In this particular quote, Wright was talking about health care. He said,<\/p>\n
In your country, for example, there seem to be Christian political voices saying that you shouldn\u2019t have a national healthcare system. To us, in Britain, this is virtually unthinkable. Every other developed country from Norway to New Zealand has healthcare for all of its citizens. We don\u2019t understand all of this opposition to it over here in the U.S. And, we should remember: In the ancient world, there wasn\u2019t any healthcare system. It was the Christians, very early on, who introduced the idea that we should care for people beyond the circle of our own kin. Christians taught that we should care for the poor and disadvantaged. Christians eventually organized hospitals. To hear people standing up in your political debate and saying\u2014\u201cIf you are followers of Jesus, you must reject universal healthcare coverage!\u201d\u2014and that\u2019s unthinkable to us. Those of us who are Christians in other parts of the world are saying: We can\u2019t understand this political language. It\u2019s not our value in our countries. It\u2019s not even in keeping with traditional Christian teaching on caring for others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
What I love so much about N.T. Wright\u2019s insights is that so many of them are drawn from history. He has such an elegant way of contrasting our contemporary assumptions about Christianity with the historical reality of the faith.<\/p>\n
While the contrast Wright draws in this particular quote is fascinating and worth further exploration, this isn\u2019t a post about the merits of universal health care.<\/p>\n
At least, not specifically.<\/p>\n
This is a post about the underlying problem that Wright draws out in this quote without specifically saying it.\u00a0You see, the contrast between us and our ancient forefathers that Wright is describing isn\u2019t simply one of practice.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s one of attitude.<\/p>\n
When we read in a passage like Acts 2 that, \u201cAll the believers were together and had everything in common.\u00a0They sold property and possessions to give to anyone who had need,\u201d many of us tend to squirm.<\/p>\n
We don\u2019t like the thought of giving away the things we worked hard to get. We especially don\u2019t like the thought of giving away those hard earned things to people who \u201cdon\u2019t deserve it\u201d because \u201cthey haven\u2019t earned it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, we could stop here and have a debate about how our money is being \u201ctaken\u201d away from us and frivolously given to others, as if in a democratic society we don\u2019t have the right to vote for our leaders, to have a say in public policy, or choose to live elsewhere if we actually think that public policy is so repugnant.<\/p>\n
But the underlying issue that Wright brings up isn\u2019t about taxes.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about what \u201cI deserve\u201d versus what \u201cyou deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s about grace.<\/p>\n
Grace is a funny thing. It doesn\u2019t make sense. I mean, when you really think about it, it\u2019s not just absurd, it\u2019s a little off-putting.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s certainly un-American.<\/p>\n
Being American is about working hard and getting everything you deserve.<\/p>\n
But grace isn\u2019t like that.<\/p>\n
Grace is grace because it\u2019s given to people who don\u2019t deserve it.<\/p>\n
Let that sink in for minute.<\/p>\n
If you grew up in church, then I know you\u2019ve heard it a million times before, but let it wash over you anew.<\/p>\n
Try once more, maybe for the first time, to really wrap your mind around the radical and absurd nature of God\u2019s grace.<\/p>\n
We tend to transform God\u2019s grace into the very opposite of grace. For many of us, grace is something God has to give us, something God owes us, something we deserve for going down to an altar and saying the right prayer.<\/p>\n
But God\u2019s grace isn\u2019t like that.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not given because we deserve it for doing the right thing. In fact, it\u2019s often given because we\u2019ve done just the opposite.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a radical gift that defies our deepest sensibilities.<\/p>\n
God\u2019s grace isn\u2019t just about having patience when a child who\u2019s just taken their crayons to a freshly painted wall. God\u2019s grace is about looking at that child after they\u2019ve destroyed both your lives through a lifetime\u2019s worth of bad decisions and saying with conviction, \u201cI still love you.\u201d<\/p>\n
God\u2019s grace isn\u2019t just about donating your old clothes to Goodwill. God\u2019s grace is about visiting an old enemy who\u2019s life has fallen apart and cooking them a meal, giving them a place to stay, and listening to their pain.<\/p>\n
God\u2019s grace isn\u2019t just about a traffic cop letting you slide for speeding in a construction zone. God\u2019s grace isn\u2019t about looking at convicted murder and saying, \u201cYou\u2019re forgiven.\u201d<\/p>\n
God\u2019s grace looks at what we deserve, and offers us what we don\u2019t.<\/p>\n
When we deny our neighbors basic human rights, regardless of the reason, but especially because we think they don\u2019t deserve it, then we aren\u2019t simply denying them healthcare, food, or shelter.<\/p>\n
We are denying them grace.<\/p>\n
And when we do that, we become the unmerciful servant<\/a> who has no claim to the grace God has extended to us.<\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Grace and peace,<\/p>\n
Zack Hunt<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I\u2019m a big fan of N.T. Wright. If you read many of my posts, that probably doesn\u2019t come as any sort of surprise. His thinking saturates my theology, as it does for so many others. Last week, a friend of mine shared a quote from an old interview Read The Spirit did with N.T. Wright […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3437,"featured_media":8926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8925","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\n
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