Romans 8:1 - "Therefore there is then no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus."
That is quite possibly my favorite verse in the whole entire Bible. And not just the verse, because the context of the verse is what makes it so completely awesome. But that verse speaks a truth that I had a hard time accepting for a very long time, and that's more or less the theme of what I want to communicate right now.
First I feel like I should probably make something clear. I'm a fan of the Church. I may forget to mention that, but I love having a place that I can go where people are there to exhort and build up. There have been times in my life when I haven't gone to church regularly, and it was pretty much the worst.
Having said that, I have been around a lot of different churches and a lot of different church cultures, and I've started to notice themes. One is that for a people who follow a God who offers no condemnation, there is an overwhelming amount of condemning going on. And it might not even be noticed by those doing it. It's something I've been reading a lot in different places, blogs, some sermons at my church the last couple of weeks. There is this Christian culture that seems to thrive on finding ways to disguise condemnation. We put pretty labels on it, but it's still there, still eating away at the hearts of those who are shamed. And it hurts our witness.
It's not just Christians condemning other people though. I mean, that's a part of it, but there's a deeper root to it. There's this particular way of viewing humility that in my experience basically means that to be "humble before God" you have to decide that you suck and you should also hate yourself. Now think about this. Christians are called to love right? Specifically to love others as you love yourself. So it's kinda hard to love others with the fullness of love if you hate yourself. I'm not under the impression that Christ meant this commandment to be taken that way. It follows that if we're not supposed to hate ourselves, we're probably supposed to love ourselves.
"But wait," you may say, "if I love myself how can I be humble? How can I become less so Christ can be more?"
I think part of God's purpose for all our lives is to find out identity in Christ, and this is where that helps. When you accept Christ, you get this whole clean slate, where you don't have to be that person who was super messed up anymore. You get to take His view of your being and adopt it, make it into who you are. And He loves you, loves me, loves us SO much! The echos of His love carry over the centuries. Whole books are written simply about one aspect of His love. The Bible is pretty much one big "God loves you, and this is what He went through to show you that!"
If God loves us THAT much, who are we to tell Him, "no, you're wrong, I suck and I know it?" He's pretty clear on the fact that He thinks we're the best creations ever, so it doesn't seem wrong to me to be okay with yourself if He thinks that highly of you.
I'm not talking about not acknowledging faults, or turning the gift of love and grace into arrogance. I'm talking about not letting kids in the church grow up believing that their humanity makes them dirty, even after they've been washed clean by Christ's blood.
How do I know that this happens? The most obvious answer is, I was one of those kids. I grew up hating myself because I could never be good enough for love, or so I thought. Yeah, I knew God loved me, but the fact that He loved me didn't translate into the idea that I could love myself, and a huge part of it had to do with being taught false humility through most of my childhood. When it is so deeply ingrained in you that you are a fallen being, perpetually broken and so unworthy of love, the almost afterthought addition of "oh, by the way, God totally still loves you" tends to fall on deaf ears. It wasn't until I got to college and took a lot of classes with a professor who kept telling me that God wasn't mad at me, that He was actually pretty crazy about me, and I got past the conviction that she was speaking heresy that it started to sink it. And I mean started. It took a long time to really get through my head. There are still plenty of days when I revert to the old thoughts of "how could God love you, because of..." The difference is, I now know better, and I can speak against them when they creep in. There are plenty of people that I know who don't know that difference. Young girls that I've had the opportunity to work with, who come to me crying because they're convinced that they're worthless and can't do anything right. Girls who go to church on a regular basis. It breaks my heart, because I see so much of my own struggles with convincing myself that I'm not worthless.
Which brings me to the second part of what I wanted to talk about. The condemnation that the Church tends to project to the world. I believe the technical term is culture wars, in which the Church tries to control every aspect of culture (not necessarily a bad thing), but goes about it in a way that makes the rest of the world think that Jesus is the biggest jerk to ever walk the earth (altogether a very bad thing). I'm going to go out on a limb and say two things: 1) Copying culture, but adding Christian language instead of "secular" is quite possibly my least favorite thing ever. I don't ever want to copy culture, and hide behind my line of Christianity and only let it impact people behind that line. I want to go out into the culture around me and impact those people, the ones who need to hear it the most. I have the utmost respect for artists like Mumford & Sons and Owl City, who are reaching huge audiences with music that has very clear imagery pointing to God. And it doesn't just extend to that. I think there is more Jesus in secular culture than a lot of Christians realize. After all, God is the source of all creativity. Those brilliant singers, songwriters, artists, writers, and musicians who are so popular all got those talents from God, and God shines through if you listen hard enough. More often than not, listening to these artists just makes me want to go out and impact culture more, because think about what could happen if people with crazy artistic talent who are popular now could do with their talent if they have the direct line open with God? And instead the Christian culture shies away, scared to be tainted by their sin.
2) And please don't lynch me for this: I think the the us vs. them attitude of many Christians regarding cultural differences, specifically the LGBT community, is one of the most harmful things ever. Believe me, I know all the things the Bible says on the subject. But they are still people, created in God's image, struggling with their lives, looking for love. I'm not prepared to explore the whole nature vs. nurture debate or what we can do to "cure" them, or if that's even possible. That's not what I want. I want everyday Christians to go out and make friends with them, and make up for so many people from the Church who straight up hate them simply because of that one thing, without ever getting to know the person. The way to wage a "culture war" is not to keep introducing legislation which pits us vs. them. The way to wage the war is to cross the battle lines and sit down and make friends. Yeah, you don't agree. Whatever. No friends ever agree 100% of the time. You can still love them. (Note: This applies for the battle lines drawn within the church too.)
There's more that I could say, other points I want to elaborate on at a later date. But I think this has gotten long enough as it is. I would love this to start a conversation, even if you don't agree with me. I'm okay with that. I've pretty much given up on trying to get everyone to agree with me. I just want people to think about these issues.
The Lord bless you and keep you.
The Lord make His face to shine upon you
And be gracious unto you.
The Lord lift the light of His countenance upon you
And give you peace.
love it.
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