The California Collection/TheCaliforniaCollection.cdr/his101/inst45.arj/INST45.TXT

Text File | 1990-05-26 | 6KB | 94 lines

RECOMMENDED FOR SERIOUS CHRISTIANS ONLY!
 by Tom Sine

.   So now it's our turn in the footlights.  What does it mean to follow this
visionary Jesus today?  What will happen if we accept Jesus into our hearts
and accept His vision of the present and coming kingdom into our lives?
.   For one thing, our understanding of what it means to be a disciple is
likely to be radically altered.
.   A surprising large number of American Christians have succombed to a
compartmentalized discipleship and a privitized piety.  We have compartments
in our lives for work, family, recreation, leisure time, vacations, and
shopping.  And, of course, we have one little compartment for church,
discipleship, and spiritual life.  But in all honesty, the so-called "secular"
compartments tend to dominate our lives, and we Christians are virtually
indistinguishable from our non-Christian neighbors.
.   Those of us who have narrowed God's redemptive activity to that of
rescuing our disembodied souls have particularly tended to trivialize what it
means to be a disciple and minimize the scope of what God is doing in our
world.
.   You see, in the popular understanding of what it means to be a Christian,
Christ comes in and tranforms our hearts--the spiritual compartment of our
lives.  And, of course, He heals our psychological hang-ups and even gives us
a little hand with our dispositions and relationships.  But our fundamental
life direction and life values are set by the visions and values of our
secular American culture.
.   For example, what is our life direction before we become Christian?
Upward mobility!  What is our life direction after we become Christians?
Upward mobility--except God is there to help us become more successful in our
high-altitude scrambling!
.   And what were our values before we became Christians?  Materialism,
individualism, and looking out for number one!  What were our values after we
became Christians?  Exactly the same.  In fact, we have found an amazing array
of ways to sanctify and rationalize our greed, autonomy, and self-interest by
embracing the gospel of success and prosperity.  (Ben Franklin, inventer of
the success gospel, once wrote, "Reason is a wonderful thing because one can
always find a reason for whatever it is that one wants to do.")
.   In fact, dissappointingly large number of Christian books, broadcasts, and
sermons seem to encourage this limited view of discipleship by accepting the
visions of American culture as an unquestioned given.  By default we allow the
secular culture to set the agenda for all the "non-spiritual" compartments of
our lives.  And then we try to work our faith in around the edges of already
overcrowded lives.  You can be sure that in the first century the disciples of
Jesus Christ weren't doing Roman culture nine-to-five with church on Sundays!
They understood that following Christ is a whole-life proposition that
transforms life direction, values--everything.
.   Whatever commands our time, energy, and resources commands us.  And if we
are honest, we will admit that our lives really aren't that different from
those our secular counterparts.  I suspect that one of the reasons we are so
ineffective in evangelism is that we are so much like the people around us
that we have very little to which we can call them.  We hang around church
buildings a little more.  We abstain from a few things.  But we simply aren't
that different.  We don't even do hedonism as well as the folks around
us...but we keep on trying.
.   As a result of this unfortunate accomodation, Christianity is reduced to
little more than a spiritual crutch to help us through the minefields of the
upwardly mobile life.  God is there to help us get our promotions, our house
in the subarbs, and our bills paid.  Somehow God has become a co-conspirator
in our agendas instead of our becomeing a co-conspirator in His.  Something is
seriously amiss.
.   Listen again to the invitation of the Master:  "Anyone who wishes to be a
follower of mine must leave self behind; he must take up his cross, and come
with me.  Whoever cares for his own safety is lost; but if a man will let
himself be lost for my sake and for the Gospel, that man is safe.  What does a
man gain by winning the whole world at the cost of his true self?"  (Mark
8:34-36 NEB)
.   Tragically, in contemporary Christianity we keep finding ways to soften
Jesus' radical teaching and ignore His compassionate vision.  As a
consequence, His vision has very little impact on either our lives or God's
world.  But thankfully, Christ never gives up.  He keeps urging us to set
aside our lesser agendas and seek His kingdom first.
.   The Scripture makes it pretty clear that this business of following Jesus
is a whole life propositon.  Listen to Paul's challenge to the Roman
Christians:  "Therefore I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer
you bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--which is your
spiritual worship.  Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world,
but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.  Then you will be able to
test and apporve what God's will is--His good, pleasing and perfect will."
(Rom. 12:1-2, NIV).
.   Urging us to give our "bodies to Christ" is simply another way of
challenging us to give ourselves totally to God, inviting Christ to renew our
minds and transform our values.
.   Therefore, if we want to discover our role in the drama of God, we won't
find it simply by making church on Sundays on compartment in our upwardly
mobile scramble.  Christ reminds us not to worry about our lives by asking,
"'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'  For
pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you
need them.  But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these
things will be given to you as well"  (Matt. 6:33, NIV).

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