Spiritual Hiccups - Understanding Life

I've been out of town a couple of days because of the untimely death of a cousin of mine.  He wasn't religious at all, and so there was no funeral as such.  People did speak at the funeral home visitation and again at a celebration held at a bar.  The owner closed down for the night and provided food and drinks for all who came; I'd guess more than 200.

My cousin was not a long time resident of this town, and this made the huge outpouring of love for him all the more pointed to me.  Quite a few people spoke about meeting him when he went out of his way to help them out in some fashion.  On one occasion he even fished a woman's keys out of a port-a-Jon. 

As such stories were shared, I found myself thinking about Jesus' words on the judgment of the Gentiles in his final public teaching from Matthew 25:31-46.  In these verses, Jesus seems to be speaking about how outsiders are judged by whether or not they fed the hungry, cared for the sick, welcomed the stranger, etc.  Jesus insists that in so doing, these people from outside the faith community ministered to Christ himself.

I was still thinking about how my non religious cousin had really found a home and community in these last years, how his life seemed to be more of a calling, when I read Paul's words in this morning's epistle reading from 1 Corinthians. Paul seems to be clarifying instructions from a previous letter that have been misunderstood.  "I wrote to you in my letter not to associate with sexually immoral persons — not at all meaning the immoral of this world, or the greedy and robbers, or idolaters, since you would then need to go out of the world."  He goes on to talk about how it is only those who call themselves Christians that Paul expects the community of faith to shun for behavior not in keeping with biblical law.  They are not to judge outsiders.

Yet it seems to me that we Christians are forever getting Paul's instructions backwards.  We pass judgment on the world while ignoring the patently un-Christian behavior of those in our churches, including our own.  Paul finds it particularly mind boggling and horrendous that Christians would sue one another in court rather than working out differences within the community of faith.  When's the last time you heard of people with grievances against one another asking a pastor or church governing board to mediate a settlement and reconciliation?

I'm not sure where I'm going with all this.  I'm still struggling with feelings of loss and grief at the stunning loss of my 47 year old cousin who was also a husband, father, brother, son, uncle...  It also gives me pause regarding my own mortality, my own relationships, and so on.  But at times over the last few days, I was struck by the notion that my cousin understood and "got" life better than I do. 

I am fully convinced that being "in Christ" is about being as fully human as possible, as true to what it means to be alive as is possible.  Yet I regularly see people outside the Church who seem better at being alive and human than I am.  Surely that has to say something to me and to the Church. 

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