STEP ONE: BREATHE

Take a deep, cleansing breath. Allow the air to fill your lungs and expand your body. Exhale and empty yourself into the room. Repeat three times - once for the one who Created you, once for the Incarnate One who walks beside you, and once for the Spirit whose life fills your being.

STEP TWO: DWELL IN WORD

“The measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you.
”

— Mark 4:25

WEEDING

Judgment. Whenever someone brings up the word "judgment," it seems to dampen the conversation. It makes us uneasy. I have also noticed that it seems to divide folks into opposite camps.

On the one hand, the pro-judgment folks seem all too enthusiastic. According to them, what this world, with all of its chaos, ambiguity, and danger needs is a little more hellfire-inspired order. With nostalgic glee, these folks want to return to yesteryear’s firm rules about conduct and behavior. They will maintain that we’ve gotten too soft with our religion. There is too much talk about God’s love and not enough emphasis on morality. They want greater accountability—usually from others—in all spheres of life including the sacred.

If the word “judgment” animates those on the right of the spectrum, it has quite the opposite effect from those on the other side. When the word judgment is spoken these folks cringe. For them, grace— God’s unconditional love—is, well, unconditional. Everything is forgiven and accepted.

With iconoclastic fervor, these folks want to eliminate judgment altogether. Who is anyone to pass any judgment on anyone else? Ultimately, universal forgiveness makes any conversation about judgment mute.

Forgiveness and acceptance are needed most in our messed-up world. Instead of building walls, we need to lessen all the barriers that keep people from one another. Fewer rules will allow freedom to purge fears and suspicion. They want greater liberty—usually for the ones on the margins—in all areas of life including the sacred.

Even though neither side readily acknowledges it of the other, both the pro-judgment and anti-judgment sides read and use the Bible. Their interpretative lens and conclusions, however, are so diverse and contradictory. Sadly, each side’s engagement of scripture has the effect of increasing the chasm between both positions.

Folks are quick to highlight their favorite passages concerning judgment or anti-judgment. There are enough mutually exclusive passages to go around and widen the impasse. Both sides can quote and debate the whole day long without convincing the other. Wielding the Bible battle-ax will bloody bodies, but it is not likely to win the day.

I could ask you, where do you find yourself in this sacred struggle? If you really want to tell me, I’d listen. But honestly, I’m not all that interested overall in debating the concept of judgment with you. Here’s why. Discussion of judgment will eventually get to the whole issue of salvation.

Many Christians obsess about what will happen when they or their loved ones die. Will they go to heaven or hell? What is the eternal judgment that God will hand down upon their souls? Worry and angst barge into hearts struggling with these questions. Souls obsessed with these dark, disturbing thoughts are more likely to shut down and turn inward than they are to open up and risk loving others. From my experience as a pastor, hell-inspired thinking can lead to separation and unbridled judgment of others.

What I would rather talk about—and where I will be heading with this chapter’s parables—is the favorable role judgment and accountability can play in our spiritual lives alongside the ever-present abundance of grace. I will be staking out the middle ground between the poles of judgment and mercy.

I need to raise a warning flag. There is a good chance that I might disappoint you. If you have firmly planted your feet in either the pro- or anti-judgment group, then you may not like where I’m heading.

If you are a brimstone aficionado, you will notice that I leave the back door open. Salvation is not of our doing and will always come as the abundant and reckless gift of God. The fires of hell burn but the waters of grace are sufficient to put them out.

On the other hand, if you are an “anything goes” and “everything is good” sort of person, you will notice that I will be lifting up the rule of love as a guiding principle that comes with accountability and responsibility. Love is, after all, the rule of Jesus. Christians are accountable on the basis of love. Love mandates, guides, and forbids. “Anything does not go” because everything is not loving.

Unloving words and actions are inconsistent with the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. Hatred of any sort is not good and deteriorates the spiritual health of individuals and church communities. We need to be on our guard against both the overt and less obvious forms.

I seek balance and a positive application of judgment in spiritual living. This is what Jesus does. Parables that might seem at first glance to advocate harsh judgment are alongside parables that speak of abundant grace. I think that this is on purpose. Jesus invites us into the paradox of faith. For the law-loving Pharisee (in all of us), Jesus’s parables pull in the direction of God’s overwhelming forgiveness. For the freedom junkie (again, in all of us), Jesus’s parables pull us toward greater accountability and action.

So this is the “judgment” chapter. The parables that lie ahead will challenge us to follow Jesus’s mandate to love the other—family, friends, neighbors, acquaintances, strangers, and even the enemy. They hold up a mirror so that we can look at our unloving selves and do some critical reflection. Implicit in them is the call of repentance and God’s promise of forgiveness. We are invited to turn anew to the love of God and allow it to transform.

It’s going to be hard and, at times, might even border on harsh. Are you willing to sit on the edge of the garden plot, like the Lichtenberger house cat, Celia—embrace rather than discard? Can you allow these everyday illustrations to inform your faith and provide some balance?

For the gardeners among us, this is the difficult work of weeding.

STEP THREE: PRAY

Gracious God,

I get distracted and stray away from your ways. At times I’m not even aware of how far I’ve wandered from your love. At other times, I am willfully disobedient. Forgive me and have mercy upon me. Redirect my steps so that they head in your direction.

Through Jesus Christ, amen.