Tag Archives: judgment

Devotional

An Invite To Be Invitational

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Read John 10:33-38

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“Wherever they do not welcome you, as you are leaving that town shake the dust off your feet as a testimony against them.” (Luke 9:5)

BWHave you ever noticed that we live in a world that sees black and white? Things are either right or wrong, they are either true or false, they are either good or bad. In this type of world view comes the unnecessary consequence of judgment. We cannot help but seeing things as we see them, and anything that comes against our way of seeing them is wrong. And of course, who ever views themselves on the wrong side? I’m always right and everyone else is always wrong. My ideas are the right ideas, and everyone else is deceived, ignorant, confused, and/or delusional.

Religions, and in particular Christianity, have often been huge proponents of the black and white mentality. If it says so in the Bible, it MUST be that way! If we were taught it at church, no other view can be true. If the Bible and Jesus are right, then no one else can be. If you don’t believe as I do, you can’t possibly be a true believer.  These and many more sentiments have led to much division and derision. It is this mentality that has led to egregious atrocities and wars…all in the name of one’s religion.

With that said, the black and white mentality is not just exclusive to Christianity or even to just religion.  It exists in just about every form of human community that exists in the world. As a person who has been both within religion and outside of it, I have seen it take many forms. I have seen atheists such as Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens use it against people who believe in a divine higher power. I have seen scientists use it against each others in battling out their theories. God knows that politics is rank with this kind of mentality. And in the spirit of honesty, I can say that I have participated in it myself.

Overall, Jesus did not view things in such a black and white way. In fact, I believe his actions pointed us in a different direction. Jesus surrounded himself with all sorts of different people. He invited people who were extremely different than him to join him. His companions were tax collectors, prostitutes, religious leaders, zealots, and many others who all had different ideas of what God wanted for Israel. They all had different ideas for who they thought he was and and what his mission should be. One of them even ended up betraying him as a result.

I think we can learn from Jesus’ words in the Gospel of John. “If I am not doing the works of my Father, then do not believe me. But if I do them, even though you do not believe me, believe the works” (John 10:38). Rather than seeing in black and white, rather than placing ourselves on the throne of judgment, we should be inviting others to join us in what we are doing. It doesn’t matter if we see eye-to-eye on everything, it doesn’t matter if we can agree intellectually or not, what matters is what we are doing.

Christ spent his entire three year ministry feeding the hungry, giving hope to the poor, healing the sick, and bringing abundant life to all who sought it. No matter where we are on who Jesus is, no matter where we are on who each of us are, if we share a desire to help those who are in need we should be working together to bring that about. How much energy gets wasted in senseless and pointless debates when we could be inviting others to join us in the work of bringing hope, healing and wholeness to those who need it. And who doesn’t need it? Let us stop being confrontational and join Christ in being invitational. If people won’t join us, that’s okay. Just kick the dust off of your sandals and move on to where God is calling you.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

“Freedom would be not to choose between black and white but to abjure such prescribed choices.” – Theodore Adorno

PRAYER

Lord, help me to move beyond seeing in black and white and allow me to be invitational as opposed to confrontational. Amen.

Devotional

No One Can Judge

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Read Romans 7:14-25

ALSO IN SCRIPTURE

“Do not judge others, and you will not be judged.” (Matthew 7:1, NLT)

Every year, around this time, I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which is a tradition I have carried on since I was in high school. I absolutely love that tale, which is ultimately a tale about HOPE in the midst of darkness. There is one scene in the book that is absolutely striking to me. Mina Harker had recently been bitten by Count Dracula and, to make matters worse, had drank some of his blood. As we find out, this fuses Mina to him and begins to make her one of his. At one point, upon finding out that she drank Dracula’s blood (as she was in a trance when she did it), she cried out, “Unclean, unclean, God help me, I’m unclean!”

One can only imagine the absolute horror that Mina was going through. She had lived her life in a manner that was pure, always priding herself in her manners and behavior. She was a loyal person and loved her husband dearly, yet now she was tainted by this monster’s blood. She is absolutely revolted by the Count and horrified by what he as done to her; however, because she is spiritually bound to him, and as she begins to watch her humanity slowly fade away, she comes to a realization.

Looking up at her husband Jonathan, she asks that if she becomes like the count that he will put an end to her and put her soul at peace so that she may be with God. But her plea doesn’t end there. She also begs that he find the count and put an end to the monster so that the man trapped inside may find peace as well. Whoa! It is almost unfathomable for her husband Jonathan, but she makes him agree. He cannot understand how she could have even the remotest bit of sympathy for this savage beast, this wretched demon, this accursed vampire.

In Romans, Paul spent a good amount of time writing about the self-perpetuating cycle of sin. We know that certain things are good and often gravitate away from them. Conversely, we know that certain things are not good or healthy and yet we find ourselves doing those things anyway. No matter how hard we try, we often find ourselves stuck in the mire of our sins.

Paul knew, just as Mina came to realize, that there is a bit of monster in us all. We all let certain things get the better of us. We all are, to one extent or another, controlled by the negative things we allow into our lives. Perhaps some do more than others, but we all get caught up in things that God would otherwise wish to set us free from. Yet, we also tend to look at others as if they are worse than we are and, like Jonathan, we often get too caught up in our own self-righteousness to see that we are really in the same boat as the ones we judge.

Rather than being in the prison of our own judgements, we are called by God to be humble and to see the humanity in others, including ourselves. Even though we may not agree with the actions that people take, and even though we might even be forced to act against the evils that people perpetrate, we are still called to see the child of God beneath the sins that entrap them. We are all children of God, loved by God, and God wishes to free us all from our sins…in particular, the sin of judgment. All we have to do is be humble and let God guide us from the darkness of our judgments to the light of God’s unconditional love and grace.

THOUGHT OF THE DAY

“The least amount of judging we can do the better off we are.” – Michael J. Fox

PRAYER

Lord, humble me so that I might not judge others. Open my eyes and my heart to your mercy, your love, and your grace. Amen.