Getting Real instead of Right.
Some one asked, "What is wrong with Christians? We always blame the church, but what is wrong with Christians?"
I said, "We don’t follow Jesus."
I don’t.
Jesus is my friend but I just don’t love him enough to lay my life down for the same cause my friend was willing to lay his life down. Some folks get uptight when I say that, but it true.
This is where I am now in my journey.
Penni asked agreat question, "How do we get there?"
How 'bout we get over the doctrines and the "selling" of personal belief systems and move to a relational aspect of the faith. It seems the disputes are always over what we say believe. It is not that others are so wrong, it is often that we simply cannot accept others who think differently.
Let's set at the feet of Jesus where we are real about ourselves, our struggles with God, faith and life.
We’re talking about God here, spiritual awakening and living consciously in the presence of the Source of life, light, and love. Let’s face it, every single person you know has certain ideas and understandings of God or as my friend Steve says, misunderstandings of God. One thing though that most of us can agree on is that God is love and that we are loved.
Why isn’t that enough to hold us together in community and to send us forth in peace into the world to love and serve God?
Henri Nouwen said that we need to remind ourselves everyday that we are God’s beloved. I agree and I think we need to help remind those who don’t know or believe they are loved. It really is all about love.
So regardless of where you are on your journey, you really are special to God. Even if you don’t believe it. You really are the beloved child of God. I am just reminding you. Remind me sometime, but wait until you are really angry at me or disagree with me, if you don’t mind.
It seems many are all too eager to skip past the love and get on to "getting right." After working with some folks for several weeks on the topic of healing grace I had a pastor say, "Yes grace is real, but you don’t want to use grace as an excuse to sin." "How toxic and fear-based", I thought to myself.
I have heard pastors say God loves you just as you are but loves you too much to keep you that way. I know they mean well, but I think that is toxic too.
God loves you right now in all your messiness and brokeness and if by the grace of God you have a good month, God will love you then as well.
Just being real before God, my neighbor and myself may be the first step in allowing you to be real.
We need to spend less time in attempting to get it "right" and more time on getting it "real."
21 Comments:
I've only read a few of your posts, but I've added you to my favorites. I love the spirit behind your words and the understanding of grace apparent in what you say. It's amazing how many hidden toxic messages come wrapped in religious language and good intentions.
Thanks for writing.
I understand some of your frustration with Christians, but I encourage you not to neglect the doctrines of the faith. Paul the apostle often set forth doctrine and correct belief as spiritual disciplines and as integral to our spiritual growth. I think the problem is not that we focus too much on doctrine, but rather we love the actual doctrine more than the God who is described by it. And we don't let the doctrine change us and shape us, we really live as though one who watches the race, love viewing the race, appreciates the race, but never enters it and endures what it takes to run in the race. May we all be racers and not merely spectators.
Thanks for your comments amd kind words.
D.R> thanks for the encouragement. I wonder a little about the "doctrines of the faith." Most of us ignore the "doctrines" of Jesus. People are starving to death in the wrld, this country is at war, 45 million folks in the US have no health insurance because they cannot afford it. It seems to me that the doctrines of the faith acording to Jesus have very littel to do with how many of us claiming to follow Jesus live our lives. That is why when folks start talking about "corect belief" I get a little nervous, for most of those claiming to know the "doctrines of the faith" are usually the ones who very seldom follow Jesus.
I appreciate where you are coming from and I understand your point, but we ought to be shaped and changed by the love of God and the presence of God in our world. I suspect that many of us are too hung up on having the "right" belief more than we are of being loved by God and loving God and God's creation in return.
Those right beliefs often lead many folks into a spiral out of the church for they think that their faith is based on having the "right" belief and not in God. They confuse God with what they think and believe about God.
For six months now I have been struggling with the wounds received at my last church where everyone is expected to live in Mister Rogers' Land of Makebelieve. Now, I like Mister Rogers, but grow-ups just don't act like that toward one another. At least, not if they are real. Your blog today made me feel like God does love me. I haven't felt that in six months. Thank you.
just want to throw my hat in the ring for no other reason than because i've had too much coffee.
