Reviewing the Exile, Part 1: Erasing the Boundaries

This is part of a 5-year review of my unexpected spiritual journey into the post-church wilderness.  It was five years ago that my local church blew up and I found myself  - along with 150 of my church friends - on the outside.  What I am sharing here is part of an intentional re-evaluation of my spiritual direction since my exile from the evangelical world.  What began as a 6-month sabbatical has stretched into a 5-year absence... and counting.

There are some things I have learned while on this journey....

Part One:  Erasing the Boundaries.

"He drew a circle that shut me out,

Heretic, rebel, a thing to flout,

But love and I had the wit to win,

We drew a circle and took him in."

                        -- Edwin Markham, Outwitted.

My dad quoted this poem several times in his sermons that I heard over the first 18 years of my life.  He was preaching about Godly love, about forgiveness and acceptance, about love for the unlovable.  It was a lifestyle that he lived himself.  Gene Sims was known as a magnanimous fellow, the kind that took notice of needy individuals from every strata of society, without regard for social status or wealth or intellect.  He taught his kids this respect for everybody.  He drew a large circle that took everybody in.  It was probably what made it possible for him to continue to embrace his own son - when my brother came out of the closet in his mid-thirties.  Dad just drew his circle a bit bigger - and took Ron in, along with his many gay friends and partners.  Amazing.

Actually, Dad may have moved beyond the theme of his favorite poem...

Like Jesus, he erased the circles entirely.

In his sermons, Jesus made it clear that only God was to judge people, that humans were never to judge each other.  "Do not judge, and you will not be judged.  Do not condemn, and you will not be condemned.  Forgive, and you will be forgiven." (Luke 6:37)  Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?" (Matt 7:3)

If Jesus drew a circle, it was a very large one.  He was called the "friend of sinners" because he hung out with outsiders (probably because they throw better parties).  Like Jesus, I am planning to spend the rest of my life making no differentiation between insiders and outsiders.  The wheat (believers) and the tares (nonbelievers) look exactly alike, after all.(Matt 13:24-30)  Well, to be honest, since I spent my first 60 years almost entirely with insiders, I would really like to spend much of the rest with outsiders.  There's just less expectation going on, less tension, less pressure to measure up, more acceptance.

There is a mathematical concept called the Bounded Set which has a circle with points located both inside and outside the circle.  This is rather like the evangelical world today.  The whole environment - from the church service, Bible study, Christian summer camp sermon, prayer meeting, discussion group, TV and radio broadcast, song and book - yes, thousands of books - is all about who is in and who is out.  "Are you saved? (are you inside the fold?)"  "Are you faithful about daily devotions?"  "Are you tithing?"  "Did you vote Republican?"  Boundaries everywhere.

Yet, only God judges who is in and who is out.

There is another concept called the Centered Set.  This set has no divisive circle, only a bold point at the very center, then smaller points located on a field all around the center, some close, some farther away.  This is more the way I think about my earthly journey now.  I can be living in such a way that, not only am I moving closer to the center (God) but I can be helping others move closer to the center as well.  But nobody gets to declare when another is inside or outside based on their closeness or their distance from the center.  There may be a circle that God alone has established, but none of us sees the circle or knows where it is, because none of us has the right to judge another.  We must live in total mystery regarding any invisible boundary that God has established.  That frees us to "be merciful, just as your Father is merciful" (Luke 6:36)  "Because He is kind to the ungrateful and wicked." (Luke 6:35)  

God is kind to the ungrateful and wicked!  Let the same be said of me!

When Paul spoke to the Athenians about the "unknown god", he included them all inside God's circle.  He was speaking to gentiles and non-believers when he said, "God is not far from each one of us... For in him we live and move and have our being." (Acts 17:28)

This sounds like the centered set.  Everybody is present, at varying distances from the center, and nobody knows where the boundary is between in and out.

Now, here's the thing:  God apparently operates with a centered set and is the only one who knows when someone is in or out.

And here's the other thing:  The evangelical church operates mostly with the bounded set, drawing circles, making judgements every Sunday morning, and invitations to sinners to cross the next line and become an insider.  For the most part, it is oppressive  and keeps a lot of folks feeling guilty and worried and insecure.  It's a dangerous environment to be part of, even if you like to think for yourself like I do.

Now back to me:  One of the most wonderful things that has happened to me since leaving the institutional church has been the erasure of those circles.  I see everybody as the same: fallible, imperfect human beings deeply loved by God.  My job as a believer is simple:  Love.  And leave the hard judgements up to the Lord.

When Jesus said his yoke was easy and his burden was light, he really meant it.  I can testify to it.  I feel free and unburdened, because, despite the evangelical message, "there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus." (Romans 8:1)  There is nothing I need to do for God but love people - people of all kinds.  Paul said the entire Law was summed up in a single command:  Love your neighbor. (Gal 5:14)

Join me.  Erase the circles, like Jesus did.  Assume that every human being is on the playing field somewhere, and go from there.

Love without judgement and without boundaries.  Just love.

