The Problem with Internet Quizzes - August 28

Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 16, 17; PM Psalm 22; Job 9:1-15,32-35; Acts 10:34-48; John 7:37-52

I’m not usually a sucker for internet quizzes. I would much rather be skeptical that they are mining for information or believe I am too busy with important tasks to waste my time (I know this is ridiculous). Actually, I just think they are silly and can’t possibly be helpful so I usually ignore them. I saw one on Facebook this week: What denomination of Christian are you really? The religious focus lured me into the trap. “It must be able to discern my faith for I’m a priest!”

Some of the questions were easy such as “Do you believe the Lord’s Supper to be the Flesh and Blood of Jesus, the real presence of God, or just a symbolic gift?” And then the questions got harder, not because I didn’t understand what they were asking, but my answers have become too nuanced and skeptical of those dogmatic statements. Then, I come across the question “What do you think about speaking in tongues?” I almost yelled it out loud – “Oh I know. This is easy. Absolutely ridiculous and nothing to do with God!”

Then the questions got too limiting and I quit the quiz before being announced some kind of heretic (or maybe an Episcopalian). I wouldn’t confess this judgmental side, but in the story of Acts, Peter proclaims that people who are different from him (Gentiles and he is Jewish) are speaking in tongues and extolling God. “Oh, I know about those people. I was just making fun of them!” And I become a little more providential in my faith believing God is pushing me to remember that I am not quite as open-minded as I think I am.

The other thing that Peter confesses that is important in this story – God is Lord of all. Not just some, not just the people that think like me, or act like me, or pray like me. Lord of all. And maybe we too easily want to share that burden with God as judge and arbitrator.

I keep wondering if our judging of other people, the ones where we limit or fail to see the image of God in another person, is the most destructive act we can do. Our judgments allow us to do things like vilify a victim or suppress anger and sorrow for a father being unjustly shot and paralyzed. It’s our judgments that suppress probably the most important virtue that we can manifest – that is compassion.

I’m not sure there is a right way to pray or the perfect denomination. With some flexibility, I am not sure there is an absolute right or wrong thing to believe (at least not if it bends your life to the self-sacrificing way of love, a truth we Christians see manifest in the life of Jesus). So how can we limit our judgment to mold us to be more compassionate? Maybe like Peter, it’s to trust that the Holy Spirit is doing something much larger than we can ever imagine.

-John+
Questions for Self-Reflection: What faith traditions do you think have missed the mark? Is that based on what they believe or the traditions they hold? What of your own traditions may be missing the mark?

Daily Challenge: Catch yourself in an act of judgment today. Ask yourself “how would more compassion change the outcome of what I am feeling?”