Tag: exclusion

A Spiritual Check-Up (2 Corinthians 13:5-10)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Examine yourselves to see if your faith is genuine. Test yourselves. Surely you know that Jesus Christ is among you; if not, you have failed the test of genuine faith. As you test yourselves, I hope you will recognize that we have not failed the test of apostolic authority.

We pray to God that you will not do what is wrong by refusing our correction. I hope we won’t need to demonstrate our authority when we arrive. Do the right thing before we come—even if that makes it look like we have failed to demonstrate our authority. For we cannot oppose the truth, but must always stand for the truth. We are glad to seem weak if it helps show that you are actually strong. We pray that you will become mature.

I am writing this to you before I come, hoping that I won’t need to deal severely with you when I do come. For I want to use the authority the Lord has given me to strengthen you, not to tear you down. (New Living Translation)

God is concerned about our spiritual health and vitality. And so, it’s important that we have regular spiritual check-ups and tests to evaluate the vitality of our faith. If we are spiritually sick or debilitated, the Lord seeks to restore us back to health.

In the Gospels, whenever Jesus miraculously healed a person, it was for far more than taking away a disease or correcting a disability. The Lord sought to make them well in order to restore a person’s life by including them in the community. For example:

  • Leprosy put a person on the outside, both literally and relationally. Ceasing to be a leper meant that a person now had no obstacles to full participation in communal life.
  • Blindness reduced a person to being a beggar in order to survive. Having sight restored meant that the person can now work with others, make a living, and contribute to the needs of others.
  • Incarceration was (and still is) a complete removal of a person from society. Being in prison severs many human connections. Release from jail opens the way to reconnection and an opportunity to have a different way of being with others.
  • Poverty encumbers a person and weighs them down so heavily that it limits their ability to function socially and relationally. Without poverty, a person is able to establish healthy patterns of giving and receiving within the community.

Those who are physically whole, mentally sharp, emotionally satisfied, and spiritually redeemed are free of obstacles and impediments to communal life.

So, it is a travesty whenever the people who enjoy full inclusion in the community, turn around and separate themselves, keeping relational distance from certain persons, and do not participate in the common good of all. They makes themselves sick and weaken their faith because of their lifestyle.

The type of spiritual examination of faith the Apostle Paul was talking about was not to obsess over whether one is a true believer, or not. He was referring to the person who claims faith yet maintains separation from others. In other words, to exclude others is the kind of behavior that unbelievers do, not Christians.

Yet, there are many sections of Christianity and entire Protestant denominations who pride themselves on such separation. They believe they’re being holy and keeping themselves from impurity. However, far too many of them are really putting a sanctified spin on their own sinful predilections to avoid people they don’t like.

Paul has no tolerance for calling exclusion of others “holiness” and naming the maintenance of an insider/outsider status as “sanctification.” The Apostle knew this was all poppycock and wanted nothing to do with it.

Christ didn’t die on a cruel cross, take away the obstacles to faith, open the way to know God, and create peace through his blood for a pack of so-called “Christians” to then erect imaginary concrete border walls to keep others out of Christian community and fellowship.

In God’s upside-down kingdom, the privileged insiders are really the outsiders; and the underprivileged outsiders are actually the insiders.

The privileged believers are just as sick as the leper, the blind, the poor, and the prisoner; and just as much in need of restoration. The path to their inclusion is solidarity with the entire community of the redeemed – rather than picking and choosing who is in and who is out.

All this, of course, is another way of stating that Christianity is as beset with cliques as anywhere else – with individual believers, local churches, and particular traditions following their pet theologians and pastors and not associating with others who follow a different set of folks.

The ancient Corinthian church was a train wreck of opposing groups and cliques. The Apostle Paul had had enough of it and called the people to do some serious self-examination. And he was careful not to degrade or discourage them but to try and encourage the church to tap into the Christ which dwells within them.

Spiritual health and restoration, for Paul, meant specific behaviors which intentionally include people. To be inclusive means we actively work toward grafting people into community, as well as discourage behaviors that create division, and thus, spiritual illness. Here are three ways of including others:

  • Practice hospitality. The word hospitality literally means, “love of stranger.” A hospitable believer goes out of their way to invite another into their life, to give them the gift of relationship and fellowship.

Take care of God’s needy people and welcome strangers into your home. (Romans 12:13, CEV)

Above all, show sincere love to each other, because love brings about the forgiveness of many sins. Open your homes to each other without complaining. And serve each other according to the gift each person has received, as good managers of God’s diverse gifts. (1 Peter 4:8-10, CEB)

  • Nip bitterness in the bud. In an ideal world, everyone holds hands and sings kumbaya together. We live, however, in a fallen world. Harmony, unity, and peace take copious amounts of energy. Like an attentive gardener, we must do the work of identifying weeds and uprooting them, so they don’t take over the garden.

