Thinking About Grace...Part 8

I'm increasingly convinced that what will destroy us as a nation is not an enemy from without but an enemy from within. And it's not any of the "usual suspects" that people talk about, any of the usual social issues that people get worked up over. No, actually, it's something much larger than that.

I've come to believe that what will destroy us is a lack of grace.

Now, I'm not a doomsday prophet by any stretch of the imagination. I'm often surprised when I am in a group and find that I am sometimes the optimist in the group. But I look around and see an increasingly grace-less world and I grow concerned.

By "grace-less" I mean intolerant.

Now, granted, "tolerance" is the word of the day. It's what we're told we're supposed to be and how we're supposed to act, but watch carefully and that "tolerance" only lasts as long as you agree with what the loudest (not the largest, the loudest) group proclaims.

Tolerance has come to mean "see it my way or else."

We live in a world in which one tweet of perceived "un-orthodoxy" can get a person fired. We live in a world in which something done personally can be used to shut down your business. And, if out of a particular conviction you choose to live or practice your craft in another way, our world will turn on the pressure and make your life miserable. We live in a world in which there is no forgiveness, no acceptance, and certainly no listening to one another. Do it my way, see it my way...or else.

No grace.

I wish this weren't true in the church, but it is. Certainly, for those of us who are followers of Jesus, there are essentials that we cannot compromise. Much of the time of the early church was spent dealing with heresy, particularly with doctrines and beliefs that discounted or denied the work of Jesus on the cross. There are facts of our faith that we cannot leave behind.

But there are other things, things we often argue about (worship styles, carpet color, how to do baptism or communion, and so on) that aren't essentials. The things that divide us are often not that important, though we sometimes treat those things like they are sacred Scripture. As I wrote in an earlier blog, we become like the Pharisees, making our own personal rules more important than the things that should bring and hold us together.

No grace.

I love the attitude of John Wesley, and not just because he was the first Methodist, but because he had experienced the reality of grace in his own life and offered it to others. He said we must not compromise on the essentials of the faith. We must not give up our belief in Jesus as the son of God, the only one who can and does save, but as for those other things, we should "think and let think." To others, he said, "If your heart is as my heart, give me your hand." If you believe in Jesus, that's enough for us to be brothers and sisters. The rest of the things won't matter eternally anyway. We may not all think alike, Wesley said, but we can all love alike.

Grace.

I don't know if our culture can change and can embrace true tolerance and grace. (Oddly, those who preach tolerance the loudest today in actuality seek to, as Kristen Powers wrote in USA Today, "enforce conformity of thought and to delegitimize any dissent from its sanctioned worldview.") But I know if the church is to be the "one body" Jesus longed for, we, his children, must put aside the unimportant matters and become people of grace. Maybe then we can lead the world instead of simply reacting to it.