Living alone in Vegas I am reminded, now more than ever, of the difficulty of attempting to navigate life while clinging to the teachings of a Jewish mystic who claimed to be the Son of God and whose followers grew from a few hundred in the first century A.D. to a now-almost-uncountable (unaccountable?) global force. I am one of those followers and yet at the same time I am not blind to the faults, blemishes, and at times, downright un-Christian things said and done by these same followers in the name of the Son of God that leave me feeling like I have nothing in common with someone who could say or do those things. I get why people who are hurting and beat up and uncertain do not come streaming to the church in order to find healing and a place to re-orient their moral compasses. (There are some churches that are full to overflowing and I am not attempting to comment on them or their theology. Instead I am commenting on a general attitude towards Christianity from those beyond its walls. I know, I've been there.) Judgment is not my strong suit. Yet I follow a teacher who was unafraid to call people on their sin and offer them an alternative; one that they often accepted. He didn't seem to invite hatred from those whom he held to account for their sins, except when it was the religious leaders whom he was holding to account. When He held them account they got so mad they killed him. I follow a teacher who wasn't afraid to go to parties with addicts and prostitutes and corrupt government officials, wherever He was invited He went, and yet He managed to never betray His principles, His mission, or His identity. Somehow he was able to speak truth into their lives in such a way that they gave up everything to follow Him. He didn't antagonize, goad, or guilt people into giving up their way of life and doing it His way. He didn't alienate people with his rhetoric or his judgement. He didn't sit inside some beautiful manicured and landscaped office building in the middle of wealthy-suburban-America and write op-ed pieces or sermons about the decay of "traditional" values in the face of the secular onslaught of television and the internet. He didn't spend his time or his energy organizing anti-gay rallies, picketing abortion clinics, or lobbying for tougher criminal penalties for marijuana use. Instead, he went to dinner with everybody (even the ultra conservative right wing fundamentalist Jewish religious establishment), and everywhere He went His message was the same: "Love the Lord Your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. As I love you, so you should love each other." I am floored by the power and the simplicity of it. This doesn't mean that He was a wimp or wasn't man enough to act when action was called for, however I find it interesting that the only story where Jesus actually gets violent and angry is when He throws the money changers and lenders out of the Temple. His anger wasn't aimed at people lost in sin and darkness, His anger was aimed at the religious establishment who were supposed to be leading people out of darkness and into light and who had, instead, become as evil and corrupt as the culture around them. His anger wasn't directed at the addict who struggled daily to make sober choices, not with the prostitute who had no way out and no other way to survive, nor the corrupt official so far down the rabbit hole that he had no idea where to go or how to undo what was already a way of life; instead his anger was directed at the darkness itself, at evil in all its insidious forms, and also at the religious community who were supposed to offer protection, healing, and forgiveness in His name to those struggling through life.
Now, before you think I am writing some anti-church, anti-Christian piece, I need to tell you something: I love the church. I have dedicated my life to serving the church. I am a pastor. I believe that the church is the instrument through which God demonstrates His love to the world. I believe that the church should be the safest, greatest, and most influential organization on the planet. I believe that wherever we go, when people find out we are Christians, they should automatically know that we are safe people who love this world and are seeking to end poverty, famine, economic and racial inequality, and injustice. Sadly, however, this is the exception rather than the rule in Christian circles. Several times I have become so disillusioned with Christianity as an enterprise or as a business or as a PR firm or as an entertainment venue, that I've walked away from it, occasionally in rather public and spectacularly poor ways. Yet, no matter how far I walk away from Christianity, I can't escape the beauty and simplicity and love of the founder of Christianity. I am drawn back to Christian community because I know Christ, and life with Him is far superior to life without Him. I want the world to know Him and how superior life can be with Him and I believe that the best way for the world to see this is when Christian communities and churches and organizations begin to behave like their founder rather than like every other business out there. Rather than knowing us because of what we oppose, the world should know us because of what we embrace. We embrace forgiveness. We embrace second-chances...and third chances. We embrace that everyone is equal before God. We embrace the idea that love, not hate, is what will ultimately change the world. First we love the Wall Street banker who just stole our life savings, then we call that person to a higher way of thinking, to a life full of meaning and purpose, a life that is not centered on money, but on eternity. First we love the adulterous spouse who just left his or her partner and children for someone half their age, then we call that person to a higher way of thinking, to a life full of meaning and purpose, a life that is not centered on pleasure or self-fulfillment, but on eternity. First we love ourselves, with all our lies, masks, fears, and hang-ups, then we follow our master, a Jewish mystic who rose from the dead, proving He was and IS the Son of God, to a higher way of thinking, to a more noble and honorable way of living, to a life based not on religion, but on Jesus and the eternity He offers.
That is the church in the world. That is the church that I have dedicated my life to building.
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