Stained glass windows
I think, the more you know, the less it feels like you have a grip on reality.
Culture.
I have my own stance of drinking. I think the American church has come a long way since the Prohibition. We no longer condemn a culture that indulges in a few fermented beverages here and there. I have had my own trails and tribulations with drinking and ‘partying’. I have settled my own cognitive dissonance when it comes to these issues. I like to quote Jesus, it is not what goes into a mans mouth that makes him unclean, but God looks at the heart of a man. Yes, lots of people indulge in too many things as a form of escapism.
Sometimes habits form and a form of subconscious slavery takes root, and people do not know how to change. I know from personal experience. Yet, as much as we want to blame a substance for our own problems, to do so would be ignorant. As much as we want to draw a line in the sand, and delineate right from wrong, that doesn’t leave any room for grace.
This month as we have been going house to house, ‘spreading the good news’, throughout Kafue. In doing so I have encountered two reoccurring questions.
What Church do you attend & is drinking a sin?
Both of these questions make my skin crawl.
I have not been a part of a ‘denominational’ church for maybe 15 years. So I am not here with an agenda/doctrine to spill…just Christ and Him Crucified. Which of course is a gospel of grace and mercy, unfailing love, acceptance and not judgement or condemnation. That the lamb was slain before the foundation of the earth, and we have been given the greatest gift ever, the spirit of christ jesus that is married with our spirit.
Yet here, everything is denomination. Christians. We keep isolating ourselves instead of including each other.
So as the conversation goes the way of spilling out their beliefs, “OH I am a JW” or “I’m SDA”, to which I would always reply, “That’s great”.
I am not here to fight about doctrine, I am here to include everyone. I am not here to preach at you how ‘wrong’ you are, I am here to love on you. I got more loving responses, when I will tell a very dark, very poor man that we were the same because we have the same spirit…the spirit of christ.
The next question disturbed me even more.
As I finish my spiel, after the family politely asked me to deliver the ‘word’, a man looks up at me with expectant eyes and says “is drinking a sin?”
I go on to say, no. I quote the Bible, several places. Talking about how a single action can not be a sin, but the intention of an action can be. That it is about your heart, more then anything else. Sin? Sin in general is already a hard thing for me to grasp, sorry, ill say it. And sure yeah, you can give me a nice cliche about sin is not being with God. But one action can never do that. EVER. God says nothing you can do can separate you from the love of God. That God is found in the heavens and the depths of Sheol…God is everywhere, in everything, seeing you and loving you, giving you grace, with the judgement of mercy. I believe as Christians we live without sin, ever…because we are constantly connected to Christ and ergo the Father through the Holy Spirit. However, there are still things Christians can do that can be unhealthy, but it doesn’t mean they are in sin, separated from God.
Is drinking a sin? For me, no. Now is it healthy for me to consume copious amounts of liquor, and paint the town red, black out and make awful decisions I will regret in the morning?…No…obviously not. But was the act of drinking a sin? no. The condition of heart was the problem to why I went out and lost all control.
So after we, my translator and I, got up and left, we ran into Nano and his team. There we encountered a drunk man who stumbled toward us saying how much better he was then us. Well obviously he would say that, if I was that higher then the Empire State Building I would say the same thing. Nano went to work right away, and I moved on. My translator found this to be the perfect opportunity to tell me how wrong I was, and how the Bible clearly states that drinking is a sin.
I didn’t argue. There was no need. I am not here to argue.
It was there I saw how much culture and perspective play in this game of inclusion.
I am not from Zambia. I do not know how the Christian culture works here. I am not here to change you, that is not my job.
I started this ‘Race trying to have more empathy for other Christian believers.
During Training Camp they had a night of forgiveness, and I asked for forgiveness from the entire Church. I have judged the Church too hard in the past, putting them on a pedestal they can never live on, an unrealistic expectation, a higher standard.
I knew that I would encounter different ways of Christian thinking out here, and I did not want to be hindered by my own stubbornness.
Yes, the World has many different versions of Christianity, some I would say were archaic ways of thinking, some that lean more towards traditional, and some that lean more towards the wailing and weeping.
I think through this month, here in Zambia, I have learned that many cultures have different ways of doing things, and who am I to judge them.
I think all of us are Christians. We are all just different shades.
Like a beautiful stained glass window, we are all different colors.
The window would be boring if it was all one color.
There is beauty in the diversity.
Something I am continue to learn over the past & coming months.