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. (Hebrews 12:14-15, NIV)

  • Seek to encourage others, and learn how to do it. Encouragement is both a gift and a skill to be developed. To encourage another is to come alongside and help someone with both affirming words and willing hands. It’s what Jesus did (and does) for us.

Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever. So, encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:10-11, NLT)

Hospitality, harmony, and help are all forms of love. And love is to be the guiding principle and practice of church and community. Love is always the prescription for a healthy spiritual life and a restored community of faith. It prevents truth decay.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace:
where there is hatred, let me sow love;
where there is injury, pardon;
where there is doubt, faith;
where there is despair, hope;
where there is darkness, light;
where there is sadness, joy.

O divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek
to be consoled as to console,
to be understood as to understand,
to be loved as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life.
Amen.

Inclusion vs. Exclusion (Acts 15:1-21)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Exploring Church Ministry Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Certain people came down from Judea to Antioch and were teaching the believers: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved.” This brought Paul and Barnabas into sharp dispute and debate with them. So Paul and Barnabas were appointed, along with some other believers, to go up to Jerusalem to see the apostles and elders about this question. The church sent them on their way, and as they traveled through Phoenicia and Samaria, they told how the Gentiles had been converted. This news made all the believers very glad. When they came to Jerusalem, they were welcomed by the church and the apostles and elders, to whom they reported everything God had done through them.

Then some of the believers who belonged to the party of the Pharisees stood up and said, “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses.”

The apostles and elders met to consider this question. After much discussion, Peter got up and addressed them: “Brothers, you know that some time ago God made a choice among you that the Gentiles might hear from my lips the message of the gospel and believe. God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us. He did not discriminate between us and them, for he purified their hearts by faith. Now then, why do you try to test God by putting on the necks of Gentiles a yoke that neither we nor our ancestors have been able to bear? No! We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved, just as they are.”

The whole assembly became silent as they listened to Barnabas and Paul telling about the signs and wonders God had done among the Gentiles through them. When they finished, James spoke up. “Brothers,” he said, “listen to me. Simon has described to us how God first intervened to choose a people for his name from the Gentiles. The words of the prophets agree with this, as it is written:

“‘After this I will return
    and rebuild David’s fallen tent.
Its ruins I will rebuild,
    and I will restore it,
that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord,
    even all the Gentiles who bear my name,
says the Lord, who does these things’—
    things known from long ago.

“It is my judgment, therefore, that we should not make it difficult for the Gentiles who are turning to God. Instead we should write to them, telling them to abstain from food polluted by idols, from sexual immorality, from the meat of strangled animals and from blood. For the law of Moses has been preached in every city from the earliest times and is read in the synagogues on every Sabbath.” (New International Version)

The Council of Jerusalem, by Franz Mayer of Munich, 1883

What happens when new people come into a group who are different? How does any church or faith community deal with long time members alongside new ones? Is there a way to work through differences without becoming like the Borg, trying to make others to be just like me? (“Prepare to be assimilated. Resistance is futile.”)

Differences of thought, opinion, and practice are inevitable. Conflict cannot (and should not) always be avoided. Anyplace there’s people, conflict eventually happens. Put a bunch of sinners together in one place (like in a church), add a few grumpy old people, a few know-it-alls, then sit back and watch the fireworks. 

It seems to me that every church is about one or two good fights away from being non-existent. It’s a miracle that more congregations don’t call it quits every year, especially after their annual congregational meetings! I myself have a long resume of handling ornery folks, family squabbles, and cantankerous curmudgeons that could make your head swim – or just get you downright angry.

What is the source of conflict among you? What is the source of your disputes? Don’t they come from your cravings that are at war in your own lives? You long for something you don’t have, so you commit murder. You are jealous for something you can’t get, so you struggle and fight. You don’t have because you don’t ask. You ask and don’t have because you ask with evil intentions, to waste it on your own cravings. (James 4:1-3, CEB)      

Within the church there are expectations, whether they are reasonable or not. If those expectations are not fulfilled, people feel unfulfilled. So, they look to put unnecessary burdens on those entering the faith – to make them pay their dues by observing rules that they themselves aren’t even able to keep.

Conflict begins with some kind of desire. If unmet, it becomes a demand. And demanding something usually leads to judging other people. After all, if you really care about me and my group, you will meet these demands (desires). If left unchecked and unresolved, the progression ends in trying to punish others by simply withdrawing from a relationship with the intent of hurting another.

