Thursday, June 16, 2011

When Have You Done Enough?

Scripture Passage that caught my attention today: Colossians 2:23 These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting self-imposed piety, humility, and severe treatment of the body, but they are of no value in checking self-indulgence.

Observation: people who propose the ‘shoulds’ are often misguided.

Application: An interesting part of church leadership sometimes includes the question of what qualifies a person to appropriately be called an ‘active’ and ‘voting’ member of a church? In many Lutheran churches an active and voting member is simply someone who has worshipped, received communion, and made a financial contribution of record at least once in the last year or two. Somehow that doesn’t seem to be a very high standard to meet!

On the other hand, some churches go to the other extreme, indicating such things as being in worship a certain percentage of the time, giving a certain percentage of their income, being involved in one or more small groups, serving in a particular ministry and the like.

Granted, these ‘requirements’ are not really about salvation but, rather, about what is required for a person to be considered an active part of a particular Christian community. Still, the question remains, are we just making up things that have the appearance of testing one’s level of commitment but ultimately “are of no value in checking self-indulgence?”

Scripturally it seems that when we strive to achieve the minimum level of commitment, Jesus demands more (The parable of the rich young ruler comes to mind where he said he had done everything Jesus said, so Jesus said all he ‘lacked’ was to give away his possessions, which, of course, he didn’t want to do.) and when people (or the law) demand more, Jesus requires less (the stories of the various ‘outcasts’ with whom Jesus associated come to mind).

There ought to be a better way of figuring out something more appropriate for churches to consider, but, alas, I’m short on ideas as well. I just know that no system is perfect.

Prayer: Lord, help us to value those who trust in you and challenge others to trust you more. In Jesus’ name. Amen.

(Readings today included: 1 Kings 17-19 and Colossians 2)

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