"how do we get there?"
we don't. we can't, really.
i totally agree with you on this point. we'll spend an entire lifetime trying to get it right, when all the while He was beckoning us to be real. and the 'real' is not found in our cocoons of complacency while we sit on our asses of apathy. we will never truly be 'real' until we experience God's greatest calling on our lives and that is to serve and love and bring dignity and justice to the least of these.
period.
somewhere in the midst of it we'll all find that doctrines and emerging efforts to get it right matter little to the big picture.
and to be sure, there are some really messy lives out there reading this post and they're saying to themselves..
'gosh, i'm just too screwed up and too spiritually immature to help someone else right now.'
to that i say, try it. really.. give it a try once and then do it again and again and pretty soon you'll realize you're not as screwed up as you thought you were. or better yet, you'll realize we're all screwed up and with that awakening.. guess what? we all become a little more spiritually mature.
sorry, i'm done now, and i hope you extend me an umbrella of grace for rambling. blame it on the Starbucks.
Becky, I am honored that you felt closer to God through my writing. Thank you for sharing. FOr the life of me I cannot figure out how the great new of God's presence in our world that Jesus proclaimed has gotten so distorted. You really do belong to God.
So I go, my brother. :) Thanks for the "finishing touches". I agree with you 100%.
As Robert Plant would sing, "Ramble on..." Ramble on anytime my friend.
Real is a four letter word too. And yes, I'm messy. so there.
good to be reminded that god loves messy people.
Thank you so much for this post. I just discovered your blog yesterday and have only read a few posts, but I'm blown away. Having grown up trying so hard to "be right" and "get it right", I'm struggling now to be fully real. It's amazing, too, realizing how much of what I was "right" about, doctrinally speaking, was really quite wrong. There are so many perspectives and understandings (or misunderstandings!), and while we should always be going back to the Bible and struggling to understand what it says, I don't think we can get locked into the one right answer for all of time that will never be amended. We are human after all, and messy at that, and I have a feeling when we all stand before God some day our human doctrines will cower in the shadow of the Truth.
Not only that, so much of "right belief" is hinged on things like "don't drink, smoke, or have illicit sex" - in other words, doctrines of conduct - and you're right, in focusing on those we lose the "doctrines of Jesus" - to feed the hungry, clothe the poor, and combat injustice.
Stumbling toward the Kingdom with you, Heidi
You say: "How 'bout we get over the doctrines and the "selling" of personal belief systems and move to a relational aspect of the faith."
I think you're positing a false antithesis here. Pursuing a deep and ever-deepening relationship with Jesus Christ does NOT = not caring about truth and "rightness"--witness how Jesus corrects the Saducees.
I want to spend my life pursuing BOTH: my purposes are 1. to know him who is the Truth, and 2. to immerse myself and to help others immerse themselves in the truth about the Truth.
Theophilus Punk
Circleslide, so glad you found your way back.
I agree, I too want to know HIM and the main way I can KNOW him is by doing what he did and going where he went. Want to know Jesus? Go where he dared to go. Fellowship and include those on the "outside" in your innercircle. Serve the least of these, we ALWAYS find Jesus there... ALWAYS.
Again, often times folks get extremely caught-up in what they CLAIM to believe as if possessing a belief system means something. Many churches, teach about personal beliefs systems, as if by possessing the "right" belief that we have some how "found favor with God". "If you believe correctly you are saved." That is bad theology, toxic theology in my opinion and I certainly don't think Jesus ever claimed anything like that.
Most often, those I have met who seem to possess the right belief are the one's who seem most like the Saducees. That has been my experience.
A good old southern Baptist boy who wrote a book that sold 20,000,000 copies recently discovered the "texts" about caring for the poor. Well hello, welcome to Christianity 101 and Following Jesus, come join the Jesus movement. I suspect he thought he possessed the RIGHT DOCTRINE for the past 20 years. he could probably tell us all that God was against, what God thought and what God wanted, but somehow missed the main thing Jesus demanded.
