Cycle lanes, fading paint and self righteousness

On Thursday I was standing outside Macdonald’s selling The War Cry (as I do every week) and it crossed my mind that the white lines that marked out the cycle lane needed repainting.

The other week a cyclist nearly ran over a policeman who reprimanded him for cycling without care – the cyclist pointed out that the policeman was actually walking in a cycle lane. The policeman – a little embarrassed – apologised and waved the cyclist on his way.

As all of this was wandering through my mind (it took about a second) two workmen turned up and started repainting the lines!

It made me think how in contemporary society the moral markers which are supposed to be put down by the church have become faint and hard to distinguish. This has led to confusion within the church and encouraged some Christians to arbitrarily judge those in society they consider to be sinful. However, without clear markings how will sinners know that they are in the wrong?

Far too many times I have watched Christians acting in an unchristian way towards the lost – especially homosexuals, prostituted women, those with addictions, the performers (and recipients) of abortions etc. How can we be so quick to blame the world for wandering off the straight and narrow without clear markings?

As things stand we run the risk of looking as daft as the policeman wandering in the middle of the cycle lane – however, for us the potential consequence is much worse than public embarrassment.

Our self righteousness and apathy, all too often leads us to see the world as bad and ourselves as good. Yet the great commission has placed upon us the responsibility to preach the gospel in a way people can comprehend. In other words it is our job to make sure the white lines are visible.

The whole thing called to mind the following verses from Jeremiah 2:34-35

“On your clothes men find the lifeblood of the innocent poor, though you did not catch them breaking in. Yet in spite of all this you say, 'I am innocent; he is not angry with me.' But I will pass judgment on you because you say, 'I have not sinned.'
I think we need to go and look for our paint!