Make Room: The Greatest Commandment and The Messy Middle

 

When I refer to the Messy Middle, I am referencing the space between the now and yet still to come promises of the Gospel. Think of it as that place where the holiness of the divine creator intersects with the lived experience of the sacred creation.

It is this foundational belief that deeply influences my ministry philosophy and drives my purpose as a Pastor. Imagine the beauty of this messy space as the fulfillment of the account told in Matthew 22:36-40 

Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?” Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind. This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

The Messy Middle is the space where love of God becomes love of neighbor. Every neighbor! It is essential that we employ this filter because Jesus clearly stated ALL of scripture, both old and new testaments alike, hangs on adherence to these two commandments. Therefore, as Christians who desire to see Jesus’ kingdom brought to earth, we must ensure that all our theology causes us to open our tables, our churches, and our lives to our neighbors. Add to this Jesus’ descriptions of who will inherit the His kingdom that are found in the Sermon on the mount (Matthew 5-7), as well as the call to care for the least of these seen in Matthew 25, and we find our marching orders as occupants of the Messy Middle.

The longer we pursue a life aligned with these important teachings of Jesus, the more inclusive we will find ourselves becoming. To be clear, I am not speaking of tolerating behavior that opposes God’s standards, but rather I am reminding us that none of us is without our own sin to address. The sin we need to focus on is our own. Clearly, there is enough of it confronting us in the mirror to keep us all busy.

This becomes especially important when we consider those who have historically been pushed to the margins of the church, including our LGBTQ+ neighbors and so many others who have experienced rejection in the name of Christ. We cannot simply say everyone is welcome while ignoring the ways our words, theology, and practices have caused real harm. If we are serious about following Jesus, then we must be willing to listen to those who have been wounded, name where we have failed, and repent.

Another important aspect of life in the Messy Middle is the realization that shame has no place in God’s economy.  Right after the fall seen in Genesis 3, God provides us with proof of this fact.  In the immediate aftermath of humanity being deceived into breaking perfect relationship with Him, God looks for Adam and Eve as they hid from Him.  Had God wanted to shame them I don’t believe that we would see him seeking them out and calling them out of the shame they felt. In the simple sentence “Who told you were naked?” we find a loving father calling His children back to Himself. Further evidence of this posture exists in Jesus’ interactions with the woman at the well, Zaccheaus, and the woman caught in adultery. 

Yet, in modern church orthopraxy, right practice of theology, we find a flaw embedded in the system.  This flaw is a dogma that created a false belief that we are to judge the sin of other over dealing with the image in that mirror I mentioned above. We became “sin sheriffs” instead of grace dispensers. Not that we even could offer the saving Grace of Jesus, but we are certainly called to reflect it.

Perhaps this is what it means to truly live in the Messy Middle. We are still being formed by Jesus, which means we should be humble enough to recognize where we have gotten it wrong and courageous enough to change. We cannot undo the harm that has been done to LGBTQ+ people and others who have been pushed to the margins, but we can choose what we do next. If our theology does not compel us to pull down walls and build longer tables, it is not the theology of Jesus. An occupant of the Messy Middle does not stand at the gates playing judge; they sit at a table playing host. 

We must stop guarding the doors and start opening our lives, because the kingdom of God belongs to exactly the kind of messy, broken neighbors we have spent far too long pushing away.