We can believe all we want to about Jesus, but a some point if we truly want to know him we are going to have to follow him and that mandates relations with those on the margins and the fringes... outside the dominant religious system.
I suspect Jesus will know what I believe about him by the way I love what he loved. he'll know how much I love him by the way I love what he loved.
That is my "personal belief system." :)
Thanks again for coming by. I hope that you continue to visit. I was just at your place yesterday.
You write it like it is. Thanks
In my heart of hearts, my hopes for "the emerging church" have been that we could spend less time arguing over dogma and doctrine and what separates us, and much more time working together on what unites us.
In my own tradition, I find everlasting pain in the fact that there are three major branches of the Lutheran church which refuse to gather at the same communion rail over dogma about women ministers and "the real presence of Christ" in the sacrament of Eucharist. I am so close to a Catholic church that I could hit it with a rock, but I am not welcome to commune there because I don't understand the sacrament in exactly the same way, and my gay Catholic friends who disagree with their bishops are not welcome there, either. So I go where I am welcome.
I think there is weeping in Heaven over stuff like this - especially as folks like Bob Geldof campaign for justice, and the church pulls its head and legs in and defends itself from...what? Sinners?...
So much of what passes for unity against 'the evil of the world' has simply become let me find the folks who think and look and act just like me, and legalistically exclude all those who don't fit into my mold.
Woe to the Pharisees, the tax-collectors, the Magdalens, the lepers and the unclean who venture into our sight. They - and I - sure need Jesus, because so often the church that bears his name has no use for us.
I have always loved the contrast the Stan Hauerwas created between "the perfect country-club church" and "the spiritual MASH hospital, with the bleeding and wounded being made whole near the front lines."
I know which one I want to be a part of, because I've already been a part of the other one...
Great post, brother. May we all be more focused on getting real than right.
Thanks for your comments ~kat. I like what you said and find myself struggling with the Bible as standard. Here's the tricky part for me, looking to the Bible as the standard CAN be challenging. There are four theological version of Jesus' life, not all agree entirely on the events of Jesus' life. Secondly, when we refer to the bible are we including the Apocrypha? Many orthodox, RC, and Anglican Christian do.
I think one of the major concerns with attempting to set standards with interpreting scripture is that we now have 30,000 denominations who have various takes on scripture.
The Gopsels were written in context of community.
How do we define "right"? Who possesses the "right" understanding? Look at those who used scripture to justify slavery, were they right? Women have been abused for centuries by the Church for the manner in which folks who "get it right" seem to know what God intends for women.
I think at best we can attempt to be faithful through prayer and the Holy Spirit's leading in COMMUNITY to interpret God's word.
I think too often we struggle to "get it right" and in an effort to get it right , we are not faithful.
I lok at Rick Warren who recently admitted that after 25 years as a pastor he is JUST NOW becoming aware of Jesus' command to atke car of the poor. I suspect that he thought he "got it right" for 25 years.
Thanks again for your thoughts and comments. :)
Rick, you said this: I agree, I too want to know HIM and the main way I can KNOW him is by doing what he did and going where he went. Want to know Jesus? Go where he dared to go.
I'm just not sure that's how it works. Do Elvis impersonators have special insight into Elvis because they copy the king?
I know that there are those who have favourite doctrines they like to espouse, and that that can be very problematic, but is it good to throw out the baby with the bath water? Consider the seed that fell on fertile soil. Why did it bear fruit? Because it was able to send its roots down and take in the proper nutrients.
If we are going to bear fruit, then we need to search for the truth about Jesus. Doctrine is the church's attempt to outline those truths. If people would study that more, then their attempt to get it "right" as you put it, would actually lead them to getting real, rather than the two being in conflict.
Because, if "right" is truly right, then it will lead to true love, rather than a flawed human construct of love.
Leslie, very well said. I appreciate your comments and for stimulating my brain. :)
I imagine that one who "gets in the skin" of Elvis just may have a greater insight to who he was. And perhaps that is why Jesus encouraged folks to go where he went-- to the margins and outside... to "break the religious law" for the love of GOd and neighbor.
