The Classless Culture of Christmas

"Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

"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? How can you say to your brother, 'Let me take the speck out of your eye,' when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? 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.

- Matt 7:1-5, NIV

For lots of years, especially through high school, I used to wonder about all of those "art people". You know, the musicians, the artists, the drama team. Even the kids who always "got" the right interpretation of the works of say, a Shakespeare or Hemingway, or could read the raw emotions into a Van Gogh painting. Needless to say, I was never one of those people. I was into math and science and the matter-of-fact writing style of journalism. And that was all good. I couldn't relate to "that other group" and so I just didn't. And we all did just fine, thank you very much!

But things changed. I grew up. I began to like music for more than just the tunes. I married somebody who had always made it a point to hang out with all those "artist types". I started to appreciate great writing when I saw it. And something else. I learned about life. And emotion. And struggles. And pain. And you know what it made me start to do? You guessed it... I began to write songs.

And suddenly I was "one of them".

You know what? I became "one of them" again. Just this weekend, in fact. Our church's innocent little Santa event at Green Acres has affected me huge. Maybe it's the spirit of Christmas, as they say. Maybe it's just my emotional state. But it may well be God, and I cannot afford to take the chance that it isn't. You see, in the middle of doing the photography and wishing people a Merry Christmas, and surrounded by activity in every direction, I felt something. Something that has been right there in my heart all along, but something I could never really own up to all the way...

I've classified you. You and everybody else. I've put you in one of two categories: "know Jesus", or "no Jesus". Now, before you stone me for heresy, of course I know that there are people who know Jesus (and need to) and people who don't know Jesus (and need to). And of course I know that this is what the gospel is about - bringing people into fullness in Jesus. But I can most assuredly tell you what it is not about: classifying people.

Yeah, you read that right. Classifying (which is judging) is a human epidemic going all the way back to the garden of eden and the tree of knowledge. When we "classify" people, what we are doing is classing them out of "our class", so we don't have to deal with the responsibility of their lives in relationship to ours. This is what Adam did when God asked him about whether he had eaten the forbidden fruit. Such a display of alpha-maleness: "...the woman You gave me - she's the one who made me do it." (paraphrase mine)

Here's the problem with judging: it automatically blinds you to any possible good you can do the person you're judging. Judging is a mechanism that works like this: since I am insecure about my own worth, I need to perform and "earn" your approval (or God's). You will either accept what I do to perform for you and/or become a resource in my doing it better (in which case I judge you to be good and I will use you for my benefit), or you will reject what I do and/or compete and hinder me from performing (in which case I judge you bad and I will push you away or harm you). Bottom line: I judge because I have to come out looking good, which in a me-centered world usually means I have to push somebody else down and out to do it.

Judging also has this nasty little habit of coming back on you. And so then you have to fire back. And so goes the blame game until everybody is so rejected we all have to go to counseling and medication to feel good about ourselves - or anybody else for that matter. And then there is the societal escalation of judging... prejudice. This is pre-judging people by "classifying" them in groups defined by race, ethnic origin, socio-economic status, even physical attributes. And as Christians, we're real quick to say it's wrong, but let's be honest... if you're not of Middle Eastern roots, do you still feel the same way about Arabic or Middle-Eastern people in your community since 9-11? Really?

Now I'm going somewhere with this. You see, I think - no, I know - we have classes set up in church. I'm not talking about Sunday school here. I'm talking about the way we construct a culture in a church (and all churches have culture; we have one within BCC) so that we - the "haves", the "in" people, the "core" - can be comfortable about where we are with God and with our own particular sins. In other words, where we fail to execute True Love.

