Elaine Heath says "Now I see people already being called by the Holy Spirit, already being loved and known by Jesus before I ever meet them. Now I understand that prayer and friendship are the foundation for my relationship with others, in the name of Jesus. With a hermeneutic of love I give myself in prayer and friendship to the people around me not so that I can get something from them, not even a commitment to join my church, but so that I can minister to Jesus in them, Jesus who thirsts.
A hermeneutic of love means that God looks at human sin “with pity and not with blame,” because God sees the complexity of sin and wounds. A hermeneutic of love includes a doctrine of atonement that is non-punitive, meaning Jesus chooses solidarity with us sinners so that he can set us free from sin. When Jesus sets us free, we are free indeed. With the hermeneutic of love I see others’ sin the way Jesus does, not as insurmountable obstacles or permanent stains, but as the consequences of life in a broken world. I see the full power of resurrection for them, before it ever happens. This means I believe in the potential for their healing as well as their forgiveness. No one is beyond the possibility of being made new in Christ. A hermeneutic of love is fully aware of the devastation of sin and evil, yet refuses to give them the last word.
I wonder, if we think that there is so much folly in the idea of 'perfect churches' why is it we pour so much time and resource in to trying to create them?
We need to allow the Holy Spirit to stir our imaginations and give us the the courage to engage more and more with a community in to which God is already speaking. I wonder, have we become so timid about the fact that we have the most explosive tool for mass transformation of society, and believe we are largely impotent in the face of the pervading culture of individual pursuit?
The delivery mechanism for this transformation is first the realisation and whole hearted acceptance of what God achieved for us (and all people) on the cross, second the evidence of this in our lives (loving one another as God has loved us that people will know by our 'loving actions' that the Spirit of God is in us and transforming us), and thirdly that we pay attention to the Holy Spirit attempts to recalibrate our agendas for our lives and become the hands, feet and heart of God wherever we find ourselves.
Elaine is absolutely correct when she talks about the need for a hermeneutic of love because only then will we recall that it was 'while we had our faces turned away from God that He first loved us!
It is only then that we will stop seeing through a lens of 'them and us' and start recognising that we were all made in the image of God and regardless of church attendance (what ever that is!) there are many seeking a reconciliation with Him.
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