Making Space for Life (Making Space for the Gospel)

November 29, 2018 Roland Kuhl 4 Comments

Met at JavaVino again this past Sunday, hopefully what will become a regular habit of gathering at table for breakfast and conversation about making space for life in our lives, particularly life in the way of Jesus. To guide our conversation we read passages of Scripture from the Revised Common Lectionary (see https://lectionary.library.vanderbilt.edu/) in which we explored the following texts: 2 Samuel 23:1-7, Psalm 132:1-12, (13-18), Daniel 7:9-10, 13-14, Psalm 93, Revelation 1:4b-8, John 18:33-37

There seems to be a lot of judgment in this week’s texts – in Daniel, the Revelation text, and Pilate with Jesus. Judgment has a way of stifling life, rather than making space for life, but our discussion took a turn away from how we might normally think about judgment and how that relates to our understanding of the life of God that is expressed through the Gospel. Often we view judgment negatively, and it’s not hard to see what that is, but I wonder why that is? Probably that is how we normally experience judgment, I know I have. I do not appreciate having my ideas, attitudes, behaviors, who I am, disparaged or condemned. I do not appreciate coming up short, being shown how I do not live up to the expectations of others. Yet, these texts also seem to express praise, glory and worship. An odd combination this pairing of judgment and praise.

The texts seem to juxtapose grace and glory with judgment. We read King David’s final words where he expresses God’s anointing on his life, while history tells us that he acted in ways that would have gotten him impeached in today’s political climate – making House of Cards, seem like an episode of a 1950s sitcom. If anyone was deserving of judgment and condemnation, it would have been King David. Yet, we see God being gracious to him, forgiving, and King David is even recognized as being a favorite of the Strong One of Israel, a favorite of God’s

Is God playing favorites, or is indeed God’s M.O. to be gracious and forgiving in the midst of our brokenness, especially when we are morally corrupt? As we put that thought and question at the back of our mind, these passages seem to continue to mix judgment with grace and it leads me to wonder how do we make space for the life that comes through the Gospel that celebrates the life of Jesus?

Often, we wear the Gospel, as priests, who are described as being clothed with righteousness (cf. Psalm 132:9). How we wear these righteous clothes depends upon what we do with righteousness, with what the Gospel actually reveals. Do we wear righteousness to show that we are better than others, do we wear it arrogantly, to show that we’ve got it made and others are falling short, i.e., wearing righteousness as a garment of judgment, condemnation? Many experience the Gospel shared in such a way in our culture, but I wonder if they have actually heard the Gospel of Jesus. Or do we wear the Gospel and righteousness in gratitude, in grace, in recognizing that God has been magnanimous and forgiving, that God goes out of God’s way to love us, to pour out life into our lives, to heal us and set us free. Do we wear righteousness in such a way that we reveal the grace and goodness of God, i.e., wearing a garment that is reflective of God’s passion for us?

Stanley Hauerwas, in his collection of essays in A Community of Character: Toward a Constructive Christian Social Ethic (1981) presents an image of those in Christ being a mirror in society. By that he meant not mirroring society so that there is no difference between God’s people and society – saying carry on as you are, we’re no different than you, but, rather, a kind of mirror that when others look upon God’s people they see the presence of a different reality, a different way of being human – which, is meant not to lead to condemnation, but to see what the fullness of life can actually be like.

John 3:16 is often plastered onto a placard at football games or other sporting events, to declare to people that they need Jesus, but it often is interpreted as a judgmental statement – “we’ve got Jesus, you don’t.” But that is not the whole story. John 3:17 expresses that Jesus came into the world, not to condemn the world but to save it, to set it free, to make things right in the midst of the brokenness we all experience every day.

Maybe God does judge us, but it seems to be a different kind of judgment that we normally experience. We often think of God staring down at us judging us to ensure that we never have joy in life, but in the language of these passages this past week, God’s judgment is of a completely different nature. God’s judging is entwined with love, radical love – concerned with leading people to see what they don’t see, to bring to light what is kept in darkness. God judges, but not to condemn; God judges with grace and love in order to lead each one of us (and all creation) into a new creation reality – where our lives make space for life that can only be expressed as LIFE.

In light of this, how do we make space for this kind of life in the world, the kind of life that the Gospel expresses, in the world? We do not make space for the Gospel by using it as a hammer, hammering out sin, hammering out all that we morally disagree with. Rather, we make space for it, by expressing it as a message of hope, of Good News (what Gospel actually means) so that people can discover the true nature of life, exchanging all the huckster promises of life, for life and is LIFE. We make space for such life in culture, by living into it, clothing ourselves with this LIFE, as we walk with others, as we go about doing what we do everyday, as we meet with friends, as we encounter strangers, as we befriend those who hate us. In so doing, we express a different kind of judgment on a broken world – not condemning, but sowing hope, joy, peace, grace and love. To understand the Gospel is to understand that this is what Jesus embodied in life and ministry, even in his death on the cross and through his resurrection.

Therefore, the people of God are to wear clothes of righteousness, not clothing that expresses hate and condemnation of others, but clothing that extends an invitation for others to open themselves to the Spirit of LIFE into their lives. The fact is people do not need others to judge them, we already judge ourselves enough. What we need, what everyone needs, is to be invited into places where we can experience acceptance, love, and the transforming presence of God who leads us into the fullness of life.

We make space for the Gospel, we make space for life, by sharing our garments of righteousness with those clothed with garments that bind and oppress. By sharing our garments of righteousness, we sow peace, sow life, and make space for the Gospel of life in the places where we live.