Keeping Focused on the Log in My Own Eyes
I have wanted to write this post, but others thought it would not be appropriate. Actually, I posted a version of this post a couple of nights ago, but eventually took it down. However, I have had many conversations over the last weeks which have made me finally decide to write. Plus, this is my blog and I should write what I want to write. As I have said about my grammar usage, if you don’t like it, don’t read it! By this point I am sure you are wondering what the topic is? Well, it is sin.
One of my family members has been fretting for weeks over a situation in her church. Apparently, one of her fellow parishioners has stopped coming to church because she didn’t feel it was “right” for a certain new member to join the church. And do you know why she thinks it isn’t “right” for her to join the church – because the new member is a sinner!
My family member has been very distraught over the entire situation. She called me very upset and asked what I thought she should do. At first I laughed. Yes, I laughed. I mean, if sinners aren’t welcome to join the church, then who is? Then I suggested sending her a letter which read “For God so loved THE WORLD that he sent his son, not for God so loved who (insert name) thinks he should love that he sent his son.” The family member decided to just try and talk to the women, but she hasn’t seemed to get anywhere.
The issue for me is – should we make a hierarchy of sin? As Christians should we look at others’ sin as worse than our own sin? When I read today’s devotional in the Episcopal Forward Day by Day I knew I had to write this post. I want to give you an excerpt from it: Why do we see the speck in our neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in our own eye? Obsessing about the speck in our neighbor's eye seems to be the sin of choice among us these days. The questions of authority and morality on which we disagree are important and often perplexing. What if all the accusations are right? What if we are all unfaithful, arrogant, and self-righteous, each in our own way? Then it would seem we should not waste our energy fretting about other people's sins, but focus on the logs in our own eyes that keep us from seeing the face of Jesus in the person on the other side of the theological chasm.
When the Pharisees and the scholars asked Jesus, “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?” Jesus answered them, “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence. This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love the others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” (Matthew 22:34-40 The Message) I don’t think there is a hierarchy of sin, and even more importantly I think we would waste a lot of life sitting around trying to think of one. We should spend our life loving each other as we love ourselves – just as Christ commanded.
I don’t have the answer for the situation mentioned above, and all I can do is pray for everyone involved. Maybe I am wrong but honestly I think Church should be welcoming to everyone, a place where we all come to support and love each other in Christian fellowship. I think “Church” is to enable us to surround ourselves with a community of believers, to support each other, and to worship God together, which is what Jesus did by example and prayed for us to continue. We shouldn’t spend our time wondering why other people are motivated to come to church, or focusing on others’ sins. We should spend our time welcoming each and every person –the tax collectors, widows, whores, the outcast, the oppressed, women, men, children and especially the sinners.
One of my family members has been fretting for weeks over a situation in her church. Apparently, one of her fellow parishioners has stopped coming to church because she didn’t feel it was “right” for a certain new member to join the church. And do you know why she thinks it isn’t “right” for her to join the church – because the new member is a sinner!
My family member has been very distraught over the entire situation. She called me very upset and asked what I thought she should do. At first I laughed. Yes, I laughed. I mean, if sinners aren’t welcome to join the church, then who is? Then I suggested sending her a letter which read “For God so loved THE WORLD that he sent his son, not for God so loved who (insert name) thinks he should love that he sent his son.” The family member decided to just try and talk to the women, but she hasn’t seemed to get anywhere.
The issue for me is – should we make a hierarchy of sin? As Christians should we look at others’ sin as worse than our own sin? When I read today’s devotional in the Episcopal Forward Day by Day I knew I had to write this post. I want to give you an excerpt from it: Why do we see the speck in our neighbor's eye, but do not notice the log in our own eye? Obsessing about the speck in our neighbor's eye seems to be the sin of choice among us these days. The questions of authority and morality on which we disagree are important and often perplexing. What if all the accusations are right? What if we are all unfaithful, arrogant, and self-righteous, each in our own way? Then it would seem we should not waste our energy fretting about other people's sins, but focus on the logs in our own eyes that keep us from seeing the face of Jesus in the person on the other side of the theological chasm.
When the Pharisees and the scholars asked Jesus, “Teacher, which command in God’s Law is the most important?” Jesus answered them, “Love the Lord your God with all your passion and prayer and intelligence. This is the most important, the first on any list. But there is a second to set alongside it: ‘Love the others as well as you love yourself.’ These two commands are pegs; everything in God’s Law and the Prophets hangs from them.” (Matthew 22:34-40 The Message) I don’t think there is a hierarchy of sin, and even more importantly I think we would waste a lot of life sitting around trying to think of one. We should spend our life loving each other as we love ourselves – just as Christ commanded.
I don’t have the answer for the situation mentioned above, and all I can do is pray for everyone involved. Maybe I am wrong but honestly I think Church should be welcoming to everyone, a place where we all come to support and love each other in Christian fellowship. I think “Church” is to enable us to surround ourselves with a community of believers, to support each other, and to worship God together, which is what Jesus did by example and prayed for us to continue. We shouldn’t spend our time wondering why other people are motivated to come to church, or focusing on others’ sins. We should spend our time welcoming each and every person –the tax collectors, widows, whores, the outcast, the oppressed, women, men, children and especially the sinners.
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