Slaughter of the Innocents Versus the Law of God...

The last two posts, one leading into this week's sermon, the other lamenting the contrast of the multiple lives lost in the nightclub attack in Orlando versus the tragic loss of a boy to an alligator in Disney, illustrate a sad point.  My lamentation was that we would too soon forget.  And I am the proof of the matter.  What a unique ability we have to compartmentalize our feelings and our focal points.

Do these points of life really intersect?  Actually, they do in a very vicious way.  The slaughter at "the Pulse" came under the point of view that the law is still our judge, jury, and, when necessary, our executioner.  If this view of the massacre is not the proof of how wrong it is to take the law as our means of judgement today, as our means of daring to stand in God's shoes, as our means of the most extreme arrogance that a human might hope to achieve, then I do not know what is.

Yes, it was the presumption of Muslim law that the killer used to justify his killings, but there have been enough active and passive nods of approval from Christendom to make this our issue as well. 

One of the points often made in the debate about the salvation of the LGBTQ community is that Jesus never talks about them.  The condemnation comes from other places, like from Paul the misogynist or from the antiquated and backward reaches of the Old Testament.  The point being made is that since Jesus does not see fit to mention the issue of 'those' people, then it is not an issue.  In other words, if Jesus does not condemn the LGBTQ community, then condemnation is not to be considered.

That is fair, as far as it goes.  But Jesus did things broadly with the law that make this argument very difficult to sustain.  He made the law harder.  He included motives and thoughts in the stable of guilt-making offenses, not simply the activities.  His point of view was that the law was impossible for anyone to follow, that everyone was condemned under it, not just the LGBTQ community but also the Christian community who accuses them of being so particularly evil.

Because Jesus was getting at something.  He never said, "the law is the way, the truth, and the life, nobody comes to the Father except by the law."  Going by the law, NOBODY gets to the Father at all!  He said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life."  All that condemnatory stuff died with him on the cross.

What the law has become is a means of instruction in the life of faith.  It is a presentation of the love of God and the love of neighbor.  And all the Christians who take the law, point the finger, and claim the authority to condemn somebody else, anybody else, they have missed the point most completely.

Because every single person Jesus comes across, every person he would point the finger at, every one he would call out, he would call them out and declare "You are beloved by God."

The Law...What Shall Be Done With the Law of God?

This Sunday, I am preaching about the Ten Commandments.  It is the second in a cycle of sermons this summer offering an overview of the bible, from one pastor's perspective.  The tough part is in the consideration of what the Law still has to offer in light of Jesus Christ.  I grew up in a Calvinist tradition where the Law pre-Jesus condemned us for our inability to obey it, but post-Jesus, teaches us how we ought to be reshaping our lives in the presence of Christ.

I got really excited about a bible-nerd discovery connecting the Ten Commandments to Jesus' summary of the law, loving God and loving neighbor. 

But it is truly challenging to apply my conclusions to the popular judgments that are so much part of Christendom.  This is not simply another rant about how so much of Christendom condemns the LGBTQ Community, not simply that, but it is more broadly focused.  When judgment is passed about something, what is the Church doing with the law?

I should define terms here, a little bit.  Christendom is the sum total of the Christian cultural and societal presence in the world, at least it is to me.  Liberals, Conservatives, Fundamentalists, Christo-communists, you name it.  Some are great, in my opinion, some are wacky, in my opinion, some are dangerous, in my opinion.  We are all gathered together under one roof.

The Church is a more organized part of Christendom.  For me, it is the assembled voices of pastors and church leadership.  Kind of what shows up in the news, I suppose.  It is drawn from Christendom, but is not exhaustive of Christendom. 

If the Law of God has changed roles, as I argue, from the condemnatory tool to the formation tool that I believe it is, then we have a new world order to bring into being.  Speaking in the name of God to condemn is an awesome responsibility to undertake.  And I am really no longer sure that is what the Church is called to do. 

The responses are already forming in my head, 'if not us, than whom?'  Is everything then acceptable?  What are you, crazy?  But Jesus died that I might live.  He did not die that I might condemn someone else to death.  There are some big questions to shape here.  I hope you will walk with me to seek to shape them.