Legalism vs. Beaglism

Yesterday, while biking through Gettysburg's Battlefields, I crossed paths with a couple walking by who had a dog that essentially was an elongated Beagle. A different breed but the markings of a Beagle, a hound, with his tongue a-wagging. I stop for Beagles and their next-of-kin to pet them up a bit. It is a win-win. The dog gets some affection and I get my Beagle fill. My Dad kept going on his bike which caused us to have to meet back at the car because I lost his trail.

I had a Beagle when a child. He was perhaps the most ADD and stupid dog I have ever known. But, Ol' Gus was lovable.  At least I thought so. While we were living in West Virginia, family lore has it that he got into a neighbor's garbage cans once too often and was shot. I remember him bleeding on the bathroom floor and my mom telling my older brother and I while we were in the back of the family Falcon automobile, that Gus had died from his wounds. At least he died doing something he loved.

I still remember the hard rain pounding the car when my mom told us. I cried a thunderstorm of tears.

So, I have a deep affection for Beagles that is deep in my heart. I have a picture of a Beagle on my Credit Card (call it Beagle Bucks) and extend grace to the Beagle across the street that bays and barks day and night. If the dog were not a Beagle, I would have considerably less affection for the canine. Beagles are stupid and elicit pity from me. But they are good-hearted and don't have a mean bone in their bodies. Mean dogs suck--and I encounter several of them on my thrice weekly four-mile run. One particularly foul dog charges all the way up to his electric fence and snarls at me. He has caught my twice recently unaware and scared the crap out of me.

One of the neighbors chuckled two times ago when foul Fido charged and I issued the stern rejoinder that it "Wasn't fucking funny." She deserved it. That shut her yap pretty fast. I know that I should not curse but her laugh was as ignorant and mean as the dog's snarl. I had no proof at the time that the dog was fenced in and I thought I was going to get mauled.  If a dog is both mean and stupid, just like with people, it is going to have a hard life. Beagles bring the Agape love out of me. Mean dogs I just want to kick like a football. I have to be honest here.

I have been wanting to write about Legalism for a spell because I have befriended an older guy at a Dive Bar recently where I watch the Eagles games--talk about needing to love something unconditionally. The Eagles bite but I am still a fan. It is a Philly thing. This guy who I will call Larry comes from a very Fundamentalist Christian family and he is the black sheep. He has been terribly damaged by the lack of love he has experienced and has run in the opposite direction of advocating a leveling of all religions as equivalent. When I reminded him that all faiths make exclusive truth claims, for instance, Islam asserting the "God has no Son," and that someone who is a serious Muslim would hardly applaud Christian zeal, he seemed somewhat flummoxed. And, he repeatedly said to me that I had to be awfully careful about stating who and who would not be saved.

I generally am live and live about faith issues. I don't aggressively try to twist peoples' arms and souls into salvation. I learned a long time ago that I cannot argue non-believers into the Kingdom. Yet, neither do I deny the simple teaching of Jesus where He says in John 14:6 that he is "The way, the truth, and the life." Larry's issue is not with me or even his Fundie family. It is with God Himself. Jesus was harsh on the self-righteous so I agree with Larry to a point but then diverge when he crosses into his intolerant tolerance. I am not real sure what he was warning me to be careful of. Maybe presumption? However, the Scriptures are clear about salvation and it dishonors God to muddy the message. To make unclear what God has made clear. Or to not read it as it is written.

So, what does all of this Legalism have to do with Beaglism? Here is my take. God is gracious and merciful. He knows our sin and yet loves us more than we can imagine. Like me loving flawed Beagles. God's love is not based on our merit. Legalists and the Lawless are both guilty of thinking that somehow God can be controlled, as if we have him on a leash. I can either drag God onto my side by narrow and hard-hearted rule-keeping or pull Him to me because He could never hold me accountable for my sin and pronounce me guilty. Like God is a dog desperate for our attention and approval. We're the dogs. Stupid, sinful, self-righteous. Yet He loves us. And if we don't love that He loves us, it is probably true that in fact we hate Him.      

I gave Larry a hug last time I left the bar. I know it is difficult to imagine that God is both just and merciful, without losing the balance of the two. Law and Love met at the Cross in the person of the God Man Jesus. One for all. The only one for all. No other name by which people can be saved. I am Gus and He is God.