Point of Exclusion

This blog is designed to give people an inner look at a devotional life. Taking time each day to spend time with the Lord. The hope is if you travel on this journey with Rev. Jacob Shaw, you may be more inclined to spend time with the Lord as well. I encourage the use of a devotional, a scripture reading and prayer, then finally some form of artistic mark to tie it all together. 

Today's devotional is taken from: Zacharias, Ravi. The Logic of God: 52 Christian Essentials for the Heart and Mind. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2019. [E-Book] Chapter 3: Point of Exclusion

Opening Thought: This chapter challenges me, because it forces me to focus on a grievance I have with some philosophical ideas within my own Christian denomination. As a member of a liberal Christian denomination I see the value in inclusive ideologies. I believe these ideologies come from a welcoming place of the Spirit and are generally motivated by compassionate traits which hopes to avoid hurting anyone by eliminating barriers of exclusion. I believe this fits well with the message from Jesus, that calls us to make disciples of all nation, and the unification of the body of Christ from people of all walks of like as noted in Galatians 3:28. All people should have access to the gospel and the church, so that they can navigate their faith journey personally and in community.

A truth claim, which I hold myself, is that all people have an inherent value by the mere fact that they are born as human beings. That is why murder, theft or other element of harm or pain inflicted upon another is inherently wrong.  Also apart of this truth claim of mine is that people are entitled to respect and dignity from others, though this does not mean that people must like each other, agree, or affirm the other person beyond basic human dignity. Further to that point, each of these people also will have their own perspectives and beliefs and even though each of them begins life with an equal value as human, their ideas, actions, and productions are not equal. We still, in our respect for them as individual, should respect their perspectives, beliefs, and values, but we do not need to agree that they are true nor condone them. In my opinion, some who rally for inclusivity blur this line because they want all truths to be seen as subjective, that way no truth claim can exclude a person based on their beliefs or ideologies. As a result this flawed-inclusivity result in all beliefs, ideas and actions as being seen as equally right, and as a result no truth is more than an individuals perspective and objective truth is just not possible. 

Yes, each person has a subjective truth they believe in, but this does not mean it is equal to objective truth or that a subjective truth negates an objective reality, nor does mean that some subjective truths are not better than others. So, the grievance I have with this is that inclusivity can, in my opinion, run into the realm of the oxymoron, because you cannot include everything or everyone, because contradictions don’t include each other. 

If you say that rape is truly immoral (and I hope you do) and someone say that rape is moral, both those statements cannot be true. It is one, or the other, or there is another truth claim that is more accurate than both. I hope you all see that rape is immoral and we can agree to that. However, some people do not hold that opinion, if we qualified that opinion as equally valid then that open the doorway for many other issues.

To quote Zacharias, “Truth by definition is exclusive. Everything cannot be true. If everything is true, then nothing is false. And if nothing is false, then it would also be true to say everything is false.”

When we begin to speak of truth claims in shared worldviews and religion, if we try deny the fact the some people may be less right than others then we in fact simultaneously denounce everyone’s belief all together including our own. 

The devotional begins with: John 14:5-6

Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

Second Thought: Within Christianity there is a truth claim about Christ, that Christ is an embodiment of God and a member of the Trinity. There is debate between denomination to the details of this but for the most part this is the consensus. If we are dedicating our life to Jesus, we are in essence becoming seekers of truth, and also hold to a particular truth-claim and worldview. Now if you come along a person whose truth is that life is about hedonistic and narcissistic living, and giving into every pleasure they can find at the expense of other. Let's take it to the extreme and say they are addicted to drugs, alcohol, prostitution, gambling and are destroying themselves slowly. Is their truth fundamentally equal to someone who believe is humility, charity, hard work, respect, and dignity of body and spirit? I hope you have that clarity to say they are not equal. Now that does diminish the inherent value of the person who is destroying themselves, in fact, it means that you should do everything you can do to get them to see a better more restorative truth. Apart of being truth seekers is also the call to share the truth when we find it. 

Continual Work: Spend some time thinking about the tension between inclusivity and exclusivity. You can also look at similar contrasts with extraverted and introverted, or liberal and conservative. God calls us to the tension between spaces and in those spaces we will find deeper truth, but we cannot deny truth in the process of approach the tensions.

What Rev. Jacob is Working On: One thing I like about the ministry of Jesus is His ability to be both inclusive and exclusive. Though it might be better put in its biblical language merciful and just. Mercy and inclusivity share a bond as they are the openness of God’s willing to look upon those who deviate with compassion. Justice and exclusivity are a restorative measure to God will, meaning there is an expectation God will hold us accountable to. I will continue to reflect on this, though that is not abnormal for me, because I often find with myself looking to balance this equation.

Rev. Jacob’s Scripture time: John 8:1-11

 but Jesus went to the Mount of Olives.

 At dawn he appeared again in the temple courts, where all the people gathered around him, and he sat down to teach them. The teachers of the law and the Pharisees brought in a woman caught in adultery. They made her stand before the group and said to Jesus, “Teacher, this woman was caught in the act of adultery. In the Law Moses commanded us to stone such women. Now what do you say?”  They were using this question as a trap, in order to have a basis for accusing him.

But Jesus bent down and started to write on the ground with his finger. When they kept on questioning him, he straightened up and said to them, “Let any one of you who is without sin be the first to throw a stone at her.”  Again he stooped down and wrote on the ground.

 At this, those who heard began to go away one at a time, the older ones first, until only Jesus was left, with the woman still standing there.  Jesus straightened up and asked her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?”

“No one, sir,” she said.

“Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus declared. “Go now and leave your life of sin.”

You see balance of Christ at work, the exclusive law which dictates right from wrong clearly marks the woman for death, but Christ knows with mercy a greater good can live out, so he shows the exclusive Pharisees that they are all at fault, but Christ does not affirm the behavior of the woman either, he tells her to “leave your life of sin”. His mercy was restorative to God’s justice. Adultery is not included in the righteousness of God’s plan, but mercy for those who have fallen is. 

Closing Words: I hope you enjoyed and were lifted by this devotional time; it is truly important to take time for God each day. By doing so, you welcome God into your life, and in turn you will be able to better see the world through the eyes of God, rather than God through the world's eyes.

Prayer for your day: Lord, as imperfect people, trying to walk the ways of Christ, may feel like we are trying to find balance of the edge of a blade. What is natural for You, can be straining for us, that is why we ask for wisdom and strength, mercy and justice and the Spirit of the Lord to guide, so we can effort to our best by your will. In Christ name, Amen. 

Artistic Close: I was never much for water sports, particularly anything with a canoe or kayak, my lack of sea legs, heck sea body, always made me feel as if the little boat was going to flip over. But many things take balance, art, music, cooking, life in general, why would we expect that God would not want us to find a health balance between things like mercy and justice, and exclusion and inclusion. If you need an indicator to help you be caution towards harmful things in life, look to see when an idea pushes too much one way or the other, where balance is not being achieved.