Jan. 8 and I’m already tired
Now, don’t get me wrong, I love a good mid-day nap and sleeping in until 11am when I get a chance just like many others. This doesn’t involve the physical sleep that we all enjoy and, I’m willing to bet, many of us need. I’m talking here about being tired of the church adapting to the American dream. The more and more I read, the more and more I see all the little things that depict Jesus as a middle-aged white guy who wants to be your friend. We’ll be talking about taking the church back from the American dream in later weeks here at The Source, but the time is now. We think we need great music, good food, hyperactive greeters, and someone who is a dynamic speaker to make church “good”. Where does Jesus fit into this? What if The Source had old music, no food, not even a projector, but we encountered the living Word of God…would you still come? I was listening to a Christmas song during the holiday season that, even though was done beautifully, made me shake my head about how we depict the nativity. The first verse of the song goes like this:
In the bleak mid-winter
Frosty wind made moan,
Earth stood hard as iron,
Water like a stone;
Snow had fallen, snow on snow,
Snow on snow,
In the bleak mid-winter
Long ago.
Really? I think if people placed the story back in the context it came from, it would be clear that snow was probably no where around Bethlehem. Yet, since we celebrate it at this time, this has to be what it looked like. Like this song, there are many things we rationalize away in the Bible and by doing so, we do God’s Word an injustice. Jesus didn’t really want us to place Him over our families, Jesus really doesn’t call us to give away everything, and the list goes on. Christ’s words are definitive but today’s culture has taught us that they aren’t. So what do we do about it?
I think it comes down to something I learned in my ethics class this past semester: the “other”. It is going to take a radical change of mentality into thinking about everyone but ourselves. Last time I checked, the two most important commandments include loving God and others. We aren’t either of those. Quickly, off the top of your head, can you name two people today that you have lifted up? We need to ask this question EVERY DAY. I challenge all of us (myself included) to make a different kind of New Year’s Resolution that can start to rectify this radical thinking. We all think of ways on how we can better ourselves in our resolutions, so how bout making a resolution that betters a handful of others throughout the year? Financially, spiritually, physically, emotionally, how can we edify the other in way that shows that only God can receive the glory for it instead of ourselves? Our church must be committed to being transformed into something radical because eternity lies in the balance. And even if people say we’re crazy or that we shouldn’t “ruffle feathers”, the truth of Christ outweighs any of this. May this be our goal and passion for the New Year.
And the one sitting on the throne said, “Look, I am making all things new!” And then he said to me, “Write this down, for what I tell you is trustworthy and true.”-Revelation 21:5 |
