Hello,
I thought I knew the rules of the road for bicyclist until I encountered
a rider on my way home from supply preaching yesterday. I had preached in Greenock, Pa, a town
like so many here in western Penn that is built upon the rolling hills and valleys. It took me just over an hour to get
there via turnpike and four-lane roads, but since it was a beautiful spring day
I decided to take the tortoise route home on a two-lane road that winds itself
over the mountain.
As I exited a larger town onto the winding road I came upon a bicyclist
who was riding right in the middle of my lane. This cyclist was obviously not a first timer. He was dressed in bicycling gear and
had the physique of Lance Armstrong.
As I came upon him, I wasn’t sure if he realized that I was behind him,
so I gently tapped my horn to let him know that I was there. I thought that he would respond to my
gentle tap according to my understanding of the rules of the road for bicyclist
and move to the side of the road so that I could pass him without extending
myself too far across the double yellow line.
But that didn’t happen.
Instead I was greeted by hand gestures that quickly told me that he was
not about to move over, and he continued slowly riding up the shallow hill smack
in the middle of the lane.
Thinking that I had simply been misunderstood and hoping he had one of
those little rearview mirrors attached to his helmet, I smiled and motioned with
my hand to indicate that all I wished him to do was to move to the right. Once again, more unfriendly gestures.
Several minutes later we approached an intersection and he indicated he
was going to turn left. He slowed
down, and so did I. As he turned
he started yelling at me pronouncing God’s eternal judgment against me which I
heard since my window was down. As
he completed his turn he had turned his face far enough to get a good glimpse
of whom he was yelling at; a man dressed in a black suit sporting a clerical
collar. I wonder what he thought.
I thought about that encounter the rest of the way home, vacillating
between the lingering sting of his verbal barrage at me and feeling guilty for
the negative Christian witness that he apparently received from me. It was abundantly clear to me that this
cyclist did not go away from me impacted with the unconditional, self-giving
love of Jesus that I had just proclaimed minutes before in Greenock. I tend to think that he categorized me
instead as one of those hypocrites that many observe filling the pews of the
church. In that moment, I felt as
though I had let Jesus down.
All this is to say that Christians aren’t perfect. We don’t always know what the best
thing to do is, and even when we do, we don’t always do it. Sometimes, as with my angered bicycler,
we do things with the best of intentions that are received with quite the
opposite judgment. So, I hope that
if you don’t go to church because someone in the church has wronged you –
purposefully or otherwise – you might see beyond their imperfections to see the
perfect love and mercy that Jesus has for you. If you do go to church and are regularly aggravated by the
less than Christian care coming from someone who is seated around you that you
will see beyond their imperfection and experience the selfless compassion of
the Lord. I hope that if your
experience of Christians seems less than Christ-like to you that you might give
Christians another chance to get closer to the truth of Christ’s love for you.
If the church claimed to be a bunch of perfect people (and unfortunately
some people in the pews do seem to give the impression that they think
themselves to be more perfect than some others) then it would be true that
based upon the imperfect witness that Christians tend to give the church is
full of hypocrites. But in truth
the church makes no such claim.
What we claim is that we are a motly group of imperfect people who are
well aware of our need for forgiveness and hope that we are progressively made
more Christ-like as we regularly spend time together with him.
Someone said, “Christians aren’t
perfect, they are forgiven.” I
hope my anonymous bicycler will forgive me just as he and I ….. and you….. have
been forgiven by Christ.
Have a great week.
God’s grace and peace,
Pastor Jerry Nuernberger
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