Jesus Wore Silk Knickers Part Deux - Guilty of Hubris
Praise Thee Lawd! It would seem that some people these days are
actually thinking about what they believe, and why. That got to be a good thing,
yes? It’s good that those who do think sometimes
sign up, voluntarily and thoughtfully to christianity. I’d add that it’s also
good that folk sign up to other faiths too. It’s the God realisation thing I’ve written
of in the past. I think that if one
should choose to acknowledge their Spirituality and follow God it is important
that they do so not passively or traditionally like congregations of old, but as
an active, engaged worshipper.
I follow Jesus but other
saviours are available. Or are they? It’s a very contentious statement that. But it’s no more contentious or arrogant than
to claim that “There is only One road to God”.
To claim that my faith is bigger than your faith or that my God is bigger
than or God, or that “Your God does not exist”, it’s the stuff that gets folk
killed. And for what? For daring to have a different thought
process. For taking a very brave step of
faith to accept that you actually believe in the things that cannot be
seen. To follow to the letter, fervently
and fundamentally a book of rules and regulations. Outside of the consideration of people who
believe in the same things as you, except that they wear a different kit.
The concept of the Saviour
is in fact in the main, the property of Christianity. Other faiths are still waiting ( I admire
their patience), or they do not subscribe to the need for rescue.
Salvation. Saved.
They are words of Christianese. Phrases like “saving the lost” really
get on my tits.
Not because I don’t
understand the merit or the significance of the stuff that is recorded that
Jesus spoke. No. It’s the way that the traditional
Christian church has stolen and bastardised the power of the words and turned
them into a call to arms (literally over the millennia) to convert people into
their way of thinking. To get people saved
seems to be the raison d'être for many purporting
followers of their Personal Lord and Saviour.
Lord! There’s another word that
would be totally lost to a non believer – what’s a lord? Lord Jeremy Archer? Bugger that for a game of soldiers.
My point is this – whilst the
faithful evangelist might have sincere motives, they have gotten the cart
before the horse. I’ve lost count of the
number of times and the notches on crucifixes of those who modestly boast of
how many people they’ve gotten saved. I
might be wrong, but I thought it was Gods job to be the messiah. There’s a limit to how much we can mimic
Jesus as instructed. Feeding and
clothing the poor and needy is one thing, praying for the sick and dying is
another but to step into “the redeemers” shoes is pushing the envelope a bit
too far.
Don’t get me wrong. I believe that we are equipped by faith to be
a conduit to the miraculousness of Jesus (been there, seen it, can’t explain
it, believe it), but not to be literally “Christ Like”. That would put us on an equal footing with
the Almighty. Christ – The Anointed One – God come down.
Whilst the jargon often annoys
me (it always did, even when I was leading a church), I think it is often
something for people to hide behind, saves them thinking too much.
Why is it that all too often
evangelical speak comes across as being so patronising, judgemental, as if we
know it all? I can think of nothing more
patronising or arrogant as to tell someone that they are “lost”.
Evangelical jargon stands out to us because
it is often so out of tune with the prevailing culture. I accept that every
group or tribe has its language and customs, its in jokes, its focus points and
USP‘s but surely in terms of marketing (that what evangelism is) if the people
you are selling to don’t understand your lingo or worse still feel insulted or
threatened by what your are telling them, then it’s no wonder that the uptake
of new recruits is on the decline.
It’s not as
if the product is rubbish either.
Eternal life? No pain, no sorrow? Get out of jail free card for all the bad
stuff I’ve ever done? Fuck me, yes please, sign
me up, I’m in. It’s a no brainer.
Perhaps the problem with is
not so much the language but the attitude which sometimes accompanies it, because
it is about being exclusive, a kind of club that is only open to people who can
say ‘washed in the blood’ without any sense of discomfort. “Washed in the blood? Whoa….. you nearly had me with the free
gifts, but on second thoughts, nah, no thanks”.
Any one who thinks that they
have the "answer" can be patronising if it is in their nature to be
so. There are very few people who believe that they have the "answer"
to life and are humble about it. I know from my own past evangelical behaviour –
arrogant in the extreme. Maybe it is
human nature for most of us to be arrogant or patronising. Sad eh?
I’m being particularly critical
and I’m fairly certain that the Christian friends I still cling to and love,
don’t talk such overt crap. However,
there’s still some inherent Christianese that happens behind closed doors. I’m
certain of that and as long as the people to whom they are speaking really
understand the jargon then it shouldn’t be used at all. In any case why do we need certain phrases
that are culturally hundreds if not thousands of years out of date?
Certainly there is still
slavery and we must continue to fight against it. But on a personal level, the average person
we meet and greet outside Tesco’s or in the pub, doesn’t really grasp the
concept of being under servitude (apart to the IR – Bloody Romans!!!) let alone being lost to God.
“We can tell the world that there is life after death, but the world really seems to be wondering if there is life before death”. ― Shane Claiborne, The Irresistible Revolution: Living as an Ordinary Radical : READ IT
So. Back to the rant. Being lost, Salvation and
all that
Tom Wright said this: “My anxiety about what has now been seen as the traditional Reformed view (though there are many traditional Reformed views!) is that it focuses all attention on ‘me and my salvation’ rather than on ‘God and God’s purposes’, which – as we see in the Gospels, and in e.g. Romans 8 – are much wider than just my salvation”.
