Barneyisfat

2 comments and then a blog.

I know that people get very excited about politics, especially the presidential office, but President's Day is not the type of holiday that merits a new car. No exceptions.

Julie Andrews = Amazing.

The Blog.

I gave up meat for Lent. It wasn't so much a fast as it was something to do and try. I support an Isaiah 58 view of fasting. I ate three hamburgers yesterday. It was a mistake.

That's how a lot of sin is. It isn't so much a David and Bathsheba sin, but a sin of omission or mistake. It's easy for a church to give a list of Shall Not's. It's easy to keep a score card. "Yep, I definetly slept with my secretary and coveted my neighbor's ass." It's a lot harder for a church to admonish the conregation to feed the hungry and take in the homeless. "Yep, Jesus said, 'you'll always have the poor' guess I'm off the hook!"

When United Methodists collectively confess in a liturgical fashion our confession doesn't focus on which rules we have broken ... it focuses on where we have fallen short. We have failed to be an obedient church. We have not loved you with our whole heart. We have not loved others.

There are a good number of sins that (although I believe they are sin) I believe we put too much emphasis on them. We think that murderers should be put to death, but Christ told us that we are all guilty of murder. Few people think that adultery is acceptable, but Christ made it quite clear that we all do it.

I think that what Jesus was getting at (among other things) was that following after God isn't a list of Shall Not's. Christ came to fulfill the law, well ... okay. What does that mean. There's more to God than the law. We disect our Savior until all that is visible is the law. We try and break down, theologize, exegete, and explain the life, death, and resurrection of our Savior ... and somehow we end up with a list of rules.

God isn't interested in how many rules we can follow or how well we can follow stated rules. He's interested in our hearts. Right now my heart's not where it should be. I haven't committed any "major" sins (or at least I won't admit to it!), but I have committed the sins of omission. I have failed to love God with my whole heart. I haven't fed the poor, clothed the naked, or visited those in prison.

I'd like to believe that it's because I'm too busy trying not to drink or that I've been consumed by the pursuit of not dancing - but I know that it is because my heart is still selfish. I'm working on it.