Have you ever gone to the cupboard and upon opening the door a wild assortment of useful and useless objects come tumbling towards you and scatter around your feet. Before restoring them to the shelf one must sort through this conglomeration and decide which should remain and which are junk and should be pitched out.
On my recent trip to the Ukraine, by surprise, I opened a cupboard door that held legalism, control, silencing and hope. Now upon my return I am sorting them out and pitching what isn’t necessary in the storage on my mind and heart. I shift through them and find anger and bitterness were not what spilled out first. Instead I see "that was then and this is now". Before I can put these thoughts away again I must write about them. Therefore this is the first in a series of articles I am writing. This is not a dissection or anatomical exercise but rather perhaps just a look at what was, what is, and letting the Truth of Divine breathing gently do what sorting and dusting are required.
A number of things conspired together to open this cupboard holding “legalism”. Firstly, and most obvious, was my observations of its strength in Eastern Europe, secondly that connection to my own past church history, thirdly reading The Return of the Prodigal Son by Nouwen, and fourthly considering how legalism, communism, and control are entwined and hope is the misfit piece but perhaps the piece that will break the control.
Here the thought of “hope” was looked at briefly. Hope in a legalistic environment is the distant event of being released from this life on earth and then after death waiting for the moment one enters Heaven (based on a relationship with Jesus Christ). Is life here just to be endured - and if so that flies totally in the face of what Jesus meant when he said My purpose is to give life in all it's fullness. Is life on earth simply obeying rules and regulations and the only release from that is death and then at this unknown point hope begins? To me it makes sense that the very reason Jesus came as a human being to earth was to show us how to live in the here and now with all he teaches. The Kingdom of Heaven here now within us is how I see hope, and the reality of living eternal life. Living and breathing is part of hope and then add Jesus offer of giving us a passionate life - it that living hope? Jesus never meant hope to be only a "rescue" tool at death - it is meant to be the truth of being fully alive, and for me that comes in my relationship with Jesus.
Legalism places living in a box of rules, with very few if any, breathing holes. Communism does exactly the same. And someone who seeks to control another in relationship also does. The funny thing is that somehow it is meant to look as if all are equal and yet so glaringly obvious is the fact that it is one assuming a "greater than" role and placing all others in the "less than" category. True hope comes to give us each the true meaning of "greater than" worth that Jesus speaks into our lives. The worth that places all of us on the level place at the foot of the Cross. Legalism, whether political, religious, or relational, removes the warmth and causes a freezing of the senses and vision - the disconnect from real living. Hope is the warmth that brings the thaw and restores life.
In Henri Nouwen's book The Return of the Prodigal Son I felt he spoke of legalism when he described the elder son's outlook.
There is so much resentment among the "just" and the "righteous". There is so much judgement, condemnation and prejudice among the "saints". There is so much frozen anger among the people who are so concerned about avoiding "sin".
This last line there is so much frozen anger among the people who are so concerned about avoiding sin - very very powerful.
Perhaps that is the place I will stop today and ponder more. How does the spring thaw of love and grace bring hope to release us from the frozenness of legality?
No comments:
Post a Comment