Things that Come in a Box

Cereal
Appliances
Books
Rings

People
Genders
God

The human brain is very good at classification and pattern recognition. Based on even a very small amount of evidence the brain can leap to a conclusion. This is good for avoiding being eaten by a tiger, but not so good when it comes to our relationships with others.

One doesn't need to look far to see how even the church tends to box, classify and divide people. There are groups for youth, groups for elderly, for women, for men, for singles, for college singles, for career singles, for the "re-singled", and so on down any set of classification you wish to explore. Take a look at Christian bookshelves. One example in point: "Every man's battle: winning the war on sexual purity." Really? Every man's battle? Classifying sexual purity as a male issue seems, generously, to be a viewpoint at least 50 years behind the times if not more, which I suppose is par for the church as a whole.

Sometimes it makes sense to group and classify. For example, those struggling with particular addictions or traumas can receive great benefit from a community focused on that particular issue. But due to the nature of our minds, it is also exceeding easy to go much further down the road of division and classification than is really beneficial to anyone. Its easy to ignore someone's opinion once you've labeled them as insignificant or even to treat someone as less than human once you've labeled them as such. We must always be on guard against these divisions, which Christ has reconciled in his body.

Forgiveness

I've been reminded recently of the profound interconnectedness of truth and love. Both Pope John Paul II and Pope Benedict have written about this inter-relatedness in varying degrees. The latter remarks even that in Christ, the expression of this interconnectedness becomes the "Face of his Person."

As I reflected on this, my thoughts turned to forgiveness. Perhaps in no other practice do truth and love so completely unite than when they result in mercy and absolution. Forgiveness does not deny one iota of the seriousness of an evil or the harm it inflicts on the innocent. This is truth. Nor does forgiveness forget the humanity of the offender or the price that Christ paid on their behalf. This is love.

Christ who was the incarnation of the eternal Word of God is also the incarnation of Truth. And through His divine nature, He is also the incarnation of Love for God is Love. These two aspects of the nature of God became flesh in Christ as the Face of his Person. In a way then, he is also the incarnation of forgiveness itself - the visible expression of God's love and truth. Forgiveness was ultimately the reason for His coming and it is no wonder that Christ has so much to say about forgiveness in the gospels.

Forgiveness, like all expressions of holiness, is mutually beneficial both to the giver and the receiver. The giver is freed from the chains of anger and bitterness while the receiver is freed from guilt. Likewise, the only alternative to forgiveness is mutually harmful to both parties. One path results in a life in chains while the other a life in freedom. Christ, in this way, expresses, models, and makes possible the freedom for which He came to set us free. What is most mysterious is why a life in chains ever seems so appealing?

Towards Knowing God

He defended the cause of the poor and needy,
and so all went well.
Is that not what it means to know me?
declares the LORD.

Jeremiah 22:16

Crazy

Rash.
Impulsive.
Not well thought out.
What if you're wrong?
Look at everything you'll be giving up.
Life is good, don't mess with it.

Well, what is the appropriate response to finding a pearl of great value?