Do you want to make a point or a difference?

I haven't written on this blog in a very long time. Since I deal with more difficult topics in this blog I often find I don't have the time to think and write carefully.  For the next few weeks I am going to be afforded the luxury of space to think deeply as I am on sabbatical.

A couple of weeks ago my family and I were in Nashville for the first time. I'm not a big country music person but most music done well is enjoyable and in Nashville the country music is done very well.  As a part of the trip my wife was able to check an item off her bucket list when we went to the Grand Ole Opry.  The next day we went downtown to the giant street party that was a part of the Country Music Awards going on that week.  The very first thing we ran into was a group of street preachers with a sound system and giant sign.

Normally I don't pay a lot of attention to these well-meaning but misguided folks.  However, this group caught my attention in a new way.  As we started into the crowded I noticed that people were not ignoring the preachers, they were laughing at them.  Many in the crowd were videoing.  My heart was profoundly sad as I watched a large group of young adults making fun of the preachers. It seemed more like vaudeville than proclamation of the Good News.  As I got a little further into the crowd and could see the preachers I realized that a group of folks from the crowd had approached the preachers and were arguing with them and mocking them.  They were playing to the crowd, getting right up in the preachers faces. There was a message being clearly communicated, preachers are fools.  Pretty sure that wasn't the message the preachers had intended but it was the one that will stick in the hearts and minds of those young adults.

I grieved for the preachers, bystanders and the gospel. As we walked away I could not help but think about the instructions Colossians 4:5-6  gives us concerning our behavior toward unbelievers, "Be wise in the way you act toward outsiders; make the most of every opportunity. Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone,"  (NIV)

You can't see it very well in the picture but the sign says "Attention!!!" then gives a long list of sins starting with whores and running down the list. I'm not sure why, but these preachers added a few not found in scripture like country music lovers (keep in mind we are in Nashville), sports nuts, sissies, rock and roll freaks, cowards and on and on.  The last line on the sign says Hellfire Awaits!!!
I'll not speculate on the preachers' motivations for this kind of spectacle but I will say that it was first unbiblical and second counterproductive. 

I know most Christians would not participate in this kind "evangelism" but I do see shadows of this approach in Christianity today.  Increasingly I hear followers of Jesus using confrontational language and tactics. I sometimes talk to folks who believe that if we don't point out to unbelievers that something is sin we are somehow failing as Christ Followers.

I live in Washington State.  The first state in the union to legalize gay marriage by a vote of the people not court order. One of the more common things people ask me is if they should attend a gay wedding to which they have been invited.  My first thought is always, you've been invited to a gay wedding, that's wonderful!  I love that my people have loved so much that they would actually be invited to a gay wedding.  The second thing I always say is, yes you should absolutely go.  The next thing is, won't I be sending the message that I approve?  - My reply... Jesus didn't think so.

Jesus was always hanging out with sinners and by sinners I mean people who were openly and unashamedly living in sinful lifestyles. Sound familiar? In fact, in those days sharing a meal with sinners was a much, much bigger deal than it was today. Yet He did it so much that He was accused of being a friend of sinners.  Friend of sinners!  Were did we get the idea that we are to be sinners adversaries? More than that, Jesus treated sinners in such a way that they actually loved Him and sought Him out.  What happened to that kind of Christianity?

What I think happened is that we got so caught up in opposing sin that we forgot that the single most important thing we do is love sinners.  So let's be honest about Jesus confrontations with people... it was religious leaders like me that got him worked up.  Even then it was almost always because the religious leaders put a higher priority on staying pure than loving people.

I once heard Andy Stanley say something in a sermon that hit me hard at the time and continues to haunt me.  He said this, Do you want to make a point or a difference? 

Saint Francis of Assisi said, "Preach the gospel at all times if necessary use words."   As a preacher, this is hard to say but maybe the wise way to act toward outsiders is to just shut up and let our love for people speak through our actions.  When it does become necessary to speak then we are careful that everything we say is first "always full of grace" and second "seasoned with salt." 

What would Love do?