REACHING OUT TO JUDGE YOU [F 3-12-21]

CHRIST IN WINTER: Reflections on Faith & Life for the Years of Winter

REACHING OUT TO JUDGE YOU   [F 3-12-21]

 

Going through old files, I am reminded that my “reviews” for my writing weren’t always good. One person wrote to tell me personally that my article on the theology of the video game, Pac-Man, was “…typical of Methodist preaching—creative, cute, comfortable, and moralistic.” I didn’t even know it was a sermon!

He probably meant, though, that it was typical of Methodist theology, not just preaching, in the 1980s, when “The Christian Century” published the article. And I was so proud of that, too. It made the cover! To make the cover of “The Christian Century” for a small-town preacher was like a back-up 3^rd baseman from the Three-I League making the cover of “Sports Illustrated.” How could anyone criticize an achievement like that?

Well, creative, cute, and comfortable, I can live with, pretty much, but “moralistic?” I don’t think so.

Well, maybe.

I always claimed that I just told stories and let people find their own way to God in and through them. Then, if any changing were done in that sermon hearer, it was God who did it. I always quoted my late friend and colleague, Herb Beuoy: “It’s our business to love people, and God’s business to change them.”

That claim that I just told non-judgmental stories in my preaching might actually be true. It was my intention.  But I do know that I am moralistic personally, even if not theologically and homiletically, and it is probably hard not to let that show through, despite one’s best anti-moralistic efforts.

I’m not so much moralistic anymore. It’s hard to be moralistic about stuff if you don’t even know what’s going on, and in these days of getting older, ignorance is my super-power.

It’s also hard to be moralistic when “judgy” is the worst epithet people, especially young people, can hurl at you. “Don’t judge me!”

The problem is, the word “judge” is used for any sort of evaluation or differentiation. “I think Big Macs are better than Whoppers.” Don’t be judgmental. Jesus said, “Judge not, lest ye be judged”

But judgment theologically, for Jesus, was for eternity, the final judgment, whether you were going to hell or heaven. We were not to damn someone to hell; that was judgment. If Peter said to Andrew, “This piece of fish isn’t good,” Jesus would not have said, “Don’t be judgmental.” Not every evaluation is a judgment, even though the “less-judgmental that thou” folks seem to think it is.

It’s like “reaching out.” Can’t anyone just make a contact or say “hello” anymore? Must it always be “reaching out?”

Oops, there I go. Being moralistic and judgy. But at least I’m creative and cute. Well, sort of…

John Robert McFarland