June 18th, 2010 
dave hola friends,
i had a brief, but great, conversation with my friend jeremy yesterday when he visited my workplace. we were talking about the bible and some of its apparent contradictions. since jeremy is the pastor of his own community in hingham i will not speak to anything he said, but as you might assume, i am not too shy to let the world wide web know my current thoughts on the matter.
a little background to start…i have, for a few years now, come to embrace the teachings, life, death and resurrection of jesus as the benchmark for which my life should be patterned (of course i fail. of course i cannot do it on my own). this is certainly not anything groundbreaking, but when it first occurred to me that jesus actually meant for us to take his word seriously my whole life changed.
as one who grew up in the evangelical tradition, i received (not so much from my parents) this idea of a grace that covers all of my sins and that doesn’t really require a whole lot of me.
**disclaimer** i must say that simply because i “received” this message does not mean that this teaching was necessarily preached everywhere.
it just seems to me that inherent in mainstream american evangelicalism is this overarching theme of cheap grace. ‘jesus died so that i can have life, and live it however i want.’coming to the realization that this wasn’t jesus’ message was a life-changing event for me. thank you dietrich bonhoeffer!
background over.
today, i am constantly finding myself in conversations defending the view that we, as disciples, take our marching orders from jesus. there are things that he taught his followers that seem so clear to me that aren’t necessarily as clear to others. as a result i have come to learn a much needed virtue…patience.
the most glaring issue for me (and one that seems most central to the life and teachings of our lord) is the teaching that we are to love and forgive our enemies, not only on a personal level but on a national level as well. i’m still not sure how people are able to separate these into two different realms. unless i’m mistaken, aren’t all nations made up of individuals?
folks will often quote romans 13 or some obscure passage in the old testament (where god is destroying his enemies) in an effort to counter, what seems to me, to be the very clear teaching of jesus to not only love our enemies, but to pray for them and even serve them. many of these same people also seem to fear that i am guilty of a heresy for preferring the teachings of jesus over a verse, taken out of context, in the letters to the romans or the corinthians.
in these situations i am usually called a “red letter christian,” meaning that i take the words of jesus as paramount over the rest of the bible. i just have to ask this one question. if i am guilty of being a red letter christian, what are the people who prefer romans 13 over matthew 5 to be called? black letter christians?
now i’m not sure that can be accurately described as a red letter christian, since i hold the entirety of scripture as the revelation of god. but i do believe jesus to be the image of the invisible god. and i do believe he came to give us life and show us how to live it, not simply to forgive us so that we can live and think however we see fit.
i have learned to approach these apparent fuzzy lines with grace and respect for others who don’t share the same views as i do. however, i am still convinced beyond doubt that jesus meant for his disciples to be of one mind on issues such as these. i don’t think he took love lightly, and i don’t think he intended for his followers to either.
though this debate will rage on until kingdom come, i think it is important in matters of apparent contradiction, that we find in the scriptures, to take seriously the things that jesus taught very plainly. he is not only our savior, he is our lord. he taught us to march to the beat of a different drum. just read matthew 5-7 if you don’t believe me. we are the light of the world my friends. we far too often disappear in the darkness when we adopt eye of and eye as our method of response.
it’s time for love and mercy to be the mark of his people once again.
-dave-
Posted in 
Tags: 