To Paraphrase Wright - What’s missing is (St) Pauls big picture of God’s gospel going out to save the whole world, all of creation, with Christians as part of that. What’s missing is the big, Pauline view of the church, Jew and Gentile on equal footing, as the sign to the religious powers of the world that Jesus is God and they aren’t. Bold type and emphasis mine.
I’m harking back to part 1 of this 4 part trilogy here. Stripping back the focus of the “personal relationship”. If God is interested in we plebs then he’s interested in us all whether we believe in Jesus or not.
Preachers and teachers often speak about the “lost,” the “unsaved,” or non-Christians, but who are these people? What does it mean to be lost? What does it mean to be a non-Christian? In simple terms all these descriptions to Christians mean people that are not in a right relationship with God and they will be punished for their sins (Ill take up that hot potatoe in part 3). Both the Old Testament and the New Testament teach that the lost (unsaved) will be fallen from Gods Grace, favour and protection, unless that is they turn to Him and worship his son Jesus (according to the New Testament (NT) writers. They also claim that the OT points to this also).
To prevent this from happening, Christians teach that we must repent (think again and change) of all bad ways (sins) that do not conform to their teaching. We are also told that we must also be “Born Again”. Born Again! Another thorn in the side of those who don’t understand the language.
In reality it’s a good image, a great metaphor that Jesus used to illustrate a brand new start in life or in reality a new way of looking at life and religion, i.e. just like being a new born.
Unfortunately the Christian church has seized upon this phrase and overloaded its meaning to only include those who haven’t made the commitment to be a Christian. Many believe being born again to be a one off exercise. I’m here to assure you that it’s actually a regular if not daily discipline. Why? Well in my case, since I got reborn for the first time, I have screwed up many, many times and given that I need to be “made new” to keep my Christian badge, I reckon I’m in a constant state of sticking my head through the spiritual birth canal of god.
Shane Claiborne (Christian Hippy, Eco Warrior and all round good egg, remember him) said this:
“We do need to be born again, since Jesus said that to a guy named Nicodemus. But if you tell me I have to be born again to enter the Kingdom of God, I can tell you that you have to sell everything you have and give it to the poor, because Jesus said that to one guy, too.
But I guess that's why God invented highlighters, so we can highlight the parts we like and ignore the rest.”
Jesus only ever used the phrase "you must be born-again" twice - and that was in one conversation with the bloke Claibourne mentions above - Nicodemus. And yet it has become the basis for one of the most confusing, misused and abused, misunderstood and despised ideas in the history of the Church. For huge numbers of Christians, being 'born-again' has become the expression they almost invariably use to speak of the moment when they 'found Jesus' and as I suggested above their subsequent ongoing state. However, for the vast majority of people outside the Church, the term has come to symbolise everything about Christianity they most despise and fear. For them it sums up a type of Christianity that is not only judgemental, bigoted, arrogant and narrow-minded but is also about a 'them' and 'us'; 'in' or 'out', exclusive approach to life.
The truth is that when Jesus spoke to Nicodemus (a sincere, questioning and spiritually-seeking religious man), he was not using the term 'born-again' in the same sense we have come to do today. Jesus was simply saying that entering into God's Kingdom or Shalom (ultimate peace – Nirvana?) is about seeing the world differently and adopting his (Jesus) new agenda. It's about dropping the crushing, life-draining, religious dogma and discovering the freedom that God loves you as you are and that his Kingdom is available to you. And the point is, this was the journey Nicodemus was already on already. Why else was he secretly seeking Jesus out in the middle of the night? He is already searching, asking questions; he is catching some of the fire, but he wants to get closer. So do I.
Obviously then, I’m not attempting here to ignore the things that Jesus said. Indeed I’m a huge fan. The thing is though, is that we need to contextualise stuff and look for its meaning in our societies today in the 21st Century.
A few years ago I really bought into the concept of being a Red Letter Christian (in some Bibles the words of Jesus are printed in Red). “Red Letter Christians” are those “who take the radical teachings of Jesus seriously and who are committed to living them out in our everyday lives” and every generation has had to do the dirty business of figuring out exactly what that looks like”. – McLaren & Campolo
Brian McLaren and Tony Campolo wrote one of their controversial books called Adventures in Missing the Point, in which they in conversation invite you join them on an adventure that's about uncovering and naming faulty conclusions, suppositions, and assumptions about the Christian faith. It’s a good read also. Lots of chuckles from me in ant case.
I still maintain that we need to question everything if we are to keep our faith fresh. To really challenge the big issues of the faith that we claim to believe in, follow and practice. Just because I ask questions and voice my doubts, doesn’t mean that I don’t believe that Jesus is God.
To finish off this bit. Try this for a bombshell:
A bit of backtracking here but I just found this quote from CS Lewis, in his book Mere Christianity.
"The world does not consist of 100 per cent Christians and 100 per cent non-Christians. There are people who are slowly ceasing to be Christians but who still call themselves by that name . . . There are other people who are slowly becoming Christians though they do not yet call themselves so. There are people who do not accept the full Christian doctrine about Christ but who are so strongly attracted by him that they are his in a much deeper sense than they themselves understand. There are people in other religions who are being led by God's secret influence to concentrate on those parts of their religion which are in agreement with Christianity and who thus belong to Christ without knowing it."
HANG ON!!! Check out that last line “who thus belong to Christ without knowing it”! Bloody hell – Is one of the greatest Christian champions say that Jesus (The Christ) recognises people of other faiths? Does the Saviour thus offer Salvation to non Christian believers? Are Muslims and Hindu’s (technically The Lost) Saved, without following the Christian Religious Doctrines and Rites?
To be continued......................
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