How many times have we heard the saying "love the sinner, hate the sin"?
And often good people mean well when they say that.
Hmmm. Tony Campolo points out that what Jesus taught us would really be more like "love the sinner, hate your own sin".
If you have any doubt about this, check out Matthew 7:3, where Jesus says "Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother's eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?"
And if that isn't clear enough, in verse 5, Jesus says "You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother's eye."
That looks a lot like Tony's quote: "love the sinner, hate your own sin".
Expanding on what Tony says, might look like "love the sinner and hate your own judgmental attitude for looking at the sinner as 'the sinner'".
Something to think about next time we might be tempted to look at someone in a judging sort of way.
Wednesday 25 September 2013
Sunday 22 September 2013
What about Tradition?
Next year, Community Life Church will be celebrating 150 years as an organized church in Grand Harbour on Grand Manan Island. Over that time many changes have occurred and a lot are still occurring. Even the name has changed a number of times, but changed most radically recently from "Grand Harbour United Baptist Church" to "Community Life Church".
So we have much to celebrate in our 150 years, pioneers to honour, accomplishments to marvel over, a rich heritage of service to the people of our Island. Does our service today look different? Of course; but that should not take away from the celebration of our past.
No doubt some of the people who faithfully attended this church years ago might be astonished if they were to drop in on a Sunday morning now. Worship would look very different to them to be sure. In fact some of them might feel we are wrong not keeping with the strong traditions of the church established by our forefathers.
So as we look back at our 150 years, how important is tradition and what role does it play?
One of the best quotes I have found on tradition is in McLaren's book "Naked Spirituality" in which he says (on page 189):
"Similarly, we must celebrate the rich heritage of our religious traditions, but those traditions are now the foundations on which we build, not the ceilings under which we are trapped".
Let's think about that as we reach forward and as we remember back. Let's celebrate the rich traditions we have, lets build on these, but let us also be sure not to let them become ceilings under which we are trapped.
So we have much to celebrate in our 150 years, pioneers to honour, accomplishments to marvel over, a rich heritage of service to the people of our Island. Does our service today look different? Of course; but that should not take away from the celebration of our past.
No doubt some of the people who faithfully attended this church years ago might be astonished if they were to drop in on a Sunday morning now. Worship would look very different to them to be sure. In fact some of them might feel we are wrong not keeping with the strong traditions of the church established by our forefathers.
So as we look back at our 150 years, how important is tradition and what role does it play?
One of the best quotes I have found on tradition is in McLaren's book "Naked Spirituality" in which he says (on page 189):
"Similarly, we must celebrate the rich heritage of our religious traditions, but those traditions are now the foundations on which we build, not the ceilings under which we are trapped".
Let's think about that as we reach forward and as we remember back. Let's celebrate the rich traditions we have, lets build on these, but let us also be sure not to let them become ceilings under which we are trapped.
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