The other day I wrote about being spiritually unmoored, and some folks responded with the argument that works don’t get us to heaven – God’s grace does. It is one of those never-ending arguments, kind of like nature/nurture – there is no conclusive answer because it’s both. God can choose to bring us into heaven even if our lives weren’t all that great, but there is also an aspect of good works that is central to the teachings of Jesus and, to a lesser extent, the Apostle Paul. To say that works don’t matter is to deny a lot of what Jesus said, and a close reading of the Book of James solidifies the argument. It is a good question, though, and one that Christians have gone in circles about for centuries: if God chooses you, does it matter what your life has been like? Could Hitler go to heaven, if God decided to forgive him? I, for one, will not attempt that discussion today.
It isn’t a silly question, though. How much do my actions matter to God? Let’s say I vote (for argument’s sake) for a person who is a convicted murderer who has done his or her time, but I believe that murder goes against God’s law – is that a strike against me? What if am a serial adulterer, but every day I say that I believe in Jesus – does my saying the words wipe out my consistent and blatant sinfulness? Nobody gets through life without messing up, which is why we do a prayer of confession every Sunday, and possibly every day. We have all sinned and fallen short of what God wants from us. Still – is there such a thing as too much sinning? Is there a point at which God says, “Nope – too much – now you are being belligerent. To hell with you”?
I think that we all have lines we won’t cross, and when we see others crossing those lines consistently, our judgment comes out. I am not a universalist, so I do believe that there are some who will meet God’s negative judgment. Who those people are is unknown to me; actually, it’s unknown to all of us. My hope is that I live up to God’s hopes for me, and that God’s grace is huge and wide and far bigger that most of us can conceive. As for everyone else, I am not – thankfully – the judge. If the standard we try to keep is to love God, neighbor, and self – to do to others as we would have done to us – and to refrain from evil and be mindful of doing good – we may just be okay. Other than that, I’ll let God be God. That’s all any of us can do.
Prayer – Holy and merciful God, help us to stay on the path of goodness and kindness, as we work to make the world a better place. Amen.
Today’s art is a window from Saint Paul Apostle Church, Cuauhtémoc, Federal District, Mexico.