Playing with Fire

Friday, March 13, 2020

Don’t forget that you Gentiles used to be outsiders. You were called “uncircumcised heathens” by the Jews, who were proud of their circumcision, even though it affected only their bodies and not their hearts.  In those days you were living apart from Christ.  You were excluded from citizenship among the people of Israel, and you did not know the covenant promises God had made to them.  You lived in this world without God and without hope.  But now you have been united with Christ Jesus.  Once you were far away from God, but now you have been brought near to him through the blood of Christ.  For Christ himself has brought peace to us.  He united Jews and Gentiles into one people when, in his own body on the cross, he broke down the wall of hostility that separated us.  He did this by ending the system of law with its commandments and regulations.  He made peace between Jews and Gentiles by creating in himself one new people from the two groups.  Together as one body, Christ reconciled both groups to God by means of his death on the cross, and our hostility toward each other was put to death.  He brought this Good News of peace to you Gentiles who were far away from him, and peace to the Jews who were near.  Now all of us can come to the Father through the same Holy Spirit because of what Christ has done for us. Ephesians 2:11-18

In the early 1970’s Elizabeth and I lived in a neat little one-bedroom apartment.  Fondue was a hip thing for gatherings, so we decided to try it…gobs of cheese, tasty seasoned bread and a grease pot over the fire…what could go wrong?  The short answer is A LOT!  Russell hadn’t figured out that not knowing you don’t throw water on a grease fire was as bad as intentionally playing with fire.  The good news is nobody died, and we were allowed to keep our lease, IF Russell stayed away from the fondue pot!

The Apostle Paul covered this lesson for the church at Ephesus.  Whether you’re an insider or outsider, practicing your pride is not Christlike.  The Jews came to believe their circumcision was a matter of entitlement; they were God’s chosen, and that gave them special insider privilege to look down on the Gentiles.  The Ephesian group were Gentiles, outsiders to the Jews.  Paul told them they were also loved by God and accepted in Christ.  The contentiousness of insider and outsider pride began to obscure the whole point of God’s gracious forgiveness.

It’s as dangerous as playing with fire to let pride mingle in your midst; more so, actually!  Pride was Satan’s downfall[1] and the tendency to be prideful has been the eternal undoing of people ever since. 

In the current contentious spirit which exists among the tribe Methodist, pride is the fire-danger that is going to cost more than a few casualties.  In an elementary way pride permeates the tribe in two categories: 

1.     Traditionalists align with Pharisaical Jews, who claim we were here first!  To say that there is no room for progressives, or the pawns in this game, LGBTQ persons, is to exclude God from the possibilities.  The God who doesn’t change is also the author of all things new[1].

2.     Progressives imagine they understand the totality of what should be, throwing away everything the past has taught.  There is no room for restrictions on behavior, God’s Word notwithstanding.  The God who extends His grace and forgiveness also says go, and sin no more[2].

To dwell in either the righteousness of tradition, or the freedom of grace, without acknowledgement in our heart and behavior of the other is to play with fire.  To echo an old saying, fundamentalist rules-keeping destroys the grace of God, and licentious loose living tramples the grace of God. 

For You Today

I do pray we Methodists wake up before the fondue pot catches fire…again!

You chew on that as you hit the Rocky Road; have a blessed day!

Go to VIDEO 

Title Image:  James Tissot via Wikimedia  Unless noted, Scripture quoted from The New Living Translation©

For another post on this topic see The Strength of a Marriage

---

[1] See Isaiah 14:14

---

[1] See 2 Corinthians 5:17 and Revelation 21:5

[2] See John 8:11