Taizé or Stormfront?

Taizé is an ecumenical order of monks who take their name from the village the community is located within – brothers from all different Christian denominations, promoting Christian unity, peace between all people, with missions in poor communities throughout the world.

Stormfront was the first major hate site on the Internet, once boasting 300,000 members and focused on white supremacy and racial extremism.

Who will we be?

Well-known Christian author Philip Yancey visited President Bill Clinton when he was in the White House, at a time when his moral shortcomings had been exposed very publicly.  Clinton, a Southern Baptist from birth, told him, "I've been in politics long enough to expect criticism and hostility. But I was unprepared for the hatred I get from Christians. Why do Christians hate so much?"

It was this interaction that prompted Yancey to write his famous book “What’s So Amazing About Grace?” On the back cover, the following truth described in the book prompts the reader to think deeply:

There is nothing we can do to make God love us more and there is nothing we can do to make God love us less.

This is a reminder of grace that is extended to us by God, and embodied in the life and person of Jesus. Completely undeserved, unearned, impossible to repay, God extends unrestrained and infinite love in EVERY person’s direction.

As Christians – especially if we’ve been believers for much of our lives, hardworking, God-honouring and selfless, we can often find ourselves adopting the line of the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son:

All these years I’ve been slaving for you and never disobeyed your orders. Yet you never gave me even a young goat so I could celebrate with my friends. But when this son of yours who has squandered your property with prostitutes comes home, you kill the fattened calf for him!

Yancey calls this attitude “ungrace”.  It is the moment when God expects us to reflect His heart, and instead we turn our thoughts inwards and consider why the other is less than us and needs to be reminded of that.  That is not the call of God on His people.  God calls us, as His imagebearers, to reflect His character to the world. 

God calls us to exhibit grace – as He always does – to every single person we meet.  As we are imperfect, and always growing to be more like Him, this means to love more than we previously have, to forgive more than we previously have, to do unto others only what God would have us do – in selfless and unrestrained generosity, expecting nothing in return.  Love that is unconditional, not transactional; love that mimics Jesus, instead of dishonouring Him.

Will we love the new convert, in all their angular awkwardness (because they don’t know how to say “Christian things” properly) as much as we love the grandparent who has been a Christian for over 60 years, and has always been such an upright and perfect example?

Will we love the man down the street, who we have just met, who is most likely an alcoholic and is already proving to be a very difficult neighbour?  Will we love him as much as we love our own family?

Will we love that person we have just met, with their fractured English, as they struggle to explain their understanding of Scripture?  Will we love them as much as we love that friend who seems to be so wise and insightful about so much in the Bible?

Will we love the homeless, the destitute, the violent, the desperate, the hopeless, all those who make us feel very uncomfortable and insecure?  Will we love them as much as the most beautiful, the most presentable, the sweet-smelling, the smiling, the peace-making, the generous?

God gives us no choice – the answer must be yes.  How do we do this?  I think the answer begins by asking (as many of our young folk do, at school, each and every day), “What would Jesus do?” and then act in that understanding. Extending grace in every direction, all the time, not counting the cost, but seeking the joy and fulfilment that it brings.

Let’s be that group of Christians.

Shalom.