(Scripture quotes are from the New American Bible, copyright held by Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, at least, that's what it says in the front of my Bible.)
If you've read some of my ramblings, you know that one thing that breaks my heart is the question of what to do about (to put it delicately) Christians who act in less than a Christian manner, doing things to promote themselves in the Name of Jesus Christ that appear to be no more than worldly business tactics.
While reading Philippians, help arrived from a very unexpected source, St. Paul. Yeah, the guy whose writing is used by the overwhelming majority of Christianity to lock in their versions of rules and regulations. The guy who got struck down blind by the Resurrected Jesus Christ and ended up writing letters that Christians have since used to divide themselves over anything and everything. In Philippians, he's sitting in prison, and he writes these words, emphases are mine:
"Of course, some preach Christ from envy and rivalry, others from good will. The latter act out of love, aware that I am here for the defense of the gospel; the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition, not from pure motives, thinking that they will cause me trouble in my imprisonment. What difference does it make, as long as in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is being proclaimed? And in that I rejoice." (Chapter 1, verses 15-18)
It's a good thing I was sitting down when I read this, because the reading of it hit me with a spiritual force. Here is St. Paul, the greatest evangelist the Church has ever known, the Fireball of Heaven, admitting that others are preaching Jesus for their own gain, even admitting they might be doing it just to hurt him personally, and, Dear Neighboring Cellmate Paul, as I've come to know him, basically says, "Let them."
What???!!!
Paul! What about Justice, what about Truth, what about Scandal and people who get their hearts broken and their faith crushed because of these persons who claim to be Christian, even Christian leaders-be they lay or ordained?
Paul quietly says, "Let them be."
As I was arguing this point with Paul, I remembered Jesus' teaching on the Tares (Weeds) and the Wheat. That parable is Matthew 13:24-30. Jesus says that the landowner tells the workers that the enemy has sowed the seeds of the weeds among the wheat, the workers themselves are not responsible. When the workers ask if they should pull up the weeds, the landowner replies, "No, if you pull up the weeds you might uproot the wheat along with them. Let them grow together until harvest, then at harvest time I will say to the harvesters, 'First collect the weeds and tie them in bundles for burning, but gather the wheat into my barn'."
Jesus echoes Paul's remedy: "Leave them alone."
Why?
Evidently because the removal of persons who seem to be working for their own gain may hurt the Church. Disillusionment comes to mind, as I've personally had to work through that, more than once. But, it's also possible that God's mercy is awaiting persons who preach God's Gospel to convert before they leave this current life, in hopes that they will not condemn themselves in the next life. And so, God's Mercy on both the faithful and the self-indulged requires that both grow together in this life...in this Faith.
Jesus knew that this was going on in our "parent" religion, Judaism, and, Paul tells us that it was already present in the first days of Christianity. And both Jesus and Paul teach us to leave it alone, keeping our eyes on Jesus, not on the sins of others.
This can be a very hard teaching, particularly if we are in places where our leaders are openly flaunting their desires to pursue their own visions of religious glory on the face of this earth, on this side of the Resurrection. But, if we are to allow God to develop our maturity in the Christian faith, it is a teaching we must ask God to help us understand and to give us peace within ourselves with it. (As well as pray for the conversion of us ALL. And, this doesn't mean that we won't struggle, deal with anger, and, especially with heartbreak/grief.)
Of course, I'm guessing from both Jesus' example and Paul's, there are times when we are to express who and what is less than God's example for us. I'm specifically thinking of St. Paul in 2 Timothy 4:9-18, where he names the names of persons who have done him wrong. I don't think Jesus and Paul are telling us to simply roll over and play dead, so to speak, I DO think they are telling us that this is going to happen, that our Faith will always be infiltrated until the End Day, and that, with the full knowledge of this, we are to confidently walk in the Faith towards our Resurrected Jesus Christ.
