Life In Open Spaces

Matthew 23:23-24

You strain your water so you won’t accidentally swallow a gnat, but you swallow a camel! (Matthew 23:24)

THE PATRIARCH OF THE Russian Orthodox Church in the 1650s wanted to make the rituals of the church consistent with the Greek churches and issued decrees to align them. One of the changes he required was that the sign of the cross be made with three fingers instead of two—a seemingly minor detail from a modern perspective, perhaps, but one that rattled traditionalists and provoked a searing controversy over maintaining the divine harmony between God and those who worship him. For some, the patriarch’s reforms were a sign of the last days, a foreboding indication of apocalyptic times ahead.

We live in a more casual age in which few people are so rigidly tied to their rituals, though some still are. But regardless of whether we are nitpicky about outward signs and symbols, many of us are equally narrow in our tolerance of divergent doctrines and practices, even on issues where Scripture is not entirely precise. We invest a lot of belief, emotion, and energy in our pet perspectives. Across the ages, the Christian world has made many of these internal disputes visible. And the watching world looks on with the same bemusement with which some might look at a seventeenth-century controversy in the Russian church.

Should we just loosen up and stop defending our pet standards? On some issues, perhaps; on others, not necessarily. But we should learn to live with perspective, to see ourselves as outsiders see us, and to give a lot of thought to what’s really important and what isn’t. If God had wanted us to agree with precision on every point of faith, he would have given us a very precise book of systematic theology. He didn’t. He gave us stories, testimonies, and experiences of how he has worked in this world and on behalf of his people for millennia. As part of that overarching story, make your life an illustration, not an argument. Live the role of salt and light that seasons and warms the lives around you.

{Lord, may I never place higher demands on myself or my fellow believers than you place on me. You have brought me into open spaces; let me share that freedom with others with a welcoming, open heart. Amen.