Today's post is the final one in my series on The Lies That Led US Here, although a video will post tomorrow on this blog. We have spoken about some of the lies I believe have led US here, and where here is, and what we can do about it now. In considering a conclusion for this discussion, I wanted to leave with some hope. On some reflection, the only thing that came to mind that would lead us forward is this truth: "grace will lead US home." Perhaps grace truly is the only thing that can save US now. If we cannot find grace in our hearts towards others, we will not stand. If we cannot dignify the humanity of our fellow citizens and people of all the world, if we cannot learn to love even our enemies, we will surely fall.
In closing, therefore, my main thought is that grace is the only hope for US now.
But here we come to perhaps one of the biggest lies I've heard throughout this painful time in US history. I have heard the lie that, "God is sovereign, so whoever wins the 2016 election, God will work it together for good." This is the same thinking that justifies the Holocaust as a necessary evil, moving the Jews to a homeland in Israel, or justifies 400 years of slavery as a necessary evil in forming our country, or justifies the genocide of Native Americans living in America before Columbus, as a necessary evil for the "settlement" of America and its establishment as a nation. These are all evil lies, distortions of God’s character for personal gain. But the biggest lie of all is this irresponsible idea that God’s grace covers my sin, so it doesn’t really matter what I do. It’s ok if I support an abuser as president. (Perhaps this is why the Christians who support Trump are so angry and thankless: they know they are wrong and they are trying not to care.)
This lie is expressed in different ways:
“God knows my heart.”
“Who are you to judge? We are all sinners.”
“He’s a baby Christian.”
“He’s the pro-life option.”
“But Hillary.”
However it is expressed, the root lie is the same: “God will justify my sin of yoking myself together with wickedness, because the pro-life ends justify the evil means.” It was bad when they justified their vote this way, it was far worse when they refused to just be honest and say they were wrong, choosing either to dig all in for Trumpism or to demand forgiveness and reconciliation because, "God forgives sinners."
They missed the part about repentance. God does not ask Christians to do more than God does, and logically, God does not forgive the unrepentant, or heaven would be full of hell. Christians are to forgive others out of a mutual stance of repentance, and certainly they are to go so far as to love even our enemies. Certainly, a heart full of love and awe at the love of God for sinners, will forgive from the heart. But just as forgiveness and repentance are not the same, nor are an equal proportionate responsibility, forgiveness is not the same thing as reconciliation. We can forgive even our enemies, without reconciling with those who would continually seek to harm us. We need to learn this as a country, apparently, and most particularly in the evangelical communities that greatly contributed to getting US here.
Perhaps one of the most beautiful things about the America (that we were sold) is the genuine kindness we have expressed at times throughout our history. But it was not a kindness rooted in weakness, as evangelical cheap grace has led US to now. “Tear down that wall,” was spoken firmly, in an arguably loving defense of freedom.
The evangelical church in America has largely lost kindness, and they have lost the flavor of the gospel by losing grace. Their graceless narcissism, their refusal to humble themselves and repent, all of this has contributed to the harm of our country. As a voting base, they have sold out their neighbor, and they are not sorry.
So when I speak of grace, I want to underline that is cannot be the cheap grace that is sold in so many American churches. We need real grace. Grace that leads US home.
I want to share something about this grace, and I want to give you some homework. Please read more from Dietrich Bonhoeffer himself, not from Eric Metaxas or others who had an obvious political agenda in using his words. Read what he is saying here about grace:
"Cheap grace means grace as a doctrine, a principle, a system. It means forgiveness of sins proclaimed as a general truth, the love of God taught as the Christian "conception" of God. An intellectual assent to that idea is held to be of itself sufficient to secure remission of sins. [...] Cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession, absolution without personal confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ, living and incarnate." (pp 45-47)
"Costly grace is the gospel which must be sought again and again, the gift which must be asked for, the door at which a man must knock. Such grace is costly because it calls us to follow, and it is grace because it calls us to follow Jesus Christ. It is costly because it costs a man his life, and it is grace because it gives a man the only true life. It is costly because it condemns sin, and grace because it justifies the sinner. Above all, it is costly because it cost God the life of his Son..." (pp 47-48)
I believe these words are rich and deserve a lot of time to consider. We cannot simply excuse our choices in life, even those made in the best faith of all. Socrates was right: we have to examine ourselves, repudiate wrong beliefs, find a way to repent: change.
There is a quite significant difference between honest confession and mourning over sin, genuine hurt and expression of grief and righteous anger, strong language in response to abuse, protest action, and the cheap grace handed out every Sunday in mask-less congregations. Those “churches” (businesses) have clearly become nothing more than places where people honor God with their lips, but live lives of callous disdain for their neighbors, while claiming all along that their intellectual assent to the gospel makes them right with God and thus, all must accept them. To say you won’t worship in such places is far more offensive to these people than actual deaths of others. And they have the gall to call themselves Pro-Life!
The narcissism of those who kick others when they are down, who live unmoved by the grief of those who are bereaved, who value their high school football or freedom of movement over the lives of their community’s elderly and vulnerable, is sickening. It is no surprise they do not value our teachers or even our children, either. This is always where their first graceless and unloving compromise would ultimately lead US.
These are not political issues; gracelessness is a character issue. And actions always speak far more eloquently than any claim to faith. Narcissists cannot be grace-full, because they only demand grace for themselves, and they do not care to give grace to others. Just watch how they respond to you if you swear about abuse. They major in minors; their priorities are all wrong.
And yet, grace will lead US home. Grace can and will heal us, if we can get alone with God and weep this all out, then help others in community to do the same. We do not have to be in the same area of the world to have a community where grace is shared and lived. We can get through this as a family; grace is the way forward, and love is the only Way.
This grace is costly, and it cannot excuse sin. We cannot just all reconcile, if we are to truly heal. We have to go deeper than that. We have to acknowledge our sins. We have to repent individually and corporately. We have to refuse to legitimize abusers as leaders, and we have to rebuke abuse firmly. That is repentance for US. We have to rebuke and repent of the lies that led US here. We have to embrace a costly grace, aware of its significance, rooted in the loving sacrifice of God who is love. We have to throw off the hindrances and the sins that pull us down, and we need a grace, that can and will forgive, but unapologetically demands the hard work of repentance over time, before any process of reconciliation is begun.
The only way we heal is if we as a nation change.
The only way this heals is through a truly Amazing Grace.
15 Bear in mind that our Lord’s patience means salvation, just as our dear brother Paul also wrote you with the wisdom that God gave him. 16 He writes the same way in all his letters, speaking in them of these matters. His letters contain some things that are hard to understand, which ignorant and unstable people distort, as they do the other Scriptures, to their own destruction.
17 Therefore, dear friends, since you have been forewarned, be on your guard so that you may not be carried away by the error of the lawless and fall from your secure position. 18 But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be glory both now and forever! Amen.
2 Peter 3 NIV
Amazing Grace
1
Amazing grace! how sweet the sound,
That saved a wretch; like me!
I once was lost, but now am found,
Was blind, but now I see.
2
’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear,
And grace my fears relieved;
How precious did that grace appear
The hour I first believed!
3
The Lord hath promised good to me,
His word my hope secures;
He will my shield and portion be
As long as life endures.
4
When we’ve been there ten thousand years,
Bright shining as the sun,
We’ve no less days to sing God’s praise
Than when we first begun.
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