Resurrection. Why am I using that word so much? Back to Philippians, where Paul says he is in prison for his proclamation of the gospel, I asked myself, What did Paul consider to be the gospel? Immediately, I thought of "death, burial, resurrection". Yes. "God loves us." Yes. But, what was it Paul considered to be the gospel? I started getting an idea from reading more of his prison letters, and then I read the accounts of his defenses in the Book of Acts. While it appears that part of the reason Paul had irritated the Jewish leaders was that he had proclaimed Faith to non-Jewish persons (Acts 22:21-22), when Paul gets to court he states that he is "on trial for hope in the resurrection of the dead" (Acts 23:6).
While it appears that he may have said this to pit the two main rival groups against themselves, one group believed in resurrection and the other didn't, personally I think that would be trivializing the resurrection as the main reason for Paul's defense. Later, in Acts 24:10-21, Paul makes it very clear that he is on trial because of his faith in the resurrection, and, in Acts 26:1-23, Paul relates his experience with the Resurrected Jesus, ending with: "But I have enjoyed God's help to this very day, and so I stand here testifying to small and great alike, saying nothing different from what the prophets and Moses foretold, that the Messiah must suffer and that, as the first to rise from the dead, he would proclaim light both to our people and to the Gentiles."
Immediately, he is proclaimed "Mad". Usually, we are told he was in trouble because he allowed the Gentiles in to the Jewish community. That might be a legitimate reading, but, as I'm reading many Scriptures together, it seems to me that if this would have been their main complaint, something would have been said in the little discussion afterwards among the noble persons, including King Agrippa saying to Paul, "You will soon persuade me to play the Christian." (Acts 26:28) As I read it in light of other Scriptures, Paul is in trouble because of his proclamation of the Resurrected Christ, of a resurrection for us all, of his conviction that this life is not all there is, that there is a hope of life after the grave.
What does it mean to believe in the Resurrection? DO we believe it? Truly?
Jesus says to Martha (John 11:25,26): "I am the resurrection and the life, whoever believes in me, even if he dies, will live, and everyone who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"
Do we believe this? Or, is it simply a verse of comfort to be read at a funeral?
Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15:12-19:
"But if Christ is preached as raised from the dead, how can some among you say there is no resurrection of the dead? If there is no resurrection of the dead, then neither has Christ been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, then empty (too) is our preaching; empty, too, your faith. Then we are also false witnesses to God, because we testified against God that he raised Christ, who he did not raise if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, neither has Christ been raised, and if Christ has not been raised, your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all."
And then comes verse 20: "But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep."
I suggest reading the rest of chapter 15. One verse that is frequently taken out of context to prove Christian "victory" over many material things and persons is verse 57: "But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ." That verse, in my loud mouth opinion, should never be separated from the preceding verse, 56, because it is towards the end of Paul's discourse on resurrection, the two together state that Paul's "victory" is God's resurrecting power over death (brought on by human sin): "The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."
There you have it, the gospel isn't about rules, regulations, liturgy, dress codes, social justice, etc. It is about God's Love to humanity in becoming one of us and destroying the power of sin/death by giving us a resurrected life after this one. This life we now endure, sometimes painfully, is not the "end". The Church can never build a glorious empire, even if it is for God, on the face of this planet, this side of the Resurrection. We sometimes forget that, and need to be reminded. The Good News isn't in this lifetime, it's in the next. (Although, it begins in this lifetime-you can see why Paul had such a hard time wording things and perhaps felt like he was foolish in the many words he used. It's a concept that is difficult to express.)
WHEN we become firm in our knowledge, hope, and faith, of Eternal Life, we then attempt to live in a manner pleasing to God with as much energy as we can in this current life. Even if that means allowing others their lofty goals of building their own vision of Eternity in this life.
This may be the dividing line between Faith and Religion. Faith sees beyond Death to Resurrection. Religion can see life only as living currently on this side of Death.
I suppose that human existence requires some balance of both. That's probably the hard part. It is, perhaps, even where religious/political warring takes place.
May God grant us unity in God's Resurrection.
