Conclusion

I have been chewing on the fight within the UMC for quite awhile. This fight has been going on for decades and at the heart of it lies the question, "Are we called to recognize and repent from sin or are we called not to judge?" As you might imagine, the two sides have two very different implications, and for a long time, the latter has been more persuasive to me because, well, it's sexier. When we're called not to judge, there is an implicit attitude that whether or not sin exists, we shouldn't judge it, shouldn't name it, and therefore shouldn't expect others to repent of it. This easily transitions from "others" to the self, and we cease to view Jesus as a salvific figure and instead choose to view him as that beer-run buddy who doesn't give two hoots what we did with whom last night.

But now...now I see that this is false, full of a fool's arrogance.

To recognize sin as given to us in Scripture is not to judge the person who commits the sin. Even Jesus commanded healed persons, "Go and sin no more." We are called to a sanctified, continually purified lifestyle, not one of degredation and moral relativity. Jesus is our friend, sure, but he's a real friend, not the beer-run buddy we imagine him to be. We reduce him to a gross misrepresentation of his true self when we assume he'd sit quietly in a group therapy session, affirming everyone. Jesus, instead, is the truth-teller, the one who sees through the lies and half-truths, the one who demands that we respect him enough to be honest with ourselves and accountable to God. We should appreciate this about him.

Perhaps this new understanding has been brought about by a recent friendship's end, a friendship in which I was expected to be supportive (but not too supportive, otherwise I was pressuring) and positive (unless the friend wanted me to agree with her negativity). I began to realize that there was no room for ME, no room for my opinions or attitudes toward life. I chose to end the friendship because continuing it was an exercise in futility, and perhaps it was then that I realized we often put Jesus in the same spot when we accept his Grace but not the responsibilities entailed, when we accept the offering of salvation without the necessary truth, when we force him to be what makes us feel good about ourselves.

We are unfair to him when we refuse to name and repent from our sins. We are dishonest with other Christians when we pretend to condone that which God has laid down as sinful. And, perhaps, we are simply lying to ourselves. Acknowledging truth that already exists is different from judging the entirety of a person--only God can do that. What we see in part, God sees in whole. But should we be unwilling to care for and correct the part because we do not see the whole? We do not hesistate to correct a child who is hurting another child simply because we are not the parent, and neither should we hesitate to rebuke sinful behaviour of another simply because we are not the heavenly parent. Only God can judge a person, but we can recognize and rebuke sin--in fact our repenting of sins and God's judgment are meant to go hand-in-hand. When we repent of our sins, God's judgment is mercy itself. When we insist we are free from sin, we through salt into Jesus' wounds and win no mercy from God.