For the past week, I have been reading a book called,
Irresistible Revolution by Shane Claiborne.
In case you haven’t read it or know much about Shane, he is the
co-founder of an organization in Philly called “The Simple Way” (www.thesimpleway.org). He grew up in the United Methodist church in
a small town in Tennessee. Christianity
was what he knew and it became a part of his identity. Over the years he began to realize that
“American Christianity” is not exactly biblical. As he began to read the Bible, it began to
mess him up. In Irresistible Revolution,
Shane articulates what that meant for him. “The more I read the gospel, the
more it messed me up, turning everything I believed in, valued, and hoped for
upside-down…As I read Scriptures about how the last will be first, I started
wondering why I was working so hard to be first. And I couldn’t help but hope that there was
something more to life than pop Christianity. “
Shane realized that
in order to follow Christ you have to love the way Christ loves, and that does
not mean love only your friends and family and sometimes the other people you
meet along the way. No, that means love
everyone-which includes the poor, the lepers, the deaf, the blind and the
broken. In response to this thought, I
wanted to say, “Well, yeah, I love them too.”
But do I? When is the last time I
sat down and had a conversation with a blind guy, spent time at a nursing home
(besides the one time I took my small group for a few hours) or went to the
inner city and learned the story of an elderly homeless woman? I love them from a distance, but then again,
that isn’t really love, is it-not the Christ-like kind anyway. Christ
was not a brown haired, blue-eyed, white guy with a white robe and a cheesy
smile. No, that is not the Jesus of the
bible. He was a revolutionist. American Christianity has made Jesus into a
pansy, and following him as simple as saying a prayer and attending church on
Sundays. It bothers me. In the words of Cornell West, “We’ve taken
the blood at the foot of the cross and turned it into Kool-Aid”. We have watered down the Gospel to make it
“seeker-sensitive” and made Jesus fit the mold we would like him to fit into,
rather than see him for who he really was on this earth and the sinless,
selfless and sacrificial life he lived. The
real Jesus was homeless. He had nothing,
traveled from place to place and spent his time with prostitutes, lepers, and
tax collectors.
“For Jesus did not seek out the rich and powerful in order
to trickle down his kingdom. Rather, he
joined those at the bottom, the outcasts and undesirables, and everyone was
attracted to his love for people on the margins. (We know that we all are poor and lonely
anyway, don’t we?) Then he invited
everyone into a journey of downward mobility to become the least. As the old Franciscan slogan goes, ‘Preach
the gospel always. And when necessary,
use words.’ Or as our seventy-year-old
revolutionary Catholic nun, Sister Margaret, puts it, ‘We are trying to shout
the gospel with our lives.’ Many
spiritual seekers have not been able to hear the words of Christians because
the lives of Christians have been making so much horrible noise. It can be hard to hear the gentle whispers of
the Spirit amid the noise of Christendom.”
— Shane Claiborne, pg 127 Irresistible
Revolution.
The problem with seeing Christ for who he truly is and
understanding what he has called us to in the Bible, is that we can no longer
live in naivete. Once you discover the
undeniable truths of God’s word, you are held responsible for knowing it and
are called to act accordingly, which is both exciting and downright frightening
at the same time. This is the place I am
at right now. I don’t know much, but
what I do know is that I am tired of living comfortably, knowing full and well
that Christ did not die a brutal death so I could live beneath a blanket of
safety and security. He has called me,
and every one of his children, to get uncomfortable and radically live selfless
lives pleasing and honoring to him, loving all people for who he made them to be. Mother Teresa puts it best: “We can do no
great things, just small things with great love. It is not how much you do; but how much love
you put into doing it.”
I have no idea what all this looks like yet, but as I
mentioned, I am simply at the point of realization. All I know is I can no longer live for the
desires of my flesh. I can no longer
conform to the patterns of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of my
mind. It is then, and only then that I
will be able to test and approve what God’s will is for my life, his good, pleasing,
and perfect will (see Romans 12:2). I
must seek God’s face for who he truly is, not for the God American Christendom
has painted him to be. I dare you to do
the same. I believe you will be blown
away by what you discover when you are face to face with the one true and
living God. Whatever you do, do it for
His glory. Galatians 2:20 says,
“I have been
crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. The life I live in the body, I live by faith
in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.”
I want to live like he lives in me.