A focus on reaching out, on rebuilding and restoring lives, puts our efforts where they need to be – and puts us on the same page together, acting out of a sense of purpose, not preservation.

Today’s New Testament lesson deals with the conflict and debate surrounding gentile inclusion into the family of God. The success of Paul’s missionary journeys in reaching non-Jewish peoples and establishing churches, created tension as to whether these new believers ought to become Jewish in order to be Christian.

This question was at the heart of why the Council at Jerusalem was convened. Those who believed that Gentiles need to become Jews, demanded that the they be circumcised and observe the Law of Moses. Others, including Paul and Barnabas, believed that sort of thinking and approach was contrary to the gospel.

The Apostle Peter was there and gave his own experience of observing God work among Cornelius, a Gentile. Peter’s story was more than personal testimony; it was a powerful theological argument about what God was doing and what God is up to with all people, not just the Jews.

Peter’s story demonstrated that God (and not Paul or anybody else) is responsible for including Gentiles among God’s people without making them Jewish. It was God who called and cleansed Gentiles – making no distinction between them and Jews.

People are justified and made right by God’s grace, and not by human judgments of who can be in or out. The upshot of the whole thing is this: We believe that we will be saved through the grace of the Lord Jesus, both Jew and Gentile. Period.

The only thing needed from Gentiles is to believe, because salvation is an act of God’s grace, and not the result of human effort.

What’s more, the inclusion of non-Jewish persons as the people of God is nothing new; it has always been there in the Old Testament Scriptures. And they were never called to become just like Jews in order to be the people of God. (Amos 9:11-12)

This is instructive for all contemporary faith communities. Our mission is not to make followers of me or you or of a particular faith tradition, but to make disciples of Jesus Christ. Grace brings us in, grace keeps us in, and grace will lead us home.

Our focus is to be on openness, connection, and inclusion, and not in seeking to be closed-minded and closed-hearted – separating from those different from us and practicing exclusion. The following ways may be helpful in fostering a more generous gospel:

Talk less, listen more. Don’t interrupt. Do give focused attention. Use respectful language. Ask how others prefer to be addressed and how they refer to themselves. Asking is a sign of care and respect for the person you are talking to, and is also a way to help them feel safe and comfortable.

Be open. Don’t stereotype. One person doesn’t represent an entire group of people. There are different Christian traditions throughout the world. And there are also different traditions and ways within all major religions, as well as within all people groups, institutions, organizations, communities, races, ethnicities, and genders. Seek to learn, rather than superimpose what you think onto someone else.

Become self-aware. Understand that, although all persons are created in the image of God and are equal before the Lord, there is not equity in human organizations and systems. Being aware of our own privileges is a crucial first step to adopting a more inclusive attitude.

Stay curious. To remain curious means to seek people and situations that allow us to challenge (both in a positive and negative way) our beliefs and our cultural and personal patterns of thinking, worshiping, working, and living.

Generally speaking, exclusion creates conflict, whereas inclusion gives space for others to explore and discover what it means to live into their faith and spirituality.

Loving Lord, give us strength so that we can build places of belonging: To create a community for all to share their gifts, to know that each of us is loved, to help us to see the light of Christ in all that we serve. Help us remember that each of us is loved and important. Amen.

Hospitality Is a Matter of Life and Death (Jeremiah 49:7-11)

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Year ALeave a comment

Concerning Edom, the Lord of heavenly forces proclaims:
Is wisdom no longer in Teman?
    Has good sense vanished from the perceptive?
        Are they no longer wise?
Turn, flee, and run for cover,
    you inhabitants of Dedan.
I’m bringing disaster on Esau:
    its day of reckoning.
If workers would come to you to pick grapes,
    they would at least leave a few on the vine.
If thieves would come in the night,
    they would take only what they needed.
But me? I will strip Esau bare.
    I will expose his hiding places,
        and he will find no place to take cover.
His offspring, family, and acquaintances will perish,
    and there will be no one left to say,
“Leave me your orphans,
    and I’ll look after them;
        trust your widows into my care.” (Common English Bible)

You might be saying to yourself, “What in tarnation is this crazy fool doing, having a Bible lesson on this here piece of Scripture that means nothing to you nor me?” Oh, really? To which I say, “What darned fool never gets into the backwoods of the prophets?”

Esau was the twin brother of Jacob, a real mountain man sort of guy. Being outdoors and hunting game was his thing. His descendants were the Edomites. They inhabited the southwest portion of what is now the country of Jordan, and the southeastern portion of Israel and Palestine in the middle east. It’s a territory made up of a network of clefts and caves in the rocks.

