Just a short thought this morning – but fairly loaded.
I’ll start with the background story. My friends were talking about their son, a young adult who hasn’t been involved in a church community since he left home. He’s arrived at one of those places where the impact of faith in his life could pretty-much go either way. At work, his boss talks about Jesus all the time. You’d think that might be a good thing, right? But no, the way his boss pushes and imposes Christ is a complete turn off. Essentially, the presentation is “in-your-face” and intrusive.
The result is one more young adult discouraged from showing up at church and – consequently – one more young adult edged further away from the nurture and encouragement of a faith community.
I am coming to the conclusion that, rather than simply offering one more variety of experience and witness, much of what is passed off as Evangelical Christianity in North America actually runs counter to the Gospel message.
The Jesus I meet in the New Testament launched his ministry by telling people:
The Lord’s Spirit
has come to me,
because he has chosen me
to tell the good news
to the poor.
The Lord has sent me
to announce freedom
for prisoners,
to give sight to the blind,
to free everyone
who suffers,
and to say, “This is the year
the Lord has chosen.”
On another occasion Jesus summarized the Gospel by telling the following story (Luke 10:25-37):
An expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “what must I do to inherit eternal life?”
“What is written in the Law?” he replied. “How do you read it?”
He answered, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind’; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“You have answered correctly,” Jesus replied. “Do this and you will live.”
But he wanted to justify himself, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
(In reply Jesus told the story of The Good Samaritan….)
Then Jesus asked – “Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”
The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”
Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”
I’m concerned that the strident, pushy, Jesus-as-a-political-conservative, “We’re-right-you’re-wrong” militant fundamentalism that characterizes the message of the noisiest 21st-Century “Evangelicals” is actually promoting a message that cannot, indeed should not, be confused with what it means to be a Follower of the Way of Jesus.
CAUTION:
- YOU – “But Derek, I’m confused,” you may well say. “Didn’t you just make one of those strident, ‘I’m right you’re wrong,’ statements yourself?”
- ME – And that’s part of the problem, isn’t it? How does one take a stand against intransigence (refusing to moderate a position, especially an extreme position; uncompromising) without being equally guilty of intransigence?
But, regardless of how I’m presenting myself, and my evident hypocrisy, I honestly am taking a stand against what I see as a dangerous trend – and that is the manipulation of the name of Jesus to advance agendas that are primarily political, cultural, economic and social.
Jesus came to reconcile the world to God, to demonstrate the unconditional and redemptive love of God, and to teach us how to live as servants, agents of love in a broken world. That’s an agenda I can live with.
Peace – DEREK
Well said…Thank you.
Matthew 12 –
15 Aware of this, Jesus withdrew from that place. A large crowd followed him, and he healed all who were ill. 16 He warned them not to tell others about him. 17 This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah:
18 “Here is my servant whom I have chosen,
the one I love, in whom I delight;
I will put my Spirit on him,
and he will proclaim justice to the nations.
19 He will not quarrel or cry out;
no one will hear his voice in the streets.
20 A bruised reed he will not break,
and a smoldering wick he will not snuff out,
till he has brought justice through to victory.
21 In his name the nations will put their hope.”
Nothing better than timely scripture – thanks!
Given that God is beyond our language and culture, anything we say about Him in language and culture WILL BE WRONG. We are much better at saying what God is not (Impassible, Immortal, Incomprehensible, Unoriginate, etc). This is as it should be. To know God one must have a relationship. … or as Fr. Thomas Hopko said, “You cannot know God – but you have to know Him to know that.”
That’s right, Steven. We have a terestially-refrenced language that can’t even describe stuff on earth all that well. Our attempts fall short in the “can’t hit the broad side of a barn” category of misses when it comes to getting a handle on God.
The moment we attempt to describe God we have – necessarily – limited God to the dimensions of our (sometimes very) small intellects…
Love the Hopko quote!
Hear hear! Intransigence is indeed one of the most disheartening, concerning trends in modern Christianity. I neither believe that any one of us has “The Answer” as I believe there is “One Answer”. The gift of the spirit is that “Our Answer” is delivered through prayer, fellowship, and the reading of the Word.
Schuyler – you are right on!
Thanks for your input.
Peace – D
Could’nt have said it better Derek ! Jesus is very clear ! Thankyou
What’s the point of commenting if everything we say is inherently wrong? Geez. It seems so useless. Reminds me of a English criticism class I was forced to take in college. Just wanted to turn a in a blank page every week.
1 The words of the Teacher,[a] son of David, king in Jerusalem:
2 “Meaningless! Meaningless!”
says the Teacher.
“Utterly meaningless!
Everything is meaningless.”
Guess that book.
You must be responding to something I don’t know about…? How is what you say inherently wrong? Are you referring to the need for a comment to be approved? (It saves us from some real jerks, believe me)….
Love the Ecclesiastes reference….
Stephen Clark’s response about God being beyond our language and culture. Anything we say will be wrong. I had English Criticism flashbacks.
I understand!
Of course, I find a way to comment.
[…] very interesting. Yesterday’s post scored HUGE on the hit counter (check it out at, Not Always the Gospel Truth). And all the responses were positive – another “Who knew?” There are, evidently, […]