Why Lists Should be Avoided

I have tried to avoid being personally anecdotal in these last several posts but I feel it is time to tell a little of my story. I have tried to write this post a couple times now and realized it doesn't work unless, like a good post-modernist, I position myself. So here it goes...

Lists.

I know lists really well; Especially when they come to the church. I was born in a conservative Pentecostal church. My church world and my "secular" world often seemed at odds with each other. What I was learning in church seemed too simple, too sterile. Everything was painted in strict binaries with deep consequences. It was do this... or if you don't you are going to hell. I knew what it was to be a "good christian" and "live out my faith". I had the lists of rules memorized and the scripture verses to back it all up.

When I went to college in NYC, I was confronted with both an earth shattering deconstruction of my faith and became involved in a group that promoted Christian "list" making. My faith was torn apart, so I clung to what was familiar: these lists. Instead of letting myself learn to ask questions and have faith without answers I ran after "proofs" and "facts".

 It wasn't until graduate school that I could throw the lists out completely and embrace the truly free and unconditional love and salvation of God. I finally realized that there was absolutely nothing I could do to be a "Good Christian".

These Lists still haunt me. They show up in the Bible everywhere. We see the lists of rules for the law code and the ten commandments. Paul is constantly writing about what to do and not to do: his virtue lists. The other epistles have paragraphs full of rights and wrongs. But the gospels are kind of blank.

Lists and Jesus don't really go together. Jesus hardly ever answered a question straight let alone gave his disciples "the disciple twelve step plan". When he did, it never was the answer people wanted. He told the Pharisees the law could be summed up as: Love God and Love your neighbor. Sounds simple but is still argued and debated over. Jesus tells the rich man that the way to get into heaven is to sell everything and help the poor. The sermon on the mount is a long list of nobodies getting blessings. If we made lists like Jesus the church would look REALLY different.

Two problems arise with Lists: why we make them, and what to do with them.

I believe one reason we make lists is because we are desperate for control over our lives. When we grow in relationship with God we realize we have NO control over our lives. Its hard to tell people to constantly be living in subliminal space: but isn't that faith? Faith is trusting in the not knowing, its being content without all the answers, joyful without control.

We also make lists because we have a deep desire to know who's in and who's out. Just as much as we want to know what to do we also like to know if we are special. Did we make it in the cool Christian club? Are we doing this Christian thing right? The fact of the matter is there is no right way to be a Christian. All we are supposed to do is love God and each other.

Yet, there are still those lists in the Old and New Testament.

Moses gives us one example of what to do with Lists: break them! I often forget that Moses breaks the 10 commandments because he is so mad at the Israelites. Moses is not mad because they didn't follow his list but because they lost their faith in God by creating an idol. Some rules do need to be broken. However, this leads to a pervasive problem in the church: picking and choosing. Some rules may need to be broken but I can't tell you which ones. We each need to figure that out for ourselves. We need to hold the text with hands wide open. We can't say my way is the right way and yours the wrong... because at the end of the day we are probably both wrong (ONLY GOD IS RIGHT).

Another thing we can do with Lists, like anyway we read scripture, is ask questions. Not to sound like a relativist, but we can find exceptions for most of the rules. A good "but what if..." helps us see the complexities and diversity inherent within our world's problems. For example: The Bible in multiple places talks about honoring your mother and father (a point in many "lists"). But what if...someone's parents are abusive, neglectful, do not have a two parent system, don't have parents at all. As a (hopefully) future minister I would never tell a child that the Bible tells them to respect their parents when their parents are abusive. I do not think this is an extreme example either...So many of these "lists" have been allowed to keep people in terrible situations, as well as shut the door to entire groups of people from coming into the church. We have used "lists" to tell people to stay in abusive situations, remain silent...we have used them to start wars, defended slavery, and all other kinds of prejudice and inequality. It needs to stop!

We need to remember that grace is free! Grace cannot be gained nor lost. There is no list that can help us earn God's love or force God's love unto someone else.

Let's stop making lists and start loving God and each other. Let's stop trying to be "the perfect Christian" or the "good Christian". Let's try and accept the free gift God gives us. Let's stop trying to organize God's love to fit our lists.