A slightly bigger splash - 5 February 2010 |
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The man smiled cheerfully. “I really like what you’re doing. It’s good to talk about religion and stuff. But you really don’t need to spend your time talking to me. I might not be a Christian like you, but at least I believe in God. Look around you – there are loads of people who aren’t religious at all. They’re in a lot worse trouble than me. They’re the people who really need help. Go and talk to them.”
The problem with this kind of thinking is that it imagines a sliding scale where God sees things in black and white. Jesus never talked about a sliding scale. He talked about goats and sheep, death and life, condemnation and forgiveness.
Imagine yourself in a boat, anchored towards the north end of Lake Erie. You’re just a few miles upsteam of Niagara Falls, but you’re perfectly safe, because you’re anchored firmly to the lakebed. All around you are swimmers, people in rubber life-rafts, others clinging to pieces of driftwood. There are even a few other boats just like yours, but none of them are tied to anything. They’re all floating steadily north towards the waterfall.
You might be tempted to think that the guys in the big boats are safer than the drifters clinging to bits of wood. But though they might be more comfortable for the time being, they’re no safer in the long run. Everyone who’s not in your boat is drifting in the same direction at pretty much the same speed. The only difference between the fancy big yachts and the flimsy inflatable dinghies will be a slightly bigger splash.
Posted by Steve Jeffery · Topics: Minister's Blog, Things people say and questions people ask