The last couple weeks I have been led to ponder the balance between truth and grace. This started after attending a service at North Point in Atlanta with our middle school youth following the Believe conference. Th sermon by Andy Stanly that day was entitled "When Gracie Met Truthy" (http://www.northpoint.org/messages/christian/part-5) and was about the embodiment of both grace and truth in equal measure through Jesus and the tension that ensues when we try to exhibit both grace and truth in the model of Christ. Overall I liked the sermon, but the trouble arose based on the example Andy used to illustrate how this plays out at North Point ,which dealt with a homosexual couple and their attempt to serve in the church. It was really a poor example to use to get his point across in my opinion, but the real problem came in what the example appeared to say about North Point's stance on homosexuality. The story inferred that the gay couple could not serve because in fact one of the men was still married and therefore was now in an adulterous relationship, and failed to address the fact that the men were in a homosexual relationship which is also a sin but apparently did not preclude them from serving in the church.
So this raises the question which sins make you ineligible for positions of service or leadership in the church or for membership for that matter? How do we confront people and their sin with both grace and truth? Is this a question or issue of repentance? What would happen if an openly gay couple came to West Towne?
I have since had discussions which I probably would not have had otherwise. I have listened to other sermons (some intentionally and some by happen stance). I have seen some blog discussions about this which are mainly from Southern Baptist sources it appears, so provide a good counter point of view (Andy Stanley, the Megachurch, and Homosexuality, Andy Stanleys Soft Landing on Homosexuality). So, I believe this is a good thing and God is working. I am interested to see where this leads.
So I guess Andy Stanley's sermon's were influenced by his writing on his book "Deep & Wide". The leadership at WTCC are reading this book and Ron is trying to get the elders to read it as well. I have been trying to pick it up as I can, between other thing I am reading. Of course every time I do pick it up, God uses it to address where I am or where I am going at the time.
ReplyDeleteI just got to the chapter on Truth and Grace. I love what is said here. If reassures me that Stanley is on the right track and is not a heretic:
Churches designed for saved people are full of hypocrites. You pretty much have to be a hypocrite to participate. Transparency and honesty are dangerous in a church created for church people. Consequently, the casualty in a church for church people is grace. It's hard to extend grace to people who don't seem to need it. And it's hard to admit you need it when you aren't sure you will receive it.
On the other end of the church spectrum are those who declare that the church is for everyone, regardless of belief or behavior. These are the churches that value openness, tolerance, and acceptance above what more conservative churches would consider orthodoxy and orthopraxy. Growing up we called these liberal churches. The problem with this approach is similar to the problem with the more conservative view. You have to pick and choose which parts of the New Testament to embrace. The casualty in liberal churches is truth. Truth has such an absolute tone about it. Our culture has grown increasingly uneasy with the idea of absolute truth. If there is a right way of doing things, then there's a wrong way as well. Nobody wants to be wrong. So along with truth, sin becomes a casualty as well. But the New Testament is clear. We are not mistakers in need of correction. We are sinners in need of a Savior. We need more than a second chance. We need a second birth.
Not surprisingly, Jesus modeled the way forward. He left us with a remarkable approach for navigating the aforementioned tension. As an eyewitness of all Jesus said and did, the apostle John summarized Jesus' approach this way:
The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen the glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth. (John 1:14)
Three verses later he repeats this same idea.
For the law was given through Moses; grace and truth came through Jesus Christ (John 1:17)
I love that. "Full of grace and truth." Not the balance between, but the full embodiment of. Jesus did not come to strike a balance between grace and truth. He brought the full measure of both.