibility we should feel to invest in and protect those relationships.

It would seem that the early church had the same propensity for gracelessness when Paul wrote: “Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you… Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.” (Colossians 3:12-14)

I read something this morning from Ephesians that I have read many times…but as scripture so often does…the words came to life for me in a new way.

It was quite a discovery when Copernicus realized that we (those who occupy the Earth) were not the center of the universe. I know that I so often forget about this little scientific fact…and place myself,  my views, my perspective, my priorities at the core of my (and everyone else’s) reality. One of the many consequences of our over individualized society is the affinity to have the world to see the world through my lenses and filters…because after all…I am the most normal and right person I know.

But then Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, disorients me in the most refreshing way possible. “Therefore I, a prisoner for serving the Lord, beg you to lead a life worthy of your calling, for you have been called by God. Always be humble and gentle. Be patient with each other, making allowances for each other’s faults because of your love. Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourself together with peace.” Paul goes on to talk about all of the various gifts he’s given to the Church, pointing out that a humility and a gracious permission to be imperfect keeps us unified in our God given differences.

We face enough opposition from the unseen world that spending time trying to change people for my benefit is such a waste of emotional and spiritual energy. Families, workplaces, churches, basically anywhere where there is more than me puts me on a crash course with…myself. Being in Kenya, where community is so much more valuable than any one person, enables me to hear Paul better than when I am at home.

The following Manning quote has been bouncing around my head and heart. “The ordinary pablum of popular religion caters to the idealistic, prefectionist, and neurotic self who fixates on the graceless getting worthy for union (with Christ), while allowing the protitutes and tax gougers to dance into the kingdom. Our strategies of self-deception persuade us that abiding restful union with Jesus is too costly, leaving no room for money, ambition, success, fame, sex, power, control, and pride of place or the fatal trap of self-rejection, thus prohibiting mediocre, disaffected dingbats and dirtballs, like myself, from intimacy with Jesus. ”

Guilty as charged!

Why is it that I constantly feel I need to get or stay worthy for Christ’s affection? I guess that, as with everything else in this world, our worth is so often earned. As much as we talk about “God so loving the world”, mainstream evangelicalism may talk about the grace and love of God, but lives out the reality that we need to work to continue to earn something we have been freely given.

God…help me to recognize and reject contemporary Pharisaism and go deeper into an experience of your wild grace for me.

Why is it that we sanitize so many sins? There is this list of stuff that most would unequivocally call wrong. This list makes us recoil in what looks like righteous indignation. These are the sins that seem black and white when we hear them out loud. Adultery. Sexual immortality. Theft. Murder. Abuse. Idolatry. (Not that most of us really know what that looks like today.) Whenever it becomes public that a fellow follower has been caught in these sins, we cringe in self-righteous piety wondering how someone could end up down this path.

But there is this other list of stuff that, while we would likely agree in principle that they are just as bad as the bad list, we live like these sins are not quite as…sinful.  These are sins of comfort and convenience…and much easier to justify. Greed is often disguised as being “blessed”.  Gossip is disguised as “concerns and prayer requests”. Anger is disguised as “venting”. Arrogance is disguised as “experience”. Gluttony is condoned as a “private matter”. Jealousy is justified as a normal response in an affluent society.  Judgmentalism is justified as “spiritual maturity” and conviction about right and wrong. We would never think about calling each other on these more sanitized “private” sins. But the reality is these sins are often much more dangerous than the more obvious “bad” stuff. The subtlety of the sanitized sins wraps us up in a spiritual pride that leads us to overlook the “small” stuff. Yet the consequences of the sanitized sins are every bit as dangerous to the community and testimony of Christ as the major league sins.

I read this passage today that is pretty clear about the consequences of the small stuff…  

Galatians 5:19-21 (New Living Translation) ¹⁹ When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, ²⁰ idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, ²¹ envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God.

Do we have the personal courage and corporate commitment to deal with the sanitized sins just like we would with the “real bad” stuff?