Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Bigoted? Hardly

My wife eats ice. If you're going to survive in our house, you have to get used to the crunching sound. Click, click, click the ice goes as it leaves the bottom of the cup, enters her mouth and the remainder falls to the bottom of the cup again. Clang, if it's a glass cup. Thunk if it's plastic or some other substance.

I detest the sound; It drives me up a wall or two. But after 25 years, there apparently is nothing I can do about it. I've tried to say the right word or two, but she is addicted to ice. It is a powerful sound.

Imagine, however, if some sound you made, some noise, some word came from your mouth to the heart and soul and mind of another. You say something about how your life has changed. You say something about what changed your life. You say something about the mystery of scripture, about how you read it and read it but one morning it becomes as clear as clean glass. A new word. A new teaching.

Imagine.

The Bible tells this tale: "Now an angel of the Lord spoke to Philip, saying, "Arise and go toward the south along the road which goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza." This is desert. So he arose and went. And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the queen of the Ethiopians, who had charge of all her treasury, and had come to Jerusalem to worship, was returning. And sitting in his chariot, he was reading Isaiah the prophet. Then the Spirit said to Philip, "Go near and overtake this chariot."

So Philip ran to him, and heard him reading the prophet Isaiah, and said, "Do you understand what you are reading?"

And he said, "How can I, unless someone guides me?" And he asked Philip to come up and sit with him. The place in the Scripture which he read was this:

"He was led as a sheep to the slaughter;
And as a lamb before its shearer is silent,
So He opened not His mouth.
In His humiliation His justice was taken away,
And who will declare His generation?
For His life is taken from the earth."

So the eunuch answered Philip and said, "I ask you, of whom does the prophet say this, of himself or of some other man?" Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning at this Scripture, preached Jesus to him. Now as they went down the road, they came to some water. And the eunuch said, "See, here is water. What hinders me from being baptized?"

Then Philip said, "If you believe with all your heart, you may."
And he answered and said, "I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God."

So he commanded the chariot to stand still. And both Philip and the eunuch went down into the water, and he baptized him. Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. But Philip was found at Azotus. And passing through, he preached in all the cities till he came to Caesarea."

HOW CAN I UNLESS SOMEONE GUIDES ME?

Somehow the idea that we would talk about Christ to someone, even my goodness gracious a Muslim or a Jew, about Jesus has become a bad, bad thing. We've given it a name: prothletizing, and when someone says we are doing that, it is a bad, bad thing.

Problem is, we must accept all religions today. We must accept all beliefs. We must, or we are called a bigot. And if there is anything on this planet today you do not want to be called it is a bigot.

Jesus was the most accepting, most liberal (in desire to change the status quo), most impartial judge, most tolerant person of all time. He got rid of masssive rules that were being worshiped instead of the creator God. He changed the way the people of his time looked at women, children, those outside his own culture. He even touched the untouchable.

But he was quite the non-accepting, conservative, partial, intolerant and even bigoted person when it came to this: In the 14th chapter of the gospel of John he said, "No one comes to the Father except through me."

The debate about what that means or what that meant probably started quickly after he said it.

In Isaiah's writings, Jesus is described this way: "he willingly gave his life and shared the fate of evil men. He took the place of many sinners and prayed that they might be forgiven."

As far as I can tell, Jesus is the only one who ever died in place of many sinners. He is the only one who ever claimed not just to be a grand prophet of his religion, but God himself. He is the only one who said he was the only way to the Father.

Bigot? He loved everyone including his enemies, of which there were many.
Bigot? He died for everyone, while they were yet sinners, of which there were and are many.
Bigot? He never claimed to be anything but a Jew; the word Christian wasn't used while he was alive.
Bigot? The Bible says God said he gave him a place of honor in heaven itself.

Jesus gave us a command to make disciples. He didn't tell us how exactly and that has plagued us. But he did leave directions when he told the 72 to go out in his name. If we but follow those directions, perhaps we can be Phillip to a world that needs Jesus.

It isn't bigotry to tell someone about how Jesus changed our lives, friends. It is the most wonderful thing we can do.

HOW CAN I UNLESS SOMEONE GUIDES ME?

You, me, all of us are the guides. It is our job. It is our way. It is the truth. It is our life. Love them into submission.

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