Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Sharing Faith, not judgment

One of our lectionary texts for this week is Romans 14:1-12:

Welcome those who are weak in faith, but not for the purpose of quarreling over opinions. Some believe in eating anything, while the weak eat only vegetables. Those who eat must not despise those who abstain, and those who abstain must not pass judgment on those who eat; for God has welcomed them. Who are you to pass judgment on servants of another? It is before their own lord that they stand or fall. And they will be upheld, for the Lord is able to make them stand. Some judge one day to be better than another, while others judge all days to be alike. Let all be fully convinced in their own minds. Those who observe the day, observe it in honor of the Lord. Also those who eat, eat in honor of the Lord, since they give thanks to God; while those who abstain, abstain in honor of the Lord and give thanks to God. We do not live to ourselves, and we do not die to ourselves. If we live, we live to the Lord, and if we die, we die to the Lord; so then, whether we live or whether we die, we are the Lord’s. For to this end Christ died and lived again, so that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living. Why do you pass judgment on your brother or sister? Or you, why do you despise your brother or sister? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of God. For it is written, “As I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall give praise to God.” So then, each of us will be accountable to God.
One of the central messages of this text is that we are called to accept that not everyone will believe the same thing as each one of us.  In fact, there is probably no other person in this congregation who believes exactly the same things about God in the same ways that you do.  But, if we are called to respect other's beliefs, does that mean that we should not evangelize?  Couldn't one argue that the simple sharing of one's faith is a violation of respect for the other's belief?

I think there is a middle ground between sharing your personal beliefs and forcing your opinions down someone else's throat.  I believe the most effective way to share faith is within the context of a relationship.  If you do not already know someone, if you haven't already formed a relationship and demonstrated that you care about them for who they are, why on earth should they listen to what you believe?  If there is an individual I do not know, and do not care to invest the time and energy to get to know, how dare I claim to care about what he believes?  If I awkwardly force my faith perspective into an otherwise casual conversation between strangers, I am doing it to satisfy some internal desire rather than out of true love for this other.  It is only when you

I was challenged this morning, however, by a video that seemed to demonstrate another way to share faith without casting judgment.  In the below video, Penn Gillette, who does not believe in God, talks about a positive experience in which he received a bible from a Christian:


Even though this individual (for ease, we'll call him George) did not have a relationship with Mr. Gillette, he was able to evoke a genuine since of caring.  How did he do it?

1.  He prepared for the experience.  George did not approach Gillette the first night, he took the time to go home, acquire a bible, write a personal note, and return to the show a second night.
2.  He waited for an appropriate moment.  Notice that George wasn't pushy, he didn't insist on being seen first.  He patiently waited and allowed the moment to come based on Gillette's needs, not his own.
3.  He sincerely gave a gift with no strings attached.  Mr. Gillette remarks several times that George looked him in the eye, seemed to care genuinely about him, and gave him the bible as a gift without asking for anything in return or demanding acceptance of a set of beliefs.
Now, given that Gillette reaffirmed his atheism, I suppose one could argue that this was a failed evangelism attempt.  I disagree.  Anytime we as Christians can offer faith in love and manage to withhold judgment, I think we've been faithful to Jesus' call to love our neighbor as ourself.  It is only then that we might claim that our tongues are giving praise to God.
h/t: Stuff Christians Like 



No comments:

Post a Comment