"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.
They worship me in vain; their teachings are but rules taught by men."
Matthew 15:8-9, Isaiah 29:13
Every article about this "heaven and hell" stuff that's been in the Red and Black these last couple of weeks has gotten me thinking. What is it about Christianity that makes so many people not want to get to know a God so gracious and loving? What is it about our belief in the God that loves a dirty people so much that He would die for us when we didn't deserve it? It doesn't make sense to me how something so great isn't attractive. I think I've figured it out, and I don't like the answer. I actually found it between reading my bible tonight and WFBC Sunday morning, with a little bit of Casting Crowns to help out.
We'll start with Casting Crowns and move forward to scripture so that we have increasing importance as we go. Here are some lyrics for you:
"What this world needs is not another one hit wonder with an axe to grind, another two bit politician peddling lies, another three ring circus society. What this world needs is not another sign waving super saint that's better than you, another ear pleasing candy man afraid of the truth, another prophet in an Armani suit."
If I was the world, and that was all I saw, I don't know if I'd want it either. I hesitate to say any of this, so I hope I'm not perceived as arrogant. As a general rule, I'm guilty of just about anything I could be accused of, including not representing my Jesus right. I'm not proud of it, but it's true. Unfortunately, the fact of the matter is that just like Jesus called out the pharisees in those verses, he could call a lot of "Christians" out today. By and large, Christianity today is so concerned with rules and with the "checklist" that we've forgotten the grace and love of our God, the anticipation of Heaven, and living with the relationship between Him and us being our top priority.
Maybe instead of telling people about the rules, we should tell them about how many rules we, the Christians, have already broken and how Christ has forgiven us anyway. Maybe instead of honoring God with our lips and Christian T-shirts and hoodies, we should take the extra time to walk with that lost person, take the extra time to eat lunch with that person sitting alone. I'm just pouring conviction on myself right now, but I'm going to say it anyway. Christianity is not about bashing anyone. "Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification" (Romans 14:19). It's about the love and grace of God and how He freed us from the debt we couldn't pay.
Besides, worship isn't following a list of steps. It's certainly not the formula of "announcements, 2 hymns, choir, offering/offering music, sermon, fried chicken social." "For I desire mercy, not sacrifice, and acknowledgment of God rather than burnt offerings" (Hosea 6:6). Worship God like this. Understand that this is what Christ wants. The whole beginning of the book of Malachi is about worship done wrong. The priests offered offerings to God, but their hearts weren't in it. They were going through motions, just to get the job done. Can we honestly expect the power of God to be unleashed through us just because we wear a Christian shirt and decide that cussing isn't for us? If worship, an encounter with Christ Himself, doesn't change the way we live our lives and how we act on a day-to-day basis, we haven't worshipped and our time has been wasted.
Have we become complacent and content to just call ourselves Christians and let that be it? "But suppose that servant is wicked and says to himself, 'My master is staying away a long time,' and he then begins to beat his fellow servants and to eat and drink with drunkards. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the hypocrites, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth" (Matthew 24:48-51).
Don't mistake me for saying our salvation is earned by our works. Nothing could be farther from the truth! That's exactly what the world DOESN'T need to hear, because it's just flat not true. Our salvation is by the grace of Christ alone, completely apart from anything we could do. We can't do anything to make God love us more, we can't do anything to make Him love us less. He loves us, because He loves us, because He loves us. End of story. That being said, "But someone will say, 'You have faith; I have deeds.' Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do. You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that- and shudder" (James 2:18-19). Also, "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:12b). There's no way to get around the fact that once we're saved, we have a job to do. Not rules to follow, a job to do. There's a difference. That job is not a tedious one. Notice that I didn't say it was easy- just that I said it wasn't tedious. The joy that God gives His kids is so great whenever we're walking in His will.
What we talked about at WFBC Sunday morning was the parable of the talents (found in Matthew 25:14-30). In that parable, the master gave every servant a different measure of money to be taken care of while he was away. The man with five talents put the five to work and earned five more. The man with 2 put the 2 to work and earned 2 more. The man with one wimped out, got scared, and buried his talent in the ground. When the master came back, he was proud of the 5-man and the 2-man, but cast the 1-man out into the darkness, stripped the one talent from him and gave it to the man with 5. Jesus said this teaching. We would be fools as CHRISTians to ignore it. God's given us all jobs, and some people are entrusted with far more to begin with than others. Does that give us an excuse to not work with what we have? Absolutely not! Just look at the 1-man and you'll see that. His talent was taken from him and given to the man with the most. Does that seem not fair? That's because we usually think of things from the servant's angle, not the master's. For the servant, it may seem harsh to have everything stripped from him. But to the master, why leave a sum as large as a talent in the hands of a man who isn't going to do anything with it when you can give it to someone who doubled five times the amount the 1-man had? God's will is going to get accomplished. He's blessed us with the opportunity to be part of it, and that is the greatest honor anyone could ever wish for. We don't deserve one bit of the goodness that He's given us. It's just important to remember that God's given us this job because He wants to, not because He HAS to.
God doesn't NEED us, but He absolutely does love us and want us.
So did this turn into one big rabbit-trail discussion? I sure hope not. I don't think it did. Basically the reason the world doesn't want to be a Christian right now (in addition to fallen human nature, which is a HUGE factor) is us. Check the Barna polls. Most professing Christians' lives are indistinguishable from those of non-Christians. We're suffering from Plankeye. Christianity isn't the rules. It isn't sinner bashing. It's the grace and love of Jesus. It's freedom from a debt we can't pay. It's a relationship with God that is impossible through anybody else besides Jesus. We have a responsibility as Christians to do the work that God has set out for us, NOT get in the way of it. T-shirts are nice, but they are no substitute for following Christ with your heart.
Man, I have the feeling I just blasted myself to kingdom come.
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