Erasing the exclusive circles does not come easily for the evangelical community, but there are many, like my dad, who have set the pace.  "There's a wideness in God's mercy!" Let there be a wideness in our lives as well.

*For an excellent explanation of churches with Bounded and Centered Sets see Jeremy Myers here.

Hypocrites-R-Us

  I'm a hypocrite.  And so are you.  If it's about performance, everyone who says he's a Christian is a hypocrite to the extent that he does not obey all of the commands of the scriptures.  And there are a lot of them.  The Old Testament laws were so extensive and so impossible to keep that only a few people were ever able to do it and not for long.  Then Jesus came and made it worse for us by preaching more impossibilities: "Sell all your possessions and give the money to the poor."(Luke 12:33)  Who does that?  "If your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out."(Mark 9:47)  I know lots of guys whose eyes have caused them to sin, but I don't know anybody who obeyed the Lord at this point (and I'm not suggesting it now).

  A few days ago a friend of mine shared this quote on Facebook: "HYPOCRITES: Blaming every law abiding gun owner for the deaths of children, while supporting abortion."  I immediately commented, "We are all hypocrites" and then deleted it without typing the rest of my response: "Hypocrites: People who say they are Pro-Life and then support the killing of enemies in far away places (or coming through the bathroom window), forgetting that Jesus said to "Love your enemies."(Matthew 5:43-48)  Did anybody here support the killing of Osama bin Laden?  Jesus said, "Do not resist an evil person."(Matt.5:39)  Sorry, that makes you a hypocrite.  We all like to select the scriptural commands that we will observe, and then ignore the ones we don't like.

  And we vote that way in national elections too, those of us who still vote.  Democrats are inclined to help the poor through social programs, and Jesus likes that (the New Testament Church practiced a form of sanctified socialism).  But they support the killing of unborn children.  Republicans won't help the poor, but they want to protect the unborn.  Both parties love to kill terrorists - who go directly to hell when killed, since they have no knowledge of Christ - even though both the Old and the New Testaments forbid murder.  It's easier to kill terrorists than to convert them; war is easier than missions - despite the Great Commission.(Matt:28:19)

  There are hundreds of points at which we are all in non-compliance with the commands of scripture.  And that's why we need a Savior.  There are over six hundred commandments in the Old Testament Law, most of which we are completely unaware, let alone trying to obey them (ie: If you wear a garment of blended fabric, you are breaking the Law).  And the New Testament is full of orders which we don't fulfill.
  "Our righteousness is as filthy rags"(Isaiah 64:6) and that's why we need the cross.  Because we have no chance without the cross.  There is no way on earth that we can behave well enough, be righteous enough, keep all the rules or always vote for the right guy in every election.  But that doesn't seem to stop us from trying.

  The cross doesn't seem to be enough.  There is this everlasting legalistic duty that we all feel that we must perform, this elusive perfection to which God calls us (along with our local preacher who calls us to do better every Sunday morning).  If we can't live up to God's standard, why do we keep trying?  We have a Savior, so why keep attempting self-righteousness?

  So this is one of the great hypocrisies of Christianity:  We claim that salvation is free to all, based on belief in Jesus (John 3:16) and that it's all about what Christ has done for us on the cross.  But then we live and act and preach as though we must earn our salvation through good behavior and righteous living.  And if somebody doesn't behave well enough or supports the wrong political platform, we take away his salvation.

  So which is it?  Galatians 2:8 says we are saved by grace through faith, not of works (behavior) lest anyone boast.  The whole point of the cross is that none of us can behave well enough to earn our salvation.  If self-righteousness were possible, why did God need to send us a Savior?

  I think the biggest hypocrisy of which anyone is guilty is judging, another point at which we are disobedient to Christ who said, "Do not judge."(Matt:7:1)  The reason I think the Lord prohibited this is that judging makes us god.  Can a Democrat be a Christian?  Only God knows.  Is a Marine who kills an enemy soldier going to go to heaven?  Only God knows.  Is a gay who believes in Jesus really a Christian?  I don't know, and neither do you.  Is an overweight believer really saved?  If not, 60% of Christians in America are out of luck, as the Bible prohibits overeating and in fact says you should put a knife to your throat if you are given to gluttony. (Proverbs 23:2)

  Because we are not God and because we are all guilty, we should stop judging.  Our only job as believers is to love.  We may be tough on sin in our own lives, but it is not our job to be tough on anyone else.  That's God's job.  We should just trust in the grace of God for our own salvation and for the salvation of everybody else.  We are not God; we should stop acting like it.  As an acquaintance and exiled pastor, Anthony Ferrell, says, "Judging is the very essence of gracelessness and goes counter to the grain of the Cross."

  And I need to stop letting inflammatory Facebook posts get the best of me, dang it!  At least this time I had the sense to move my arguments from Facebook to my own blog.

  Do you believe there's any need to earn salvation through Godly behavior?  If someone doesn't behave in a Christian manner or support the right party, are they still saved?  If you deny Christ by not "sharing" that cheesy Facebook status, will He really deny you in heaven?