Damn Bullhorns

Our Lord has a funny way of putting things in our lives.  I was driving downtown this afternoon and was around Pike Place Market trying to figure out directions with my girlfriend when all the sudden I was interrupted by a boisterous cry:

“TURN OR BURN!  YOU ARE GOING TO HELL!”

The offender was, of course, carrying a stereotypical sign with offensive slogans like, “Who Will Jesus Damn?” and “Comply or FRY!”  I found myself in the Lord’s good graces it would seem, because this week the “Christian” didn’t have his bullhorn.  Ah, Christians and their bullhorns…

I was surprised when I noticed that Philippians 2.5-11 was on the reading for today, and my mind was (naturally) forced back to sitting on the street corner listening to a supposed brother in Christ yelling, condemning and hating me.  Who do Christians think they are?

“Let the same mind be in you that was in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not regard equality with God as something to be exploited,”

In the military I struggled with the idea of killing another human, wondering why it was my responsibility to pass judgment, and it was only after countless prayers and hours meditating did I come to the understanding that that was the position God put me in.  Every time I pulled a trigger or issued a command, I felt all the weight of another life in my mind.  Men and women made in the image of God, a beautiful thing by any measure, and I was taking their glory from them.  Who was I, but appointed to struggle with their sinful, evil nature? 

It was in the struggle to understand that I realized it was the authoritative position that God put me in, and I was subject to that first. There was, and is, no pride in that.  No, it was a burden that in many ways still haunts me today.  I took, and continue to take, great comfort in the fact that it was my place to condemn them only in this world – not the next!  God places us in authority to govern wisely, and with love.  That authority is not something to be exploited, ever. 

“But emptied himself, taking the form of a slave, being born in human likeness.  And being found in human form, he humbled himself and became obedient to the point of death – even death on a cross.”

The authority we find in Christ is not something to hold over others with pride, taunting their every sin, worshipping their condemnation.  It is something to consider with the utmost humility. If the Lord humbled himself to death on a Cross, an act of love ‘so amazing, so divine’, who are Christians to think they can taunt non-believers.

It is so incredibly sickening and confusing to me that those who claim to be Christians could dwell so much on the sins of others.  It is one thing to understand God’s word and the consequences of living a life apart from the Messiah, but it is quite another to be satisfied in shouting condemnation to all people with such uncontainable glee and hate. Do they really believe their mantras?  Their smug quotes and strong voices indicate they do, but can they be filled with so much pride?  The more I read scriptures and experience trails, struggle through temptations and see the glory of God, I cannot help but feel akin to Paul as the worst sinner who has ever offered praise to Him.  Is it really possible that followers of the same Glorious King could be so perfect as to condemn all others to hell? 

It is little wonder Ghandi was so famously quoted as saying, “I would be a Christian if it weren’t for Christians.”

My prayer is that Christians everywhere humble themselves, giving the world and all its folly the same understanding that our Judge gives us.  We should be ashamed to do anything else. 

“Therefore God also highly exalted him and gave him the name that is above every name, so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bend, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

To God be the glory, Amen.