the susie solution

Most of those reading this post are probably aware of the Great Starbucks Red Cup Anti-Christmas Controversy.  Since coffee and I are not on speaking terms (we don’t even wave in passing), I am generally oblivious to the trends in beanland, but this one invaded my FB feed.  I guess Starbucks has a tradition of having some kind of special cup for the holiday season with a holiday symbol of some kind on it, but THIS year, the chain is using just a Plain.  Red.  Cup.   That decision to not put any kind of Christmas or holiday or even just WINTER symbol on its holiday cup apparently rattled some Christians’ cages, convincing them that this is yet another attempt to remove Christmas from the American retail scene.

I confess I rolled my eyes when I heard about I, and I wasn’t alone in the feeling of “Oh, great – another situation where  Christians look like loonies!”   Pretty soon came a counter-reaction not only from non-Christians but from fellow Christians as well making fun of the Christians who objected to the Plain.  Red.  Cup.  For example, one meme had a picture of a red cup with its wrap-around insulator reading, “If your worship depends on having a snowflake on your cup, then YOU are the one who needs Jesus.”  Plenty of us hit “like” or “share” on that one.

A staple of parenting comedy sketches goes something like this.  “Ya ever notice, when the kid wins the award for football, Dad boasts to everyone ‘Yeah, that’s MY BOY!’, but when the kid breaks the big screen TV, suddenly Dad’s yelling at Mom, ‘Just look at what YOUR SON did today!!’?”  Recently, when our pastor preached on the Prodigal Father (or Prodigal Son, as it’s more commonly known) in Luke 15, I noticed the Bible has its own version of that.

We all know the bullet points.  At the end of the story, the older brother comes home and the servant tells him, “Hey, your baby brother’s home and your dad’s celebrating!”  Big Bro sits on the porch and pouts.  Dad comes out and pleads with him to come join the party.  Big Bro says no, reminds Dad of what a scumbag Baby Bro has been, and, on the other hand, what an exemplary son HE has been and accuses Dad of not properly appreciating him.  He moves on in vs. 30 to the coup de grace:  “But when this son of yours came, who has devoured your property with prostitutes, you killed the fattened calf for him!”  Catch that?  Not “my brother”.  “This SON OF YOURS.”   Big Bro so disowned his brother that he wouldn’t even acknowledge the relationship between them.  Dad pleads with him to enter into his (the father’s) joy and rejoice that “This, YOUR BROTHER” has returned, but Big Bro will have none of it.  He’d rather sit outside on the porch and wallow in being the wounded, self-righteous, Good Son than go in to a party where, instead of enjoying that lofty status, he will be one of two brothers equally beloved by their mutual father.

Now, to get back to the Red Cup Controversy.  It’s a silly one, absolutely, but in the reactions it drew, I think it is illustrative of what can happen in our responses to other Christians.  All too often, when one group of Christians takes a particular public stand or public action with which we disagree, especially one which we find frankly embarrassing, such as the red cup controversy, it is tempting to, like Big Bro, essentially disown our brothers and sisters.  “Well, yes, I’m a Christian,” we declare, then hastily add,” – but I’m not one of THOSE Christians!” In other words, we may grudgingly acknowledge that they are sons and daughters of the Father, but we’ll be darned if we’re going to own up to them being our brothers and sisters!

Don’t think I’m speaking here as if I’m not on the guilty list!  (Just look at my own reaction to the initial news of the controversy.)  It is because I know myself to be so guilty that the issue bothers me. There should be plenty of room in God’s family to disagree on a wide scope of opinions and perspectives.  The early church certainly had its share of differences.  Figuring out just what this new freedom in Christ meant was sometimes a head-scratcher.  Again and again Paul called on followers of Christ to be united – not necessarily in opinion, but always in love.  He pled with Euodia and Syntyche of Philippi to agree – not with each other, but in the Lord.  The issue isn’t whether or not we see everything the same.  The issue is whether we truly see the whole family as the same – not only as God’s children, but as our siblings.

Even if another Christian does something that you think makes all of us look stupid, claiming that “he may be your SON, but he sure ain’t my BROTHER” is an argument that just doesn’t hold water with God.

Not even in a red cup.