There’s Only Grace
What an interesting week… to see Halloween and Election Day within the space of so few hours. An exhausting week for many Christians, for sure! First we had Halloween / Reformation Day – that pagan-holiday-turned-harvest-celebration-mixed-with-Reformation-Day-marker. It’s a day that tends to divide us culturally. Even in my own small circle there was quite a mix of feelings– some who were excited to dress up (and frighteningly they did dress, too), offer candy to neighborhood kids, and eat lots of Halloween-decorated cupcakes. Some who were happy enough to put on a harvest/halloween youth event at our church, but wouldn’t have bothered to notice the day otherwise. And some who felt very opposed to the day itself and any celebration thereof.
What’s interesting… is that I could understand all of these feelings / opinions / spiritual leanings. I can understand the spiritual and even Biblical reaons for avoiding Halloween and any appearance of its celebration. But I also see the reasons (including spiritual and Biblical) for reaching out to our community youth by providing a fun, but safe and clean, event for them to participate in during this particularly dark day. And then again I absolutely understand the reasons (perhaps not Biblical, in the usual meaning of that word, but certainly spiritual) for enjoying dressing up and for reaching out to neighborhood kids and their parents through the old “trick-or-treat” routine. (I always wanted to be one of those Christians who hand out huge candy bars, instead of just the usual mini bars… but no kids EVER come trick-or-treating at my house. 😦 )
Well, funny thing, two days later we have Election Day. And here, rather than a debate over ghouls versus Luther, we have a debate over Republicans versus Democrats. But while few of us who call ourselves conservative Christians are probably fans of ghouls, there is a much greater spread of Christian opinion between Republican and Democrat. Granted, if facebook is any measure, we tend to be much more vocal on the side of the Republican party. And much more vocal against our Democrat “enemies.” And very happy to “vote Republican no matter what”… which scares me. Not the Republican part, but the “no matter what” part.
It bothers me because “no matter what” is a phrase that comes out of a hard-line, “only we are right” idea that I’m not convinced is Biblical. And even though I like to pick a side, have an easy decision-maker, etc…. I don’t think that kind of a hard-line policy is Biblical.
Sure, there are certain moral issues that it’s Biblical to be a hard-liner about. But there are also a lot of human issues that the Bible doesn’t specifically mention. Whether or not to vote for a Democrat (because, for instance, he/she has more experience) or a Republican (because, for instance, he/she is supposedly anti-abortion) goes strangely unmentioned.
I know that a lot of you are feeling a bit up-in-arms against me at this moment for that statement. And I know that there are a lot of arguments (some of them very, very good) for holding to a certain moral standard in how you vote. And I agree with many of those arguments.
But as it happens, how and why to vote is NOT what I’m writing about tonight. What I’m writing about tonight has ever so much more to do with the question of our reactions to Halloween and Election Day than it does who you dressed up as or voted for this week.
What I’m writing about is, quite simply, grace. Grace to allow others around us, particularly our fellow believers, to do and believe and vote the things they feel they need to– without our judging them. Grace to allow other opinions while holding strictly to our own.
It’s a tough balance. I’m still struggling to find it. But what I HAVE found in recent years is that when I hold to my strict opinions / beliefs / spiritual leanings and consider other Christians who DON’T hold to those opinions(etc.) to be in the wrong… well, suffice it to say, I wake up a year or two later and realize I was a fool. Most of the time, all it does is burn instead of build relationships. “Do not forsake the fellowship of the brethren,” says Paul, and yet here I am busily pushing people away because of how they dress, how they vote, or how they celebrate their freedom. Fellowship? More like siloship. When we hold so closely and tenaciously to our own viewpoints, and don’t allow others to hold to different ones, we close ourselves in a box. Whoever is outside that box– they don’t really count. They’re not really good Christians. They’re not really safe to be close to.
I lived for a lot of years in a narrow box of my own making. I have discovered since that (1) I made some very foolish assumptions from inside that box, (2) I lost out on some potentially powerful friendships because of that box, and (2) I lost time on doing some of God’s work because I wasn’t willing to work alongside others who weren’t in the box.
