Tag Archives: tolerance

Gospel – really!

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What is the gospel? There are so many different versions:

  • Being nice to people
  • Keeping the Commandments
  • Ecology
  • Tolerance

– but rules of behaviour are not the gospel. Or we might suggest:

  • Finding God
  • the meaning of life
  • the way things are
  • identity

but again, these are not the gospel. They may be good, they may be things Christians should do because of their faith. But they are not gospel, not basic.

Today we read 1 Corinthians 15:1-11, which tells us. Gospel is: about Jesus. It is about his death and resurrection setting us free. Paul says that was his first and fundamental message. Is it only Paul? No, Luke 5 underlines that the gospel is about Jesus, who saves us and changes us and our future. This is the good news – for gospel is literally “good news”. It is for us whether we are new to church, or members for decades, and it is for all.

And importantly, it is NOT advice about how to behave; it is NOT a system of thought, a philosophy, or a theory. It is about Jesus, and God’s plan that through Jesus we might be given the life and freedom and hope we could not gain on our own.That’s why it’s good news – and important that it is delivered and heard as good news.

And all the other things? Most of them are results, consequences of our taking the good news seriously and responding to it. If God sets us free, then maybe our lives should follow his pattern;

  • if he created the universe, then maybe we should look after it;
  • if he loves people, maybe we should do the same
  • if he can cope with us, why should we not see ourselves as he does?

– you can go on, and it is useful to do so. But don’t lose sight of that first and basic point. What is the gospel? It isn’t about the way we do church, or how we ought to behave, or theory of any sort. Gospel is Jesus – Jesus living, dying and rising to set us free. That is what God has done for us; its good news, and we ought to share it.

Meta What?

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What do you know about Post-Modernism? If your answer is nothing, or even not much, you are wrong. You may not know the name, but you know the attitudes, and their effects. Post-Modernism is the view that says everyone can have their own life, even their own truth. It is the force behind the demand for choice, and the philosophy behind the assertion that everything is relative. It claims that – in the jargon – there is no Meta-narrative. That is, there is no overall meaning; it is no use asking why things are as they are or why the happen as they do – they just are, and you make your own meaning.

This is presented as something new, but many parts of it have been around many times before. Remember Paul, visiting Athens in the first century, and finding all sorts of temples and altars (“take your pick”); or remember Jonah, when on the ship in the storm, and the captain wakes him up (Jonah 1:6) to pray to his god, in case that works better than any of the other “gods” the crew and other passengers pray to for relief from the dangerous storm.

You may realise that I am talking about 1Timothy 2. (1 Timothy 2:1-7 is the reading for Proper 20c, or this year the 14th Sunday after Trinity) Christians have a distinctive attitude. We respect other people and beliefs – not because all beliefs are equal, nor out of fear or inability to do anything about it. We respect all people because God made them, loves them, and wants them to be saved. We respect their beliefs, because God does not force anyone in this life, so we also must allow them freedom within the limits of harm to others.

Now look at 1 Timothy 2. Prayer is to be offered for everyone! Can’t we just be concerned with ourselves, or those like us? No. We serve a God who cares for all, and our care must reflect his. We pray for those in authority, depending on them, but more. Verse 5:

“there is one God;
    there is also one mediator between God and humankind,
Christ Jesus, himself human,
6     who gave himself a ransom for all”

What this is saying, as a summary of the Christian gospel, is that there is a Meta-narrative – one overall purpose. God, by definition, is one. He is the supreme being. Yes, our world has lost sight of him, and given up trying to make sense of everything. In some ways Christians haven’t helped – they have sometimes contributed to oppression, sometimes just let it happen. Some of their explanations have not honoured God, but made him anything but loving and just. We live with the results, in a curious mixture.

Our faith says, v5: “there is one God;
    there is also one mediator between God and humankind,
Christ Jesus, himself human,
6     who gave himself a ransom for all”

Our world says there is no right way, do your own thing. I suggest we do as we are told (but as we are told by a God who is just, and loving, and understands what we never will on earth). What are we to do? Live as God asks, praying for all around us, making clear that our choice is for Jesus, and there is both the possibility and welcome for others to do so too.

Tolerance and Discrimination

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Strange how public morality goes; you can apparently choose your faith, lifestyle and sexuality freely, but you must be tolerant.  In much the same way, you can belong to any group or subculture, but must not discriminate.  The rightness of tolerance and the wrongness of discrimination are seldom argued, just demanded.  At the same time, the popular press make the practical limits of toleration clear – rich fraudsters, terrorists and paedophiles are beyond the pale.  And we all know how to discriminate between a good workman and a “cowboy”, or a real friend and a gossip.

So, will you be shocked if you look in the Bible for these words?  Tolerance is not found in traditional translations (only, of God, in Romans 2:4 Good News Bible), discrimination not at all.  Why?  I suggest that, while there are some similar ideas, the concepts are not quite right for Christians.  Why not?  This weeks gospel parable (Matthew 13:24-43, leaving out vv31-35) may help.

The story of the wheat and weeds is about tolerance and discrimination – of a sort.  Wheat was, and is, an important food.  The weeds in this story are not a nuisance or something that spoils the picture, but darnel, a plant that looks very similar to wheat, but is host to a dangerous, poisonous fungus.  Jesus is suggesting that in human life, and that includes Church congregations, good and bad people are mixed.  We should not try to sort them out, because of damaging the wheat, because we can’t reliably tell the difference, (and because people, unlike plants, can repent.)  That’s not to say “anything goes”, in Church, or in society!  We need to help people sort themselves out – but we shall never gather a perfect group.  There will always be those in process – and those who resist God, but pretend.  There is a place, if not for tolerance, at least for patience and love, and for letting God do the final sorting out.  (We lack the qualification!).

At the same time, there is talk of a division at harvest time.  The harvesters will be under orders how to discriminate into just two categories.  No discrimination?  Well, you can’t tell wheat from darnel until the ear appears just before harvest (wheat turns golden brown and bends over, darnel seed darkens and stays upright), so no premature judgements.  But if “no discrimination” means “nobody can tell me I’m doing wrong” that doesn’t include God!

The idea of being tolerant and not discriminating is one of those half-Christian confusions which can obscure the faith of Jesus.  We don’t want to be intolerant and discriminatory – nothing Christian in that!  Letting him tell the story, and listening carefully, should save us getting it wrong.