And They Will Know We Are Christians By Our?

I’ve been whistling a lot lately.  I don’t know why.  I whistle while I work.  I whistle when I walk.  I whistle to my dog, Akon.  Yesterday I drove to the store and instead of listening to the radio, I whistled.  For some reason, yesterday the tune to “They will know we are Christians by our love” was in my head.

I came to a disturbing reality yesterday.  We are a people that no longer worship idols.  Isaiah speaks on God’s behalf and almost mocks the thought process of those that make idols.  He talks about how ludicrous it is that people worship things that he created.  Well, we in the American Church don’t have that so much anymore, but we still continue to worship His creation.  This new idol just isn’t made of metal or wood.  It is made of flesh and blood.

I often hear from our brothers and sisters in Christ that they hate the sin but not the sinner.  If this is true, why are we so quick to judge and hand over the sinner to The Enemy?  Your hate for any of the topics that the Conservative Right has battled against in each of the last decades has bled over the lines into a feeling of hatred and apathy for those you disagree with.

Jesus tells us to Love God and Love our neighbor.  When asked who our neighbor is, He tells a story to the Religious elite about a person that they view as lower than low, unclean, unworthy of entering their temple…a sinner.  So we are to Love those that we think stand for everything that we disagree with, so much so (according to the story) that it may affect our religious standing.

Let me give you an example of how The Church today is not living up to its call.  Yesterday I had a conversation with my boss.  She has a same-sex partner.  She goes to Church a couple times a year.  She has yet to go to Church with her family without getting petrified looks by those around her.  When I had applied, she was given a copy of my resume.  Most of the Schooling and volunteering and even work I have done in the last couple years has been Christ-Centered.  I asked her what she thought when she first saw all of that stuff.  She told me that she was afraid I was going to be like “the rest” of the Christians she had met.  When I was interviewed I stayed faithful to the Lord and spoke of love and acceptance when asked about diversity.  Now had I answered in a way that would “toe the line” of what Televangelists have been telling us since the TV was invented, I would probably not have been hired.  Not because I was a Christian, but because I would have been a disruption to everyone in the office.

Political beliefs, Church half-truths and self righteousness would have stood in the way of multiple chances to Love my neighbor.  Being a follower of The Way means loving and accepting and doing what it takes to be the Face of Christ to the World.  Because Christ has called my wife and me to live this life we have been his tool to many people over the last year and a half.

I wish I could tell you the number of lives touched by Him through us but after much contemplation, I feel like it would sound like boasting.  I will boast in the Lord but my writing style and limited vocabulary may not convey who I am correctly boasting about.

So how does this relate to our new idols of flesh and bone?  We are those Idols.  Christ calls us to love our neighbors as ourselves.  That’s it!  That’s our job.  When you look back over the last 30 years (I am only 32 so I can only look back so far, this probably goes back much further) it looks like loving our neighbor is an after-thought.  Almost like we will love our neighbor once they start believing what we believe.  The way we talk, the way we involve ourselves politically, the way we talk and the books we write all seem to say that we are on this earth to conquer Sin, Death and the Devil.  That’s not our job.  That’s Jesus’ job and oh by the way, He already did it!  Our job isn’t to abolish any sin, it’s to love our neighbor, feed the poor, care for the oppressed teach what Christ taught us and baptize.

Take a moment out of your day and think about your “favorite” sin.  You know the one.  The one that makes you vote the way you do, the one that pulls on your heart strings, and the one that you fight against.  Now look it up in the Bible.  Take a look at all the words surrounding it.  Chances are it is surrounded by a lot of sins that you personally struggle with.  Why are we fighting the one sin we see in others when we probably should be fighting the rest of the sins on that list in our own lives.

If the song that I have been whistling lately is true, then they will know that we are Christians by our love, by our Love.  Until we change the culture in our hearts and in our Church, maybe we should change the lyrics to “And they will know we are Christians by our judgment, anger, apathy, voting ballot, self righteousness and the ‘Jesus Fish’ on the back of our cars.”  It’s not as catchy and doesn’t work well with the tune, but in the Church and World today, it’s more realistic.