Advocacy

In the eighth chapter of the Gospel of John, we read of a woman caught in sin. The religious authorities bring her to Jesus to judge her. He does challenge her, but first he acts as her advocate. Hugh Halter in The Tangible Kingdom (p.45), has this to say about the passage:

''The powerful revelation is that the God of the universe - the only one who should have genuinely been offended, who could have postured himself as judge and executioner - literally lowers himself to her level and becomes her only friend, protector, and advocate. Yes, he does challenge her lifestyle and asks her to stop, but not until he has postured himself as an advocate. This is key. He addresses her head only after he has her heart.”

In the passage, Jesus stoops down and writes something in the sand, literally stooping to her level. Here we see modelled for us the posture we are to take with others. Here is the posture we take with First Nations groups that have been treated deplorably by ourselves or our family; here is the posture we take with those who are discriminated against because of their sexual orientation. The first posture is advocacy and care for them. Only then can we point them to Jesus for him to challenge them, remembering all the while that Jesus is also challenging us in how he wants us to live our lives.

Tolkien on Judging Others

J.R.R. Tolkien reminds us that we must not be hasty in judgment in this line from The Lord of the Rings trilogy. It is a good reminder to all of us.

 “Deserves it! I daresay he does. Many that live deserve death. And some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them? Then do not be too eager to deal out death in judgement. For even the very wise cannot see all ends.” 

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

The Apostle Paul also reminds us not to be hasty in judgement but further reminds us to help each other in the church. In 1 Corinthians he distinguishes between judging those outside of the church and keeping order within the church.

When I wrote to you before, I told you not to associate with people who indulge in sexual sin. But I wasn’t talking about unbelievers who indulge in sexual sin, or are greedy, or cheat people, or worship idols. You would have to leave this world to avoid people like that. . . . It isn’t my responsibility to judge outsiders, but it certainly is your responsibility to judge those inside the church who are sinning. God will judge those on the outside; but as the Scriptures say, “You must remove the evil person from among you.”

1 Corinthians 5:9, 10, 12, 13

 This is challenging stuff to put into practice. I will seek daily to live by these words, even as I know I will struggle to live them out completely.

Follow-Up to Passing Judgement

The love of those things that are outside Christianity keeps me outside the church. 

- Simone Weil as quoted in Duncan, David James. The Brothers K. New York: Random House, Inc., 2005.

Passing Judgement

I often cringe when people suggest that we should all stop "judging." Sometimes my cringe is because I feel bad for the person who feels that others are passing judgement on their actions. Sometimes I cringe because I feel that the person is seeking to justify actions that are certainly not worthy of praise. Sometimes I cringe because I simply do not know what to do with the emotions I feel when someone hurts someone else. If I judge that someone has made a judgement upon someone, do I have enough knowledge to know why that person has made the judgement? If I condemn the judgement, am I also guilty of judgement? Sometimes my cringe is because I sense that people are continuing to hurt others with words meant to correct a fault.

You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things. Romans 2:1

This passage tells us to treat others with the respect with which we would want to be treated. It is a recognition that we will see the sin in others' lives but may not recognize the same type of sin in our own life. For example, I may see the lifestyles of those who earn large salaries and judge that they are living excessively and that they should live their lives differently. I may judge that they have succumbed to the sin of greed. I may not see that I have chosen a lifestyle in which I use more resources than I need and that others may see my lifestyle as excessive when compared to theirs. An appropriate reaction would be for me to live with generosity and model a lifestyle in which I seek to use wisely the resources that have been entrusted to me. I can also pray that others might wisely use the resources with which they have been entrusted whether those resources be small or large.

I may look on the sexual lifestyles of others and recognize sin without seeing the sinfulness and brokenness of my own sexuality. As Robert Burns wrote, "O wad some Pow'r the giftie gie us To see oursels as ithers see us!"1 Might we begin to see, not only the sin of others, for we all know that there is sin in our world, but, might we also see ourselves as others see us.

Might we see that we too are broken and in need of rescue from ourselves. Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, "By judging others we blind ourselves to our own evil and to the grace which others are just as entitled to as we are."2 If I choose to do so, I can pray for others who sin against God and against people and ask God to be gracious toward us all. Might we seek to see ourselves as God sees us.


1 From "To A Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church," a 1786 Scots language poem by Robert Burns. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_a_Louse
2 Dietrich Bonhoeffer, The Cost of Discipleship; http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/2723088-nachfolge