Yes, if we will go where Jesus went, according to Matthew's account we will see Jesus hungry, naked, and sick. And when we encounter the naked, bleeding one in the brokeness of others we'll be able to formulate our doctrines from what we live.
I am not suggesting doctrine is bad, I am suggesting that if your doctrine gets in you way of following Jesus then you may want to "dump" your doctrine.
But Rick, when we formulate our doctrines from what we live, then we are the one's manufacturing the truth about God.
That's quite a position for us to be in. To dredge up an old cliche...isn't that sort of like works-righteousness?
HI Leslie, thanks again for you comments. I appreciate your taking the time to comment.
As you know,I think if our doctrine gets in our way of following Jesus we need to dump our doctrine.
I am puzzled by your question of works-righteous. The only place in scripture that Jesus tells us "who is in and who is out" is in MT 25. Basicaly he instruct about works and righteous. I assume you must mena how some Christians talk about salvation? I am not talking about salvation. Humanity has been redeemed by God, we have nothing to do with BEING redeemed, but as God' redeemed people we are called to particiate with God in this world through act of justice and mercy.
Many folks BELIEVE in Jesus (even the devil believes in Jesus), but very few follow him. We don't follow Jesus by what we CLAIM we BELIEVE. We follow Jesus by our actions. Jesus teaches those who want to be his disciples must pick up the cross and come after him. He did not teach that those who want to be his disciple must possess the "correct" doctrine.
AS far as the Law is concerned, the Pharisees got it RIGHT. But by having it all RIGHT they got it all wrong. Countless Christians do the same thing. INcluding me.
Oh Rick, I promise I will try not to pester you forever about this point! :)
I’m with you right up until..."but as God's redeemed people we are called to participate with God in this world through act of justice and mercy." Certainly we are to show justice and mercy to others, but it's such a temptation to make that our primary goal. Then, our efforts are nothing more than those of the high priest displaying himself & praying loudly on the street corner.
My concern, [somehow you have become the unfortunate one who gets to hear my concerns! :) ] is that I think there has been a redefinition of ‘following’ which seems to have removed the subservient element of ‘being led’.
Following Jesus with our actions excludes those that can’t do anything. i.e. the thief on the cross or those in a vegetative state. If we focus on looking only to Jesus (which everyone can do), & seeking out his truth, then he will LEAD us on the path of righteousness, which will inevitably result in God-ordained acts of justice and mercy and also prevent forsaking the spirit of the law for the letter of the law. I think it is an important distinction.
“...see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting.” Ps 139
Dear Leslie,
Yes following is subservient. Granted we may attempt to discern God's will in a particular area.
You said: "but it's such a temptation to make that our primary goal."
Leslie, that is my understanding of following Jesus. That was Jesus' primary goal. That is why he lived--for the poor and the outcast.
Leslie, we ARE redeemed. Our goal is to live out our redeemed lives in the Kingdom of God and help humanity who has been redeemed to live like it through acts of justice and mercy.
Jesus may have been praying at the mountain in the morning and at night, but during the day he was getting his toenails sandy by being about the work of justice and mercy, so we are called to do like wise.
You are not a pest... yet. :)
Just kidding, actually I appreciate your sharing your thoughts.
Can I make sure I’m understanding you, please? If it’s ok with you, I’ll paraphrase what I’m hearing, so that if I’m off track & misunderstanding you, you can set me straight!
1. All of mankind is redeemed. Christ’s work on the cross was more global in the sense that a personal encounter with Christ is unnecessary for salvation. “Humanity has been redeemed by God...”
2. Following is subservient. But then along with that, are the sentiments that it takes guts to be a follower – guts that most people don’t have. “Yes following is subservient...”
3. Pursuing acts of justice and mercy are to take precedence over a personal, intimate relationship with Jesus. In fact, these acts are a better way to learn the truth of Jesus than study and prayer. “Yes, if we will go where Jesus went. . .we'll be able to formulate our doctrines from what we live.
Have I heard you correctly?
Man, you're writing some excellent stuff these days! On "real or right" I've done a post on "truth and blogging" a couple of days ago.
Really appreciate the grace in your discussions.
Blessings
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