Do not oppress a foreigner; you
yourselves know how it feels to be foreigners, because you were foreigners in Egypt. – Exodus
23.9 (NIV)
If anyone comes to you and does
not bring this teaching, do not take them into your house or welcome them. Anyone who
welcomes them shares in their wicked work. – 2 John 10, 11 (NIV)
16’ x 4”. Those are
the dimensions of an Olympic balance beam.
That is all the space available for all of those tumbles, runs, leaps
and acrobatics. 4”across… I think my
foot would hang over both sides of the beam.
I also think it’s a safe understatement to suggest the successful
navigation of the balance beam requires skill.
It takes time and effort to learn how to step, where to position your
arms and hands, and where to look in order to learn to simply stay on the beam,
let alone complete anything resembling acrobatics. I might suggest as well that there’s an apt
metaphor in there somewhere for the manner in which Christian’s put their faith
into practice. The parallel isn’t
necessarily one regarding a Christian’s “skills”, but perhaps their wisdom,
that is the manner in which he or she translates his or her faith and knowledge
into actions.
I bring this up because the ideas in the two quotes above
take some wisdom in order to balance.
Hospitality vs. Morality. Grace
vs. Law (notice the “grace” quote is from the Old Testament and the “law” from
the New Testament). Identity vs.
Identity. Given John wrote his letter
(now 2 John) in the 1st century and in it wrestles to
find appropriate limits to hospitably, one can see that this balancing act is
not new to the Christian experience. I
bring it up, because I believe this balancing act is critical to the
Christian’s witness to the world, as it’s been through history. I also believe the portion of the Church in
which I find myself at home, that is the Evangelical
Church in the US, finds this
balancing act extraordinarily difficult, often gravitating toward 2 John over
Exodus.
We Evangelicals seem to have a talent for leaning on principle. Our instincts seem to lead us to read the
Scripture looking for ways to “boil it down” to tenets which are easily
communicated, and understandable to both those of the faith and those to whom
we evangelize. This isn’t an inherently
bad instinct. Finding avenues through
which to clearly communicate the Gospel to our culture is a part of what
distinguishes Evangelicals. This
instinct clearly serves this end; however it also has the potential to
undermine other Christian ends, thus the need for balance.
Christians cannot be solely about principle; they must also
be about a type of love that looks past standards, beliefs, and dogmas, past
human constructs and collectives, past our limited aptitude for propositional
articulation and understanding and values that which is supremely important to
the God who is the source of our beliefs, constructs and propositions: people. Hence the balancing act and the tension
between the poles listed above.
Do we encourage someone to continue down a bad path by
providing for them, or giving them shelter and not directly addressing their
destructive behavior? Should we shut
them out altogether if they believe Jesus was a created being, or wasn’t fully
human? What if they are criminals? Substance abusers, thieves, illegal
immigrants. What if they were simply
immoral? (Insert your own list here).
What hoops should we expect the folks we embrace with the love of God to
jump through in order to continue to show that love? I’ll make no attempt here to give a solid
answer, because I don’t think there’s one to give. This is one of those Biblical “grey” areas
where we have to wrestle with the scripture, with the situation and with God in
order to find a way to appropriately answer these questions for our
contexts. However, given our tendency to
lean on principle, I might have a brief suggestion or two to keep in mind when
attempting to find that balance.
1.) This Divine love that Christians are called to share
with the world is first to be shared amongst the community of Christians. Jesus said, “As I have loved
you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know
that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” (John 13.34b, 35 NIV) The best way to reveal God’s love to the
world is to practice it on other Christians first. (Practice in the hands of
the Holy Spirit makes perfect, right?)
2.) After practicing it on other Christian’s
practice it on your neighbor, your friends, your family, the stranger on the
subway, or in the car next to you. Practice
loving others the way Jesus loved you.
Spend time wrestling to understand how Jesus showed his love for us/you,
not just with His death, but with his life as well.
3.) Finally, remember that no matter how
good or bad you are at practicing Jesus’ love, God still loves you. Even when we sew division in the community of
Christians instead of love; even when we mentally or actively exclude those
outside the faith from God’s love because of their bad choices or sin or
immorality; even when we’re tired or lazy, God still loves us.
These are the types of actions our faith
must take. This loving action I would
suggest is what the wisdom we spoke of earlier looks likes. I would also suggest that in the end this
type of action embodies many of the principles we’re concerned with
communicating. It reveals them through
action. If as Paul writes in I
Corinthians 3 we are living letters read by the world, then we best communicate
our beliefs, principles and dogmas when we act them out, as if on a stage, and the
best way to act out our beliefs is to love as Christ loved. It’s a love that carries its own balance
inside of it.
