One of my favorite bumper stickers out there is about Citizens of the Month. No, it is not the one about my kid being the Citizen of the Month - its the other one, "My kid beat up your Citizen of the Month."
Not that I encourage beating up Citizens of the Month, but in my experience those were ridiculous awards that were passed around the class - not based on merit but from the mindset that every kid should be recognized as a Citizen of the Month, or at the very least Citizen of the Week.
Not dissimilar is keeping score at a little kids soccer game and then giving trophies to everyone at the end - why did we keep score again? There was a league in which my kids were involved; they didn't keep score - but the kids did!
Without a meritocracy nobody knows whether they are good or not. It is kind of like each person deciding what is good and meritorious for themselves. This sounds "good" but then each person should also be able to determine what is not evil. So, that means Hitler was a saint and a God who just wants people to be "True to themselves" must welcome Charles Manson into His heaven.
But, God did set up a meritorious system by which a person might know how they measure up to His standards. All of creation follows this system and some call it Karma, others call it "Reaping what you Sow." The point is, God has a standard of good that He established to separate it from evil. It is found mostly in the Older Testament of the Bible.
So, those who are good enough should enter heaven right? Wrong. That would not be fair. If it was strictly meritorious as most religions are, only those of privelege have the best opportunity to earn the right to enter heaven. You know these priviledged people: those people whose parents were good, who were given the opportunity to study good, and were intelligent enough to figure out good. But, God set up a meritorious system!
Yes, He did, but only to demonstrate that we do not measure up to His standard. Instead of being a meritorious system it became one that is the most fair - a free gift to all who receive Jesus as Lord.
Funny how we love meritocracies so much that we try and make Christianity one.
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Thoughts, some profound, and others that are not-so-deep. Some are responses from the pastor of a church community in downtown Colorado Springs to questions texted to him during the weekly service.
1 comment:
The merit system put forth by God is perhaps the simplest of all. We merit nothing except through being God's beloved creation, and that as a graceful gift from God. It is disturbing, even if not that surprising, that too often invert the situation according to our selfish desires leaving ourselves with a Christianity that we analytically discuss according to our version of merit.
Furthermore, we seek to feel good in a Christianity that we too often try to make a our special version of a meritocracy. Such a religion may soothe some for a while, but it does not reflect the reality of the revelation of Jesus.
What we merit here below, we merit as brothers and sisters, according to the work of the Spirit of God. For some, this may seem disappointing. For me, it is a relief.
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