Blue Lemons or Costly Grace?

Some images are pretty but not truthful. They must be manipulated in order to make them appear the way you want them to appear. For instance blue lemons.

Sometimes it just seems easier to come up with a human plan or a human idea and make things work. I thought about this as I was reading Jack Haberer's editorial from the last web edition of the Outlook. He was writing about how Pope Benedict XVI wants Catholic believers to be fervent evangelists for the Christian faith.

Haberer suggested that contemporary Christians, in particular Presbyterians, "don't share the conviction of the converts or the passion of the newly persuaded." Continuing, he says "we see the pointing, scolding finger of the Apostle John as he utters to us an echo of his word to the Laodicean Church: 'Lukewarm!' (Rev. 3:16)"

Haberer's answer to our lukewarmness is our Presbyterian camps and conference centers. There, he says, away from the places we are familiar with, out in nature, we might find "our concrete mindsets" softened. And that, in many cases is probably true. But I was bothered, that even there in the web edition of Outlook, there is something working against a Christian's call to be a witness to other faiths.

There is a book review of A Multitude of Blessings A Christian Approach to Religious Diversity by Cynthia M. Campbell. The review is by Rick Boyer who generously recommends this book. Yet the theme of this book is to dissuade Christians from trying to convert others to Jesus Christ. In a book review I wrote for Voices of Orthodox Women I quoted from the book citing Campbell's response to John 14:6, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except by me.” She wrote:

The first thing to be said about this passage is that it is a statement about Jesus’ identity, not a statement about other religions. Most often, however, the statement is read to support the claim that if Jesus (and by extension, Christianity) is ‘the way,’ then there are no other ‘ways.’ But that is an extension of the statement and goes beyond what is claimed in the words themselves. The text says what Jesus is; it does not say what anything else is not. (46) (Italics the authors)

On the same day I read Haberer's essay I also looked at the classes on the Ghost Mountain (A Presbyterian Conference Center) Web site. None of them would be particularly helpful in leading Christians into a deeper desire to proclaim the good news of Jesus' life, death and resurrection. And in fact I was struck by how one class sounded like it was garnered straight from Campbell's book.

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The class is in August of this year, and taught by Ofelia Ortega, of Matanzas, Cuba. It is a seminar entitled, The Spirituality of Religious Pluralism: A New Spiritual Experie . The class is described in this manner:

The varieties of religions and cultures are the mosaic of our global human identity, part of the most precious gifts of each country. God created us with a wonderful multicolor light. We should think of each religion as a particular tradition of response to the reality which the Holy Spirit of God has set before our eyes. We now see the plurality of religions with different eyes, understanding it as part of the wisdom and work of God for our humanity – not a deplorable fact but as the positive will of God. We will explore this perspective as a new spiritual experience

So where does one turn besides reading letters from Popes and carefully attending conferences and camps. Perhaps back to the Scripture text that speaks of the Laodicean Church. Jesus counseled the church with these words:

Because you say, 'I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,' and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked, I advise you to buy from Me gold refined by fire so that you may become rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself, and that the shame of your nakedness will not be revealed; and eye salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. Those whom I love, I reprove and discipline; therefore be zealous and repent."(Rev. 3:17-19)

This is an interesting passage because Jesus asks the church to buy what is supposedly free, that is grace, unmerited favor. But undoubtedly this is what Bonhoeffer was writing about when he referred to costly grace. It cost Jesus his life. And the sinner, repentant and united with Jesus Christ suffers because he belongs to Christ. Our salvation is free given to us by Christ but the faithfulness this involves is costly.

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Isaiah has a passage which refers to such costly grace. Only the wording is changed ever so slightly. "Ho! Every one who thirsts, come to the waters; and you who have no money come, buy and eat. Come, buy wine and milk without money and without cost." (Isaiah 55:1) The whole passage fits. And it directs the people to a witness founded in God's goodness shown to King David. That goodness is of course God's mercy and His "everlasting covenant." (3) And His everlasting covenant is made through the shed blood of Jesus Christ.

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So while others stand on the sidelines insisting that Jesus Christ is not the only way, or that the Holy Spirit is bringing others to God through other religions be a witness of the grace of Jesus Christ. It is in the acknowledgement of the wonderous grace of Christ that anyone grabs hold of the desire to tell others.