So a colleague in ministry and I got into it the other
day. We were exchanging views on one of
the ‘mortal sins’, one of those things that traditionally sends a person straight
to hell, do not pass go, do not collect $200.
He is definitely a black and white, heaven and hell kind of fellow while
I tend to see shades of grey. The
discussion was "wrath of God" versus "mercy of God".
Well, at one point, he turns to me and basically tells me I
am up the creek when I stand before the throne of grace. I will have to defend my weak-kneed, lukewarm
position, daring to water down what he perceives to be as the express and absolute
command of God. First, he pissed me off,
pardon my language. Then he got me to
thinking.
It is one thing for me to defend my own life before the
throne of grace. There is a long string
of darkness that will be brought into the light and I pray that the confessions
of my soul here on earth will keep those events forgiven and forgotten from heaven. But now I was being challenged
on a whole different level. He was
challenging my standing before God as a shepherd, as someone responsible for
the faith and guidance of others.
The issue we were talking about was suicide. His position, life is gift from God, you take
it by your own hand, one way ticket to the permanent fiery vacation. There was no nuance, there was no consideration
of the pain that a person might be in that leads to suicide, there was no
consideration of being in one’s right mind, there was no consideration of the
mercy of the Lord.
He spoke with the authority he perceived he had from the
bible and I was wrong, and God was going to get me for it.
That was the first time in a very long time that I was so
glad to be a mainline Presbyterian pastor.
And not because we ‘don’t believe in hell’.
I was so very glad because I could stand in the Spirit and
pray for the day when he stands before the throne of grace and has to explain
his condemnation of a person in so much pain that they want life itself to
end. I pray that God has the mercy he is
denying to those most in pain in our world.
I know, it’s not nice to bash a fellow minister. But do not tell me I am NOT doing God’s
work. It must be nice to have such black
and white positions drawn out. I say the
Bible says this, stand on that side of the line and Jesus loves you, stand on
the other side of the line and Jesus flushes you to hell. Do this, you are good, do that, you are
condemned. Makes it simple.
Now don’t get me wrong, I believe that people are
responsible for their actions. I believe
that hell exists and that there are people deliberately and flagrantly disobedient
to our Lord Jesus that are headed in that direction. But I also believe that mercy has a much
higher place on the divine agenda than many of my fellow pastors seem to. I think the strength of the mainline is that
we have latched on to God’s mercy and question too many of the sacred cows of what
people have traditionally thought is condemned in Scripture. We
stand in the middle of society and consider what the bible tells us and
struggle with the changing reality around us.
(And that is the closest I have ever come to accepting post-modernism!)
The great strength of being Presbyterian is that we operate
by committee. We put good people in a
room and we listen to the gathered wisdom of the Spirit as filtered through
each presence. Lutherans and Methodists
may do that too, but I am not one of them, so I do not know. I have not come by my ‘loose morals’ on my
own, but by the deep and intense communication, debate, and cooperation of my
fellow Christians, Presbyterian and otherwise. But the principle of the shared witness of the Spirit is something I was brought up with in the Reformed and Presbyterian tradition.
I was basically accused of loosening the authority of the
Bible with my “mercy-talk”. I don’t see
it that way. I think I was taking the authority
of the Bible far more seriously because I don’t see cookie-cutter divisions
between heaven and hell. Life is far
more complicated than that. God is far
more loving than that.
And if I have to stand before God some day and defend why I
claimed God’s mercy over God’s punishment, I pray I have the grace to remember
my church, my Presbyterian Church USA, that taught me about the extent of God’s
mercy.
Peace.
