In recent months, you’ve heard our country described as rich and poor, urban and rural, conservative and liberal, Democrat and Republican, gay and straight, Red and Blue.

How about Hard and Soft?

A political analyst named Michael Barone has written a book called Hard America, Soft America.  In it he describes a division between those who are Hard and those who are Soft.  Barone believes that Hard America is marked by competition and accountability, while Soft America is defined by government regulation and social safety nets.   

An example of Soft America is our public school system.  It’s filled with progressive values, including a desire to promote the self-esteem of its students.  Playground games that seem to be too competitive and cruel, such as dodge ball, are banned in Soft America.  You remember how dodge ball was defined in the Ben Stiller comedy last summer?  It’s the sport of “violence, exclusion and degradation.”

Hard America, on the other hand, is not afraid of competition.  Private companies fire people when profits plunge.  The military puts its people through intense physical training along with exercises using live fire.  There’s nothing warm and fuzzy about Hard America, and very little coddling – unless you happen to be a CEO receiving a golden parachute.

Hard versus Soft.  Competition versus coddling.  Whether you line up with one side or the other, you have to admit that it’s a fair description of one of the divisions we face in America today.

But how about the church?  What’s the condition of the Body of Christ in the world today?  Can it be said that we are split between Hard Faith and Soft Faith?

The early Christian church certainly had its share of divisions, nowhere more clearly than in Corinth, where the apostle Paul had to plead with the Christians to settle their differences.  “I appeal to you, brothers and sisters,” he wrote in his first letter, “by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you be in agreement and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same purpose” (1 Corinthians 1:10).

The Corinthian church was a shattered Greek urn, lying in pieces on a cold stone floor.  Some of the members were swayed by brilliant rhetoric, others were influenced by knowledge, others were impressed by spiritual gifts, and still others attached importance to wealth and social status.  There was sexual immorality in the church – a man living with his father’s wife – and this behavior was being tolerated by some (5:1-2).  There were abuses at the Lord’s Supper, with the rich arriving early and enjoying the very best food and drink, while the poor arrived later and had only the leftovers to consume (11:17-22).  In the face of these fractures, Paul calls for the Corinthian Christians to be “united in the same mind and the same purpose” (1:10).

Were these pieces swept up and put back together?  I don’t think so.  The church is still broken, as we face a division between Hard Faith and Soft Faith in the 21st century.  Those who practice Hard Faith place an emphasis on the obligations of religious life, and they appreciate moral clarity.  If your faith is Hard, you are focused on knowing God’s truth, keeping the Ten Commandments, and living a disciplined life. 

When George W. Bush speaks about his Christian commitment, he tends to use the language of Hard Faith.

Those who embrace Soft Faith, on the other hand, see religion as a liberation movement.  They tend to stress God's love for the oppressed of the earth, and they focus on Christian charity.  If your faith is Soft, you put emphasis on experiencing God’s grace, keeping the commandments of Jesus to love God and neighbor, and living a life that is open and receptive to new understandings.

I think Bill Clinton is a good example of a national leader with Soft Faith.

Hard Faith is all about obligation, clarity, truth and discipline.  Soft Faith is committed to liberation, charity, grace and openness.  I’m not talking right and wrong here, good and bad, because both sides are important to Christianity, both have deep roots in our Scripture and tradition, and both are necessary for a fully formed faith.  But Hard and Soft perspectives create a very tricky tension – they exert a kind of magnetic pull on us as they draw us in opposite directions.   

The apostle Paul had a similar problem in Corinth, where the Christians of that community felt drawn to different leaders.  Some felt they belonged to Paul, others to Apollos, others to Cephas, and still others to Christ (v. 12).  Some of these leaders were eloquent and some were not, some were Hard and some were Soft.  But Paul rejected these distinctions by asking the Corinthians point blank, “Has Christ been divided?  Was Paul crucified for you?  Or were you baptized in the name of Paul?” (v. 13).

Of course not!  That’s ridiculous.

According to Paul, the center of our Christian faith is always going to be Jesus Christ, whether we are Hard or Soft.  What unites us is always going to be more powerful and all-embracing than what pulls us apart.  The way for us to be “united in the same mind and the same purpose” (v. 10) is to focus on Jesus Christ, for he is the one who calls us to be one body of believers.

The amazing thing about Jesus is that he is simultaneously Hard and Soft.  The Hard Jesus lays out the obligations of discipleship, and is clear about the Christian way of life.   He is devoted to the truth – in fact, he himself is “the way, and the truth, and the life” (John 14:6) – and he asks his disciples to be so disciplined that they actually deny themselves, take up their crosses, and follow him.  You simply cannot get any Harder than that.

At the same time, Jesus is Soft.  He liberates us from captivity to sin and death, and challenges us to show Christian charity to the imprisoned, the hungry, and the thirsty.  He would no doubt approve of our special offering for Tsunami relief.  Jesus shows amazing grace to all who follow him in faith, receiving with open arms the outcasts, the sinners, and the brokenhearted.   He is a Soft, Soft Savior – no doubt about it.

What we’ve got in Jesus is a Hard-Soft Savior.

The apostle Paul knows this, which is why he calls for unity in the midst of Christian diversity.  He doesn’t expect the Corinthians to have identical views and perspectives on all things, nor does he expect them to live out their Christian faith in exactly the same way.  But he does expect them to be united in their determination to follow Jesus, and equally dependent on the power of the “cross of Christ” (v. 17).

In fact, Paul doesn’t want to do anything to distract people from the cross, for it is the clearest possible symbol of Jesus’ sacrificial death and life-giving resurrection.  Paul doesn’t want to baptize or speak with eloquence or do anything that might turn people away from the central image of what God has done for us through Jesus.

The cross of Christ is what unites us, according to Paul.  It is the perfect symbol of Hard Truth and Soft Grace.

So, what does this mean to us today?  Hard and Soft divisions are going to continue to plague us, but their existence does not mean that we have to lose sight of the centrality of Jesus Christ.  Some of you will naturally practice a Hard Faith, and will be clear about your beliefs, practices, Scriptures, and morals.  But at the same time, some of you will embrace a Soft Faith, and will show charity to others as you focus on hospitality, inclusiveness, outreach projects, and unconditional love.  

My challenge to those of you who are being ordained as officers of the church today is to keep this in mind.  You’ll be working with people at FPC who don’t always agree with how Soft you are, or how Hard you are – just as they don’t always agree with where I stand.  But you’ll be doing your work well if you remember that we are called to serve a Savior who challenges us to practice both moral clarity and Christian charity; a Savior who wants us to grow inwardly as we look outwardly.  It isn’t being faithful to Christ to go to one end or the other, and become too Hard … or too Soft. 

The challenge for us is to be united in Christ, bound together in devotion to the one who valued both Hard Truth and Soft Grace.  Both are important if we’re going to be faithful followers of a Hard-Soft Savior.  Amen