Edom tended to think of themselves as being invulnerable, the man’s man. They always had the high ground and knew how to handle themselves in the wilderness. For anyone interested in taking the Edomites down, it would be very difficult to dislodge them from their rocky fortress home. Yet, there is no place that is not vulnerable to the eye and purpose of Yahweh.

Site of an ancient Edomite stronghold in present day Jordan

Just as there was bad blood between Jacob and Esau, so also the Israelites and Edomites did not like each other throughout their history. Edom had no intention of helping their ancestral brother, and even participated with the Babylonians in the conquest of Jerusalem. What’s more, they rejoiced over the fall of the city – all of which raised the eyebrow of God.

Lord, remember what the Edomites did
        on Jerusalem’s dark day:
    “Rip it down, rip it down!
    All the way to its foundations!” they yelled. (Psalm 137:7, CEB)

Turns out that the Lord listened to the psalmist and remembered. The destruction of Edom came about because of two overlapping sins: the profound lack of hospitality; and the overt participation of doing harm. To refuse hospitality is to put someone or a group of people in harm’s way. It also betrays an attitude that works out in eventually becoming an agent of harm to those they could have helped.

In this vein, Edom is much more akin to Sodom and Gomorrah than to its brother Israel.

“Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom: She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy.” (Ezekiel 16:49, NIV)

When the ancient Israelites, after having been delivered by God from Egyptian bondage, and traveling in the wilderness, came upon Edom, they made a request of their brother:

“Please let us cross through your land. We won’t pass through any field or vineyard, or drink water from any well. We will walk on the King’s Highway and not turn to the right or to the left until we have crossed your border.”

Edom said to him, “You won’t cross through, or I will come out against you with a sword.” (Numbers 20:17-18, CEB)

It does no one any good to refuse offering hospitality to others. Both the one in need, and the one being inhospitable, find themselves in dire straits. The reason the Lord cares so much about this is that God, at the core, is hospitable – loving the stranger and granting aid to the alien.

Jesus, upholding this long tradition of divine caring and prophetic utterance, had this to say to those who were indifferent:

“Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.”

They also will answer, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?”

He will reply, “Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.”

Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life. (Matthew 25:41-46, NIV)

It is high time that we, as a contemporary people, take the Old Testament prophets seriously, and adopt the divine heart for the alien, the stranger, the fatherless, the widow, and all who find themselves unable to meet their own basic needs.

And when a refusal of hospitality happens on a national scale, the people of that nation will discover themselves a bygone country – much like Edom and the Edomites of old.

Whenever the national zeitgeist translates into draconian tactics for keeping “those other people” at a distance and say to them, “get out of our country,” without any hospitality, that nation has come under the eye of a holy God who has a zero tolerance policy toward base unkindness and purposeful callousness.

So, we ought to have the fear of God when we believe we have a moral right to exclude immigrants because they may potentially harm citizens by taking away jobs, reducing wages, and draining social services. This line of reasoning is not consistent with the way of Christ.

I, for one, believe we have failed to live up to the moral universalism we pretend lies at the heart of the United States’ theories and political philosophies; and we have not been willing to accept the radical changes needed to accommodate even a modest notion of hospitality for those who have been the targets for hate crimes based upon their race, ethnicity, ancestry, religion, and gender.

The age old sin of this world is that the wealthy and the privileged, although giving out of their largess, have no intention of sharing power and would never think of following the example of the poor widow who gave everything she had.

So, God said of the Edomites, “I will ‘Edom’ up!” And like the wild game their ancestor Esau killed and ate, they were gone. Turns out that hospitality is really a matter of life and death.

Lord Jesus, you welcomed all who came into your presence. May we reflect that same spirit through the value of hospitality. May your light shine in our hearts this day and dispel the darkness of hate and bigotry. Remove from us anything that stands in the way of radiating your presence. Amen.

2 Corinthians 13:5-10 – Examine Yourselves

On By Tim EhrhardtIn Christian Spirituality Blog, Daily Bible Reading Blog, Exploring Church Ministry Blog, Year CLeave a comment

Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you—unless, of course, you fail the test? And I trust that you will discover that we have not failed the test. Now we pray to God that you will not do anything wrong—not so that people will see that we have stood the test but so that you will do what is right even though we may seem to have failed. For we cannot do anything against the truth, but only for the truth. 

We are glad whenever we are weak, but you are strong; and our prayer is that you may be fully restored. This is why I write these things when I am absent, that when I come I may not have to be harsh in my use of authority—the authority the Lord gave me for building you up, not for tearing you down. (New International Version)

God is in the restoration business. Sometimes, we might lose sight of that reality.

