Christmas Lights
During this season of the celebration of Christ's birth and all the wonder and joy and family and friends and sights and sounds, there are some beautiful lights. There are twinkling lights on trees and houses, displays of great proportion with thousands of lights to delight and entertain, and there is warm firelight and soft candllelight and there is the light from the star of Bethlehem in every church and nativity display. But this week I have also encountered some darkness in the season. It is the darkness of religion.
Last weekend I overheard a conversation about politics where the people talking were saying they were switching political parties because one party had become "so overtly religious that it was nauseating." They both said that politicians and political parties who let their religious views influence their politics have gone too far. A few days ago there was an incident where one friend was telling another friend why something she was doing was wrong. The words were well-meant but were taken like judgment and criticism because the person telling spoke of love as being the motive while other actions of this person were anything but loving. And yesterday I was told about how one religious person had pushed her views about why children should not go to see a particular movie on to another person and how that religious person was not really as religious as she'd like for people to think because of a particular moral issue she had in her life and therefore she had no right to push religious stuff on to another.
This is such darkness to me because when religion raises its head - when someone takes a religious stance - defenses go up and opinions are spouted and fingers are pointed and no one wins. The only thing that wins is death by condemnation. Taking a religious stance puts a person into a posture that is most often seen as threatening and even hostile. This posture is how people exhibit their beliefs and faith and push those beliefs and faith on to others. And when we take a certain posture it literally means we are posing - acting - positioning - and that is not real and it is certainly not life. That is why a religious stance is so often attacked and discounted and rejected. And it is why the stance becomes even more threatening and hostile. No religious person is ever going to be religious enough to be able to take a religious stance and stay there when what is behind their pose is exposed. Only condemnation will remain. And condemnation brings death.
In John 8 some posers were taking their stance to condemn a woman caught in sin. Their laws and rules gave them every legal right to do so. They presented her to Jesus to see what He would have to say about her sin and their right to condemn her to death. They anticipated His stance to be one of grace and not law and, if He opposed their law, they would have a reason and right to condemn Him as well. That was really what they were after. But Jesus chose to show them (and us) what it looks like to actually live out what you believe and not just pose to defend and promote what you say you believe. His stance was actually a stoop as He began to write in the sand - writing out sins or some type of condemnation toward the posers. And while they stood there looking at their own condemnation displayed before them, Jesus told them that whoever was without sin could throw the first stone at the woman. They all walked away. And then Jesus helped the woman to stand, and even though He could have condemned her and stoned her to death because He was without sin, He didn't. He told her to go and sin no more - granting a pardon in the display of her sin - painting a picture of the mercy and grace He would live out in His own death for all mankind at the cross. He had done the same thing for the posers - showing their sin and providing a way out. They walked away without receiving it because they were shamed by the exposure of what was behind their pose.
And then He said to everyone left watching, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." John 8:12 NASB If we have Jesus we have no need for a religious stance. We are not posers but we possess the Light of life within us. And we should be allowing that light -HIS light - to shine from us toward everyone around - like the lights of the season - displayed to light the night, to delight, to warm, to dispel the darkness of condemnation through grace and mercy and love.
Oh Father, when I bring someone's sin to their attention, I bring it before You, like the posers with the woman. When I condemn, my own fleshly condemnation and death is exposed in the sand before me. And though I know I am forgiven by You, the world sees me and my religious posture walk away in shame and they condemn me as fake - a poser - just like those guys in John 8. And instead of lighting the night with Your Light of grace and mercy and love I have quenched Your Light in the shadow of my stance. Show me when to stoop, when to help another to her feet, how to live my faith by letting You love through me, and how to step aside so Your Light is all that is seen. I don't want to be a religious person. I don't want to pose. I want to live and light the night of this world with mercy and grace and love - with the Light of life. Oh, do it in me!
Praying for His Light to shine through me in this season - and every season,
Amy
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:17 NIV
Last weekend I overheard a conversation about politics where the people talking were saying they were switching political parties because one party had become "so overtly religious that it was nauseating." They both said that politicians and political parties who let their religious views influence their politics have gone too far. A few days ago there was an incident where one friend was telling another friend why something she was doing was wrong. The words were well-meant but were taken like judgment and criticism because the person telling spoke of love as being the motive while other actions of this person were anything but loving. And yesterday I was told about how one religious person had pushed her views about why children should not go to see a particular movie on to another person and how that religious person was not really as religious as she'd like for people to think because of a particular moral issue she had in her life and therefore she had no right to push religious stuff on to another.
This is such darkness to me because when religion raises its head - when someone takes a religious stance - defenses go up and opinions are spouted and fingers are pointed and no one wins. The only thing that wins is death by condemnation. Taking a religious stance puts a person into a posture that is most often seen as threatening and even hostile. This posture is how people exhibit their beliefs and faith and push those beliefs and faith on to others. And when we take a certain posture it literally means we are posing - acting - positioning - and that is not real and it is certainly not life. That is why a religious stance is so often attacked and discounted and rejected. And it is why the stance becomes even more threatening and hostile. No religious person is ever going to be religious enough to be able to take a religious stance and stay there when what is behind their pose is exposed. Only condemnation will remain. And condemnation brings death.
In John 8 some posers were taking their stance to condemn a woman caught in sin. Their laws and rules gave them every legal right to do so. They presented her to Jesus to see what He would have to say about her sin and their right to condemn her to death. They anticipated His stance to be one of grace and not law and, if He opposed their law, they would have a reason and right to condemn Him as well. That was really what they were after. But Jesus chose to show them (and us) what it looks like to actually live out what you believe and not just pose to defend and promote what you say you believe. His stance was actually a stoop as He began to write in the sand - writing out sins or some type of condemnation toward the posers. And while they stood there looking at their own condemnation displayed before them, Jesus told them that whoever was without sin could throw the first stone at the woman. They all walked away. And then Jesus helped the woman to stand, and even though He could have condemned her and stoned her to death because He was without sin, He didn't. He told her to go and sin no more - granting a pardon in the display of her sin - painting a picture of the mercy and grace He would live out in His own death for all mankind at the cross. He had done the same thing for the posers - showing their sin and providing a way out. They walked away without receiving it because they were shamed by the exposure of what was behind their pose.
And then He said to everyone left watching, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life." John 8:12 NASB If we have Jesus we have no need for a religious stance. We are not posers but we possess the Light of life within us. And we should be allowing that light -HIS light - to shine from us toward everyone around - like the lights of the season - displayed to light the night, to delight, to warm, to dispel the darkness of condemnation through grace and mercy and love.
Oh Father, when I bring someone's sin to their attention, I bring it before You, like the posers with the woman. When I condemn, my own fleshly condemnation and death is exposed in the sand before me. And though I know I am forgiven by You, the world sees me and my religious posture walk away in shame and they condemn me as fake - a poser - just like those guys in John 8. And instead of lighting the night with Your Light of grace and mercy and love I have quenched Your Light in the shadow of my stance. Show me when to stoop, when to help another to her feet, how to live my faith by letting You love through me, and how to step aside so Your Light is all that is seen. I don't want to be a religious person. I don't want to pose. I want to live and light the night of this world with mercy and grace and love - with the Light of life. Oh, do it in me!
Praying for His Light to shine through me in this season - and every season,
Amy
For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. John 3:17 NIV
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