Yes, I was one of the faithful horde who descended on the local Chick-fil-A en masse today around noon. I had a great chargrilled chicken cool wrap. Then I got to thinking. And I’ve been thinking ever since.
This is not to bash one side or the other, but to ask some very probing questions.
Did I go there out of a true spirit of love or did I go to prove a point or show my political beliefs in action? Is this something the real live, breathing Jesus of the Bible would have done, or just something that the middle-class, white, Republican Jesus would have done?
At the end of the day, Jesus will not ask us who we were against or how much we defended our free speech or how we let everybody know where we stand politically. He will ask, “Did you love the least of these? Did you love your enemies? Did you give to those who can’t ever pay you back?” At the end of the day, all that matters is this: did we love well like Jesus loved us well?
I will probably keep eating at Chick-fil-A, mainly because they have some amazing chicken. Not because of what the owner thinks about marriage, traditional or otherwise. Definitely not because I want to make some political stand.
When I see Jesus, do I want to tell Him that I stood up for the rights of a fast-food restaurant or do I want to tell Him that I stood up for the rights of the outcast, spoke for those with no voice, fed the hungry, took care of the sick, and in so doing, minstered to Jesus Himself?
I’m not sure what my point is, other than if I do anything at all, it should be out of 100% genuine love for Jesus and for all those He created and loved and died for.
I love what Brennan Manning writes concerning all this (or at least I think it relates quite well):
“The Lord Jesus is going to ask each of us one question and only one question: Do you believe that I loved you? That I desired you? That I waited for you day after day? That I longed to hear the sound of your voice? The real believers there will answer, “Yes, Jesus. I believed in your love and I tried to shape my life as a response to it. But many of us who are so faithful in our ministry, in our practice, in our church going are going to have to reply, “Well frankly, no sir. I mean, I never really believed it. I mean, I heard alot of wonderful sermons and teachings about it. In fact I gave quite a few myself. But I always knew that that was just a way of speaking; a kindly lie, some Christian’s pious pat on the back to cheer me on. And there’s the difference between the real believers and the nominal Christians that are found in our churches across the land. No one can measure like a believer the depth and the intensity of God’s love. But at the same time, no one can measure like a believer the effectiveness of our gloom, pessimism, low self-esteem, self-hatred and despair that block God’s way to us. Do you see why it is so important to lay hold of this basic truth of our faith? Because you’re only going to be as big as your own concept of God. Do you remember the famous line of the French philosopher, Blaise Pascal? “God made man in his own image, and man returned the compliment”? We often make God in our own image, and He winds up to be as fussy, rude, narrow minded, legalistic, judgemental, unforgiving, unloving as we are.
In the past couple of three years I have preached the gospel to the financial community in Wallstreet, New York City, the airmen and women of the air force academy in Colorado Springs, a thousand positions in Nairobi. I’ve been in churches in Bangor, Maine, Miami, Chicago, St. Louis, Seattle, San Diego. And honest, the god of so many Christians I meet is a god who is too small for me. Because he is not the God of the Word, he is not the God revealed by it in Jesus Christ who this moment comes right to your seat and says, ‘I have a word for you. I know your whole life story. I know every skeleton in your closet. I know every moment of sin, shame, dishonesty and degraded love that has darkened your past. Right now I know your shallow faith, your feeble prayer life, your inconsistent discipleship. And my word is this: I dare you to trust that I love you just as you are, and not as you should be. Because you’re never going to be as you should be.'”
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That’s a great question you asked yourself. I asked what my true motive was, too. Would Jesus have been at Chick-Fil-A? I suppose so. Jesus went everywhere where people congregated. He was in the temple all the time. The people in the temple didn’t always have good motives. He still went back. When political figures and influential powers tried to trick Him, call Him a liar, manipulate His words, and accuse Him of being a political agitator, He still went back. He wasn’t promoting political unrest, though it was going on around Him, He was promoting truth. To do that, He went where the people were. He kept speaking the truth. He said that the truth sets people free. He said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.” He loved us enough to tell us the truth, though it’s difficult to hear it and change. Do we love Him enough to tell others? We have the free speech to do it. In the very least, do we love Him enough to make it obvious that we stand for the truth He died to give us? Even though people don’t want to hear it, call us hypocrites, liars, manipulate our words, and accuse us of being political agitators? We call it standing for Christian values and beliefs, and that kind of disassociates us from the personal realization that no matter who I’m standing with in a crowd, my heart is exposed to the eyes of the King. That means, I may not agree with everybody in line with me at Chick-Fil-A, but I know why I’m there. I’m there because I love God’s way, and it’s what I follow in my life, and I want to have the freedom–and I want other generations to have the freedom!–to continue following God’s way. I love Jesus dearly because He first loved me to the core–of His life and mine. And I love every person created in God’s image (that’s everybody 🙂 ), and I want them to have the chance I’ve been given to know the truth and be free.
I think the very last line of your Brennan Manning quote is so true. I have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. What I should be is condemned to eternity without God. But God became man, Jesus Christ, and suffered, died, and rose again so that I wouldn’t have to be what I should be. And if I’m found faithful at the end of my life, God be praised that I am never going to be as I should be. I don’t think that’s what B Manning meant, though he’s right that we sometimes discount God by mistaken concepts of Him. He is able to do much with us when we stand up for His truth–even in the little things.
Beautifully said Rilla Z.