I love complicated!
That is one of the dumbest statements I’ve ever heard…
This little thought has haunted many and is often a topic of
conversation daily. Maybe you’ve
struggled with this and at one point in your life you’ve thought “I’ve had
enough”. I have to say that the people
involved in this area of life are not helpful; you’d think they would be, but
it seems that no matter how hard they try, they, like me, find themselves
muddying the water rather giving a clear picture.
You may be asking, what in the world are you talking about
Bill?
As soon as I tell you I am sure you will sit back and say
“oh yeah, I would agree.”
I know this area of life is one of the “never talk about”
items you are always told to never mention for fear of offending or being
misunderstood. It’s not politics, though
that one is quite controversial, it’s the other dreaded issue, religion.
Ask 100 people, even people who attend a religious service
weekly, and you’ll get 125 answers. Why?
Some of those people have more than one opinion on the matter. So, what do you do when you’re trying to
figure out a complicated matter? I would
say for me, it’s helpful to break it down to its smallest parts. What are the building blocks of the challenge
that lay before you.
This little series of articles are my attempt, maybe futile,
maybe not, to look at religion, not just any, but Christianity, in its most
basic form.
I must say that I want to give a disclaimer here, I want to
say that I am not an expert, nor a trained theologian. Truth told, I am like most of us, I do think
I know what is correct… despite proof to
the opposite that occasionally creeps in.
What I can say is that the journey to my convictions is
wrought with changes that have come over time and for me. The most unfortunate part is that the longer
I live the more I must admit my want for being “right with God” is littered
with futile attempts at righteousness.
In the days ahead as you read these thoughts and ponder my
sanity, my heart yearns for you to know, as Paul says, the “depth and width of
God’s love.” Any other experience and I ask for your forgiveness for surely I
have fallen into the trap of creating mere religion once again.
Let us start first with why complicated things make us feel securer
about our God and man relationships.
One of the most difficult admissions any of us can make is
that we compare ourselves to others. We enjoy
the “wins” and cry out “foul” when someone else gets ahead of us. This is no different in Christianity, there
are people sitting in front row pew and seats in church who if given a
polygraph test would fail when asked, “are you better than ???.”
Here is where one avenue of complication begins its trek down
a crazy street lined with all kinds of “street lights” glaring hot lights of
judgmentalism and comparison traps wider than sink holes.
There has always been a pecking order among believers; it
started early on, one great example is a mom and two sons. Jesus may…. “these two sons
of mine… sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your kingdom”
was her request. One on the left and one
on the right, positions of power in a kingdom that would overthrow the
Romans. Or so they think. Jesus says, “to sit at
my right hand and at my left is not mine to grant, but it is for those for whom
it has been prepared by my Father.”
(if you read a bible, check this story out in Matthew 20)
Why, why would I speak of this issue as “complicated”
when there is great theology to contemplate, well, it is because when it comes
to thinking we are right with God, we most often say “I’m a good person, at
least I haven’t ___________ like __________.”
You fill in the blanks, either with your answer or one you’ve heard.
That is where things get complicated.
So, let’s examine the notion that one person
deserves heaven more than another because of their choices, I think it’s a
great place to begin our journey.
One insight would be to ask a man who
claimed to be the Son of God what he thought about how men compared themselves
to others. Here is what a doctor of the
day wrote about what his investigation uncovered about the “Sons” story of two
men, “He also told this parable to some who trusted in
themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a
Pharisee and the other a tax collector. The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed[a] thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other
men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. I
fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But
the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven,
but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I
tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For
everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself
will be exalted.” (again, bible readers, try Luke 18)
No green light here for making a big deal of
how much you surpass others in your actions.
A young man who became a king spoke these words a number years before
the story above came to light, “there is none who does good, not even one.”
(clue Psalm 14)
Again, no green light here.
Oh, I am sure that some sage may have said different, but if you’re
honest, you would admit that you’ve never really met anyone who has never done
anything wrong go ahead, try.
Every
person with skin on has made a decision to do something wrong, so where did
that come from? Or maybe this more difficult question will begin to shed light
on the reality that we have all blown it.
How did I even know if it was
right or wrong? We’ll jump into that
vat of oil in our next edition.
Here’s my point as I wind down to a close. Since we have all blown it, then we’ve all
done wrong and there must be a standard to compare our actions against. So, if there is a standard of behavior that
must be kept, then we’ve come up short and as such, someone must fix that. So how?
Have you ever read anything, in any
religion, including Christianity, that tells you when you’ve crossed the
line of all your wrongs and evened out the scales by your “good deeds?”
Go ahead, where is the list of rules, the ones we try to use
to show how good we are, that has a marker on them and says “enough?” Go ahead, I’ll wait. Still waiting. Pardon my sharp sense of humor.
So even if someone else has done more wrong than you, how
does that help you even things out. Do
you look at a judge in court and say, “I haven’t murdered anyone one your
honor, can you please forgive my ticket for drunk driving.” The judge would look at you and say, “what
does that have to do with anything?”
Suppose you tried this one, “I’ve never robbed a bank before
sir, so can you excuse me for not paying my taxes?” Again, the magistrate would cry “what?”
So, put away that list of good things, set aside all your
comparisons and realize, first of all, that if you’ve done wrong, there has to
be a way to make it right. The problem
is no religion, not even Christianity, tells you where the line of “good deeds”
is to make all things right. Nowhere in
any religion is the “scale” that is weighed down our bad tipped by the good by
any list of behaviors that negate their effect.
So here is a thought to ponder before our next visit, if heaven
is a place where perfect, blameless people go when they die… (see the shepherd boy turned king again, Psalm
15) How are you going to get the bad stuff, as the little boy with a clean
plate before him, “all gone?”
Till next time…