In the Gospels, whenever Jesus miraculously healed a person, it was for far more than taking away a disease or correcting a disability. The Lord sought to restore a person’s life by including them in the community. For example:

  • Leprosy put a person on the outside, both literally and relationally. Ceasing to be a leper meant that a person now had no obstacles to full participation in communal life.
  • Blindness reduced a person to being a beggar in order to survive. Having sight restored meant that the person can now work with others, make a living, and contribute to the needs of others.
  • Incarceration was (and still is) a complete removal of a person from society. Being in prison severs much human connection. Release from jail opens the way to reconnection and an opportunity to have a different way of being with others.
  • Poverty encumbers a person and weighs them down so heavily that it limits their ability function socially and relationally. Without poverty, a person is able to establish healthy patterns of giving and receiving within the community.

Those who are physically whole, mentally sharp, emotionally satisfied, and spiritually redeemed are free of obstacles and impediments to communal life.

So, it is a travesty whenever the people who enjoy full inclusion in the community, turn around and separate themselves, keeping relational distance from certain persons, and do not participate in the common good of all.

The type of examination of faith the Apostle Paul was talking about was not to obsess over whether one is a true believer, or not. He was referring to the person who claims faith yet maintains separation from others. In other words, to exclude others is the kind of behavior that unbelievers do, not Christians.

Yet, there are many sections of Christianity and entire Protestant denominations who pride themselves on such separation. They believe they’re being holy and keeping themselves from impurity. However, far too many of them are really putting a sanctified spin on their own sinful predilections to avoid people they don’t like.

Paul has no tolerance for calling exclusion of others “holiness” and naming the maintenance of an insider/outsider status as “sanctification.” The Apostle knew this was all poppycock and wanted nothing to do with it.

Christ didn’t die on a cruel cross, take away the obstacles to faith, open the way to know God, and create peace through his blood for a pack of so-called Christians to then erect imaginary concrete border walls to keep others out of Christian community and fellowship.

In God’s upside-down kingdom, the privileged insiders are really the outsiders; and the underprivileged outsiders are actually the insiders.

The so-called privileged believers are in just as much need for restoration as the leper, the blind, the poor, and the prisoner. The path to their inclusion is solidarity with the entire community of the redeemed – rather than picking and choosing who is in and who is out.

All this, of course, is another way of stating that Christianity is as beset with cliques as anywhere else – with individual believers, local churches, and particular traditions following their pet theologians and pastors and not associating with others who follow a different sort of folks.

The ancient Corinthian church was a train wreck of opposing groups and clique-ish behavior. The Apostle Paul had had enough of it and called the people to do some serious self-examination. And he was careful not to degrade or discourage them but to try and encourage the church to tap into the Christ which dwells within them.

Restoration, for Paul, meant specific behaviors which intentionally include people. To be inclusive means we actively work toward grafting people into community, as well as discourage behaviors that create division. Here are three ways of doing that:

  • Practice hospitality. The word hospitality literally means, “love of stranger.” A hospitable believer goes out of their way to invite another into their life, to give them the gift of relationship and fellowship.

Take care of God’s needy people and welcome strangers into your home. (Romans 12:13, CEV)

Above all, show sincere love to each other, because love brings about the forgiveness of many sins. Open your homes to each other without complaining. And serve each other according to the gift each person has received, as good managers of God’s diverse gifts. (1 Peter 4:8-10, CEB)

  • Nip bitterness in the bud. In an ideal world, everyone holds hands and sings kumbaya together. We live, however, in a fallen world. Harmony, unity, and peace take copious amounts of energy. Like an attentive gardener, we must do the work of identifying weeds and uprooting them, so they don’t take over the garden.

Make every effort to live in peace with everyone and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord. See to it that no one falls short of the grace of God and that no bitter root grows up to cause trouble and defile many. (Hebrews 12:14-15, NIV)

  • Seek to encourage and learn how to do it. Encouragement is both a gift and a skill to be developed. To encourage another is to come alongside and help someone with both affirming words and willing hands. It’s what Jesus did (and does) for us.

Christ died for us so that, whether we are dead or alive when he returns, we can live with him forever. So, encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:10-11, NLT)

Hospitality, harmony, and help are all forms of love. And love is to be the guiding principle and practice of church and community.

Lord, make us instruments of your peace. Where there is hatred, let us sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is discord, union; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy. Grant that we may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be understood as to understand; to be loved as to love. For it is in giving that we receive; it is in pardoning that we are pardoned; and it is in dying that we are born to eternal life. Amen. – A prayer of St. Francis of