Our Ticket to Heaven

A member of the US House of Representatives has openly admitted what we’ve all known all along – Congress is a pay-for-play institution. The lawmaker was quoted, as saying “Our conference needs to stop capitulating to the (opposition) … That’s not what the donors are donating money for.”  Needless to say, this attitude is not exclusive to any particular party. Simply, this representative was stupid enough to say out loud what we all know to be true.

Or maybe not. The most disheartening aspect of this statement is that there was absolutely no blowback. We have accepted our disenfranchisement as routine business.

We shouldn’t be surprised, though. This transactional nature of Congress is actually a reflection of human nature. Think about it – Most of our everyday interactions are actually transactional in nature. We give up something to receive something else in return.

Transactional relationships aren’t always bad. We pay the bill and the power company keeps our lights on. At work, we agree to fulfill the requirements of a job in return for a paycheck. At home, maybe the wife does the laundry in return for the husband scooping the catbox and taking out the trash.

Most of us are so used to transactional relationships, we can be uncomfortable with unilateral generosity. Think of a time when a friend offered to pick up the restaurant tab. Did you immediately offer to leave the tip? Pick up the check the next time?

What about God? Is our relationship with God transactional? Hmmm…

We receive God’s grace for free. Many of our evangelical brothers and sisters say we are saved by faith alone – just accept Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior (Just say the magic words!) and we have a free ticket to heaven, even if we cut a swath of serious, deadly sin through the rest of our lives. Catholics believe infant baptism is a coupon for heaven, but we must remain in the state of grace to redeem it for an actual ticket – and hope we don’t commit a mortal sin between the time we get to confession and our death. But hitting the right moment to die seems so arbitrary. And who hasn’t bargained with God in times of crisis – Step Three in the Five Stages of Acceptance. (“Please God, if I do this, please fix that.”)

Confused? Me, too. It’s the eternal debate – faith vs. works, or a combination of the two?

I’ll never be so arrogant as to think I have the answer. But keeping it simple can be a good guide. There’s a hint of an answer when Jesus tells Peter the magic number for forgiveness is 70 times seven; another way of saying to forgive each and every time. The Lord’s Prayer seems to back this up: “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us.” It’s a close cousin of the Golden Rule. In other words, as genuinely and generously as we forgive others, God will forgive us when our time on earth has ended.

Is that transactional? Sure sounds like it. But in this case, it sounds a lot more than anything you might find in Congress these days. It sounds like respect. And it sounds like love.