While there God helps
is value and dignity in
those who help hard work, it
themselves T e character on a sitcom spouted this line as he
doesn’t shield us from life.
helped himself to the last slice of pie. T e canned laugh track prompted viewer laughter. It’s funny until some- one takes that line to heart. I’ve been in many conversations over the years in
which I have gently disabused friends, family and church members alike that “God helps those who help them- selves” is not in the Bible. One church member half- jokingly said, “Well, if it’s not in the Bible, then it should be.” T is unscriptural adage has found its way into the religious imagination and skews our thinking about God. It collapses into judgment of the worst sort because
we tend to apply it to others when we believe them to be lazy or when we think they refuse to help themselves. It links God’s presence in our lives to our abilities that are fi nite, fragile and fl eeting. While there is value and dignity in hard work, it doesn’t shield us from life. Life can be haphazard and quite random. Frequently it eludes our every attempt to control it.
Job loss, accidents, illness, natural disasters and other crises can change our life without a moment’s notice. Any one of these can immobilize us and render us helpless. In other words, there are times when we can’t resolve our challenges through our own eff orts. It’s during those times when the simplicity of les-
sons learned in confi rmation rise to consciousness: “I cannot by my own reason or strength believe in Jesus Christ ....” We aren’t called to live by guts but by grace. God’s assistance and presence in our lives is indepen- dent of our feelings, thoughts or activity, all of which can be erratic and fi ckle. God’s love is unwavering toward us.
Love the sinner, hate
the sin T is popular adage is connected
to the ideas of loving one’s neighbor as one’s self (part of Jesus’ greatest com- mandment), and to naming and rejecting sin. Both pieces are important for disciples who fol-
low Jesus. We are called to love God and neighbor and to strive against sin, that which we both do and leave undone. As a stone lobbed into a conversation about some-
thing diffi cult or controversial, this adage oſt en serves to end relationships more than to seek their transforma- tion or renewal. To be sure, if sin is manifesting in the form of abuse, an entirely transformed relationship may be neither safe nor possible, and should be named. As Lutherans, however, we
understand sin to be part of our existence as human beings. T is adage is generally used to say: I love you but hate something about you that I understand to be sinful. So I don’t have to deal with how this has changed our relationship. Or even entertain the possibility that my own sin is contributing to our situation. In many cases, broken human relationships are the
Broken human relationships
are the result of an interaction of sin and love that is complex.
result of an interaction of sin and love that is complex. A hurtful action leads to a hurtful response; sin dances with sin and love is lost; relationships crumble. To love one’s neighbor as one’s self means being willing to engage with and strive against one’s own sin as readily as another’s. Perhaps a revision is in order: God loves sinners.
Author bio: Angela L. Shannon is a pastor of King Of Glory Lutheran Church in Dallas.
And forgives sins. Locating love and forgiveness in the hands of God invites us to approach one another with honesty and humility, pray- ing and working for a relationship that will probably change everyone involved.
Author bio: Michael D. Fick is pastor of Ebenezer Lutheran Church in Chicago.
July 2015 21
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