For just one example, a particular church might have a strong anti-gay culture or a pro-life culture or a anti-drinking culture. And you can pretty much bet that Those Who Know Best are not going to be struggling with sexual identity or abortion issues or alcoholism (at least not in any revealing way). But among even the leaders there might be some blatant violent over-the-top authoritarian fathers and within the body a majority of people who aren't entirely honest on their taxes or some who are maybe extremely overweight. In this example, these things may well largely be overlooked, or at least people will be accepting of each other as they "struggle" with these sins. These issues may be preached on from time to time, but if they're non-threatening to the culture you'll hear people excuse themselves with something like, "oh, God knows I'm working on being more patient at home", or whatever.

Now, there are obviously differing levels of consequence for sin and I'm not saying that some are not more harmful (although which are treated more extensively and heavy-handed in scripture is entirely debatable, and you might be surprised to find where the emphasis gets placed... anger issues just about always make the worst of the lists, for example!) than others. But sin is sin is sin in God's eyes. And love is love is love. And our cultures tend to be very sin-selective in which sins get "managed" and which ones get hammered. This means if my sin is on the "out" list, I'm not going to be accepted or given the time to work through my issues in the way you will be with yours. In other words, the struggling homosexual will have a whole lot more trouble in a church like the one described above, because he will find himself "classed" out!

So what are our "classes" at BCC? I don't know for sure, but I think we have shown tendencies to judge people who have more wealth, traditional or extremely untraditional frames of reference about church, and people who haven't gone through their "fair share" of pain. There may be more or I may just be seeing things a bit skewed, but I'd like to know what you see. Cause you know what? I want to help make BCC a classless community!

At Green Acres on Sunday, you know what I saw? I saw love and in it I saw God. In and around the lives of people who may or may not have been believers. I saw the same kind of "God-things" around some of the more "classed-out" types of people that I would expect to find flowing from a Christian: joy and gentleness and giving - and love! I am becoming so convinced that God's love is so permeating of everything and everyone (people made in His image, of whom Paul wrote in Acts 17, that in Him we all live and move and have our being). And, again, shoot me for heresy if you will, but I saw something else - we are so much all the same!

We all have the same hopes and fears and struggles and need for acceptance and somebody who understands us and loves us anyway. We all face the same mountains and giants and tendencies to addictions and persistence of fleshly battles and demonic attacks. And we all have access to the same love from the same God through the same Son who still today is saying that our sins are no longer held against us,and He is begging us all to be reconciled to Him (2 Cor 5)!

I felt a connection with the Spirit of God who loves each and every person on this earth. And I felt a connection with the souls - the hearts - of those beautiful people at Green Acres. Those people with whom we have been called to join at the intersection point of our souls and lay down our lives as Jesus has laid down His life for us. And it doesn't matter what color, nationality, religious background, gender or social status label you may wear. It doesn't matter if you accept God's good news or not (but He'll make it hard for you to say no!) It doesn't matter if you ever even think of becoming part of BCC. it doesn't matter if you ever "get your act together" (whatever that means).

There is a love here for you, whoever you are. And I recognize that love in my own heart. It is of God and it came from God and it is there for you. And it is outrageous! And so I refuse to judge you anymore. I refuse to classify you anymore. I refuse to see you "inside" or "outside" - in fact, I want you to belong, even before you believe! I want to know you... be in your story.... feel your heart... share the stuff of life as God directs.

And, as we seem to be on the road to more and more association with the emerging church movement in some significant ways, I can say that what I love about this movement is its humility about not having all the answers and its near-obsession with Jesus and His life. Jesus is the one who models for us what God does. And what do we see? We see Him bringing everyone He touches into a new revelation of God's love. A love that never quits and never fails. A love without limits. And He invites everyone in the celebration and dance of that very love that exists between the Father, the Son and the Spirit. And that to me is outrageous!

I just want to love. And to have a culture where love is classless. Maybe that's why Christmas is so special to the whole world - for a little while we somehow transcend our judgment just to love and to give. And that's beautiful. And it's classless. And because it is, it transform lives into the glory of God, purposefully and over time. And that is what makes it outrageous.

I want to be that outrageous all year in this community. Can we love that well? Let's decide to. Jesus already has!

Live Courageous!