To me, whether it’s in regards to voting or to how you choose to celebrate (or ignore) the Halloween / harvest holiday, it comes down to this: do what is right according to your own personal walk with Christ. Stick absolutely to that. And then allow everyone else around you the exact same personal understanding and freedom.
If you’re still feeling like I’m off my Biblical rocker, I offer this passage (one of several bouncing around in my head the past couple days) in attempt to explain my particular view here.
1 Corinthians 8
Now about food sacrificed to idols: We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know. But the man who loves God is known by God.
So then, about eating food sacrificed to idols: We know that an idol is nothing at all in the world and that there is no God but one. For even if there are so-called gods, whether in heaven or on earth (as indeed there are many “gods” and many “lords”), yet for us there is but one God, the Father, from whom all things came and for whom we live; and there is but one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things came and through whom we live.
But not everyone knows this. Some people are still so accustomed to idols that when they eat such food they think of it as having been sacrificed to an idol, and since their conscience is weak, it is defiled. But food does not bring us near to God; we are no worse if we do not eat, and no better if we do.
Be careful, however, that the exercise of your freedom does not become a stumbling block to the weak. For if anyone with a weak conscience sees you who have this knowledge eating in an idol’s temple, won’t he be emboldened to eat what has been sacrificed to idols? So this weak brother, for whom Christ died, is destroyed by your knowledge. When you sin against your brothers in this way and wound their weak conscience, you sin against Christ. Therefore, if what I eat causes my brother to fall into sin, I will never eat meat again, so that I will not cause him to fall.
My time is short, and so is yours, so I’ll try to sum this up in a few key points.
1. “We know that we all possess knowledge. Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up. The man who thinks he knows something does not yet know as he ought to know.” I’m sorry, but no matter how spot-on we think we are, we are still human and still have LOTS of learning to do. And… gasp!… it’s possible sometimes we have the wrong “truths” put together in our beautifully human brains.
2. Some have “weak” consciences and some don’t. The next time we differ in spiritual opinion with a Christian friend or brother, perhaps we should do them the kindness of assuming that they’re not wrong… they just haven’t arrived yet at the place we have. Or perhaps we should do them the far greater kindness of admitting the possibility that things could be the other way around. Perhaps they’ve arrived somewhere we haven’t. But see point #4 for more on this.
3. It doesn’t make an ounce of difference whether you eat the meat or don’t. But if you flaunt the meat in front of someone who isn’t in a place of being able to eat meat, you might cause him to stumble in his walk. God absolutely forbid that we should do this to our brothers and sisters in Christ. So, friends, whether you vote R or D, whether you celebrate Halloween or not, and whether (fill in any one of so very many similar issues that exist in our all-too-human lives)– give your brethren mercy. Give them grace. If you can celebrate Halloween and they can’t, be merciful about it. Don’t be angry at them. And, on the other hand, if you can’t celebrate Halloween and your friends can, go light on them. Don’t assume they’re being spiritually ignorant. Just keep believing, keep loving, and use every last drop of grace God gives you. We’ll all make it through, if we ALLOW ourselves to.
4. “But the man who loves God is known by God.” This is the wonderful, wonderful news. God KNOWS every one of us and where we’re at spiritually. He knows whether we need to celebrate or avoid Halloween, vote one way or vote another, dress in skirts or in jeans, go to movies or not. And He’ll provide wisdom for us as we make our own personal decisions on these things. He’ll even provide role models for us where we’re at. And, greatly I praise Him for it, He’ll grow us when the timing is right. I wasn’t always in a place where I could do anything but live in that box of mine. But He knew me and knew where I was at. And so He helped me to grow, step timidly out of the box, and then remove the box completely (okay, ALMOST completely…)– in His perfect timing. So, going back to point #2– it really, really, really doesn’t matter whether you’re “further ahead” than your buddy, or your buddy is “further ahead” than you. That’s the least of our concerns. Leave that one completely and only to God. He’s perfectly capable of moving us all forward on the road in His timing… our job is just to be sure we’re on the right road, which means the road to deeper and truer love of Christ, more whole and more entire dedication of ourselves to Him, and more complete reliance on His wisdom and will for our lives.
After all… Halloweens and Election Days will come and go. Only He will remain.
Contagious Passion 
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