Pastors sometimes get surprising questions.
In his book The Good and Beautiful God, James Bryan Smith recounts a story he heard from his friend, Pastor Jeff Gannon.
A young woman called Gannon out of the blue and asked, “May I come to your church?”
What a question. “Of course,” said Gannon, who was surprised she even felt the need to ask such a thing. But the woman went on, “First you should hear my story.”
She had become pregnant during her junior year in high school. The baby’s father quickly distanced himself from her and from their child-to-be. She made up her mind to bring this little one into the world, and to take appropriate steps to getting her own life in order.
That meant going back to the church of her childhood. At first things seemed to go well. As the time of delivery drew near, she felt prompted to let the recent events of her life become a teaching opportunity. She asked the pastor if she could talk to the girls in the middle school youth group, speaking frankly about the pressures of dating and sex.
He was aghast. “No, I would never allow that. I am afraid that your type of person might rub off on them.”
That hurt. But she hung in there. When her baby daughter was born, she called the pastor to arrange a Sunday for the little girl’s baptism. “That is not going to happen in my church,” he declared. “I would never baptize an illegitimate baby.”
That’s when this young single mom asked Jeff Gannon: “Knowing what you know about my life, could I still become part of your congregation?”
The sheer insensitivity of this story may seem shocking. But as Smith points out, it’s far more common than you might think. Studies consistently reveal that more than half of American congregations operate as if God loves us only when we are good.
That means those who fall short are clearly damaged goods – and we mustn’t let them “rub off” on those who have all their spiritual ducks in a row.
The narrative of “God only loves those who perform” is utterly at odds with the stories of Jesus that we find in the gospels of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Jesus seems to go out of his way to eat, drink, and share life with the so-called dregs of society – prostitutes, tax collectors, survivors of failed relationships, and despised half-breed Samaritans. Rabbis may have consigned such individuals to God’s judgment, but Jesus insists that each one is worthy of a personal invitation to the party-like-no-other known as the kingdom of God.
A performance-based vision for spiritual life, Smith insists, “leaves us in a constant state of uncertainty and anxiety.” We never really know where we stand with God.
The good news is that this is not the story about God that Jesus tells.
In case you need a refresher course on the Bible verse that appears most often on posters in football endzones, John 3:16 is a beloved expression of God’s love and grace: “God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that whoever believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.” John 3:17 isn’t too shabby, either: “Indeed, God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world might be saved through him.”
It’s hard to imagine any better news.
The problem is that so many people can’t bring themselves to believe it.
Smith suggests that a great many of us think the Real Story goes more like this: “For God was so mad at the world that he sent his Son to come down and tell people to shape up, so that whoever would shape up might have eternal life. Indeed, God sent his Son into the world to condemn the world, so that those who try extra hard to shape up might be saved.”
Hogwash.
The New Testament proclaims two unassailable truths:
1. You are more lost that you can possibly imagine.
2. You are more loved that you can possibly dream.
Only when we take to heart the truth of Romans 3:23 – that we all “fall short” – seriously, dreadfully, cataclysmically short – of God’s holy expectations, are we able to grasp the reality-bending Good News of Romans 5:8 – that while we were still hopelessly stuck in the quicksand of our own spiritual failures, “Christ died for us.”
So what separates us from God?
In light of what Jesus accomplished on the cross, it doesn’t have to be our sin.
Instead, it’s our refusal to believe in grace – that God has forgiven us our sins and rendered meaningless the Performance Plan that so many of us assume is the only way we will ever see God’s smile.
And that single mom who was rebuffed by her pastor?
She went to Pastor Gannon’s church. Her daughter was baptized. She got an education. She devoted her life to sharing the good news. Today, she and her daughter are missionaries in Africa.
Have you heard a message of rejection?
The good news is that the bad news is wrong.
“God so loved the world.” That includes you. Believe it.
You are more treasured by the good and beautiful God than you can possibly imagine.
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