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Dalton
Roberts |
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If you asked 100 people to give you their definition of the word “Christian,” I am sure there would be some diversity among them. Some would say it’s a person who has accepted Christ as their personal savior. Some would add, “and been baptized.” Others would emphasize good works quoting James, “Faith without works is dead.” Some would say, “A person who agrees with the Apostle’s Creed and receives the sacraments of the church.” If there is only one way to become a Christian and to live as a Christian, someone needs to explain to us how we have come to have hundreds of denominations that have the same bible. Is it possible they are doing what Jesus warned against – following the letter and not the spirit of the words? Isn’t there a verse in there about “rightly dividing the word of truth?” To “divide” something means to split it open, take it apart and study it. To decide anything as important as who is a Christian should involve a lot of dividing and studying. My definition of a Christian would be consumately simple: a person who reminds me of Jesus Christ. Something about that person needs to bring pieces of the Sermon in the Mount to my mind as I observe their attitudes, their spirit and the way they live their life. I discovered long ago that a person can be straight as an arrow with their traditional doctrines and be intolerant and bitter as a quinine pill in their attitudes. They can quote the bible like a well-trained parrot and not have enough love in their heart to fill a thimble. Just today I heard of a man who had been well baptized in lemon juice and became a fanatic, sending tracts to friends he thought were “lost.” One longtime friend had been an agnostic during the course of their friendship and when this man’s wife told him her husband had died he said, “Well, I can forget about ever seeing him in heaven.” Minimally such a statement at such a time is the epitome of insensitivity. It would never remind anyone of Christ. I was a pall bearer at the funeral of a musician who certainly had a drinking problem. The preacher never so much as mentioned my musician friend’s name in his sermon, At one point in his remarks he pointed to the casket and said, “Now this ‘un over here …” and made it clear he had gone to hell. As I was standing outside waiting for the casket to be rolled out, the wife of the deceased came to me sobbing. I embraced her but said, “I am sorry I cannot comfort you right now. I am too angry.” She said, “It’s that preacher, isn’t it?” and I said, “Yes.” She said the boy’s mother wanted me to make some graveside remarks. She said, “His mother says she cannot stand to put him in the ground without someone saying something kind about him.” I told the little group at the graveside I had been raised in the church and the worst sin I ever have witnessed was the judging going on in the church despite Jesus’ specific command, “Judge not that ye be not judged for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged.” I said, “I played music with this man for years and I never heard him say an unkind word about anyone on this earth. So those who judge him may find themselves in a worse position than him because he was one of the most kind and unjudgmental men I have ever known.” I hope to not err in my thinking about what makes a Christian but if I must err, let me err in the direction of people who are full of love and sensitivity to the hearts of others. The longer we love and follow Jesus, the more we will remind people of Him.
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