RELIGION, CURRENT EVENTS, OPINION
I Am Not a But-less Christian
I’m about to disappoint my deacon terribly, and I wish I didn’t have to.
In church today, our awesome deacon gave the sermon. As always, she took her inspiration from the day’s gospel reading, which was Matthew 22:37–40. In this part of the Gospel a lawyer asks Jesus which is the greatest of all the commandments.
Jesus replies that the greatest commandment is to love God wholeheartedly, and the second-greatest commandment is to love one’s neighbors as oneself, that all the other laws are but restatements of these two. This pair of commandments, our deacon said, are easier to recite than to fulfill. She’s absolutely correct about that.
She once told a friend of hers that she wants to see more but-less Christians in the world. The friend gave her a funny look, so our deacon explained that she was tired of listening to Christians who essentially say, “Yes, I would happily follow God’s commandments, but…”
I get what she’s talking about. She doesn’t want Christians to make excuses for why they don’t follow the Commandments . She wants all of us to fully live up to them— and here I am, about to make some excuses.
She brought politics into the sermon. I hate it when clergy do this, because it takes a sermon from the…