Chewymom

There are disadvantages to being married to a computer nerd. You know–the type that owns several pairs of pants and ten black t-shirts with geeky sayings, all written in the same white font, that he purchased from Think Geek. Not that I know anybody like that.

Ahem.

So anyway, if I were married to a computer nerd I would, for example, not be able to update my own blog without help. Or put podcasts on my own iPod.

Which I can’t.

But finally the resident computer nerd came to my rescue and loaded me a bunch of podcasts. So today I listened to a sermon while I was out doing my run/walk. And it made me think, first about the wonders of podcasts and being married to a computer nerd, but second about sinners and sinfulness.

We’ve all heard the phrase “love the sinner, hate the sin.” But the reality is, most of us are terrified of the sinner. Christians work hard to isolate themselves from the world–to protect their childrens’ innocence, to keep evil influences at bay. We do this through Christian schools, through nightly programs at church, and some even do it by moving to “compounds.” And no, I’m not just referring to the FLDS group in Texas. Check out, as another example, R.C. Sproul, Jr’s Highland Study Center which calls itself “simple, separate, deliberate kingdom.” The word separate is not there by accident.

Even if we don’t intentionally isolate ourselves, take a look within our churches. Have you ever heard of someone referred to as “hopeless?” Well, I have. People have tried to minister to this one guy for years, and yet he still is overweight, smokes, and struggles financially. And so “the church” throws up its hands and says, “I QUIT!” And what do we do with the person who has sinned deeply and confesses it? Well, we rejoice at his repentance, but by darned he’ll never be allowed to teach (because what could he know about holiness?) or hold an office (it would be a blight on the kingdom of God). What about the divorcee? Hasn’t she left a blemish on the reputation of Christ and his relationship with the body?

Remember when Jesus was crucified? Those Jews who were putting him on the cross, yelling “crucify him!”–do you think they realized what they were doing? Of course not. They were helping God out. Doing him a favor. Here was this crazy man who rather than isolate himself and surround himself with godly men who were a picture of holiness was hanging out with sinners. Drunks, prostitutes, tax collectors. And more than that, he seemed to side with them and their understanding of the gospel over the spiritual leaders of the day. This man was a blight on God’s kingdom and had to be stopped. And those who crucified him were ready to help God stop him.

And so the most heinous act in history took place. Man killed God.

Jesus knew what was going on, and in his final words, he said, “Forgive them, for they know not what they do.”

And the message to me, as I listened to the podcast today, was twofold. First, as a Christian, I cannot allow myself to be isolated. And frankly, it made me ticked at those who want to live in isolation and who couch it with phrases like “likeminded” and “fellowship” and such. But second, and more relevant to my own heart, Jesus asked God to forgive the self-righteous spiritual leaders of the day. And you know, even as I work to not be sucked into a message that says, “isolate yourself from the ungodly” or even one that looks at me and says, “and maybe Chewymom is one of the ungodly,” I need to stand ready to also say, “I forgive the spiritual leaders who have this attitude–they do not understand what they are doing.”

This entry was posted on Monday, May 19th, 2008 at 8:54 am and is filed under Biblical Thinking. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.