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Recently I completed Irresistible Revolution, by Shane Claiborne. The book challenged me in ways that I had never been challenged before. I know that I am one of many, who have been touched by this book and others like it. I believe that the Church (Christ’s Body) in America is on the verge of a revolution, and that it is gaining momentum. Hearts all over our nation are longing to become impassioned by something they believe in and something they can participate in. They are searching for something fresh, no longer stagnant, but ever changing in correlation to the environment it finds itself. Something not tossed around by the culture or conformed by, but that is relevant. Well I am on board! My soul bursts with excitement knowing that there is revival taking place.
What if the word’s “church” or “Christian” would trigger thoughts like: haven, love, and faithful instead of hypocrisy, judgment, and boring? What if Christians were almost as loveable as Christ to those who are broken and in need of healing?
My father-in-law warned me that Claiborne’s book would “mess you up” and, well . . . it has. I have been sent a gut check, no, a heart check and I am afraid of the results. The question that reverberates within me that is so frightening is this: Will nothing change?
Will I continue to leave Jesus’ words to the Rich man (Mark 10:17-31) and to Peter (Mark 8:34-37) for interpretation? A matter of opinion and situational, or are they words for my life? Are they words for all of our lives? How many times have you and I been the rich man? I’ll tell you! Every time we read the passage and walk away with everything we had before we came.
Will nothing change? Will my life be a pursuit of wealth and success? Aiming for a beautiful new home, dependable newish cars, romantic dates to popular restaurants and the latest blockbuster, exciting vacations, a comfortable savings account, and a worriless retirement? Oh don’t get me wrong, it would be garnished here and there with subtle undertones of commitment to “carrying my own Cross” and a hint of “compassion” from time to time for the weak, the forgotten, the burdened, the searching, and the sinful like me.
I’m sorry but that is exactly the lifestyles that have gotten the “church” to where it is today. I want to be different. I do want to be changed and I don’t want to accept just pieces of Christ’s life. I don’t want to explain away anymore the radical lifestyles of Jesus and his earliest followers.
I want to be changed.
This verse summarizes both my biggest life ambition and my biggest fear. I John 2:5-6, “But if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him: Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did.”
Would you pray for Ellen and me to be formed into the truer likeness of Christ? Pray that we and others would change.
Monday, July 2, 2007
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2 comments:
Wes (and Ellen),
Amen. Your reflection has bumped the Irresistible Revolution up on my reading list.
I've been wrestling the past few days with the dreadfulness of some of Jesus' statements. I loved the question you asked;
"What if the words "church" or "Christian" would trigger thoughts like: haven, love, and faithful instead of hypocrisy, judgement, and boring?"
I'm reading a book by Brennan Manning called "The Importance of being Foolish."
Here is an excerpt I think is relevant:
"The implications here for the serious Christian seeking to have the mind of Christ Jesus (Phil 2:5) and the fullness of life in the Holy Spirit are far-reaching. For the majority of us, what is most real is the world of our material existence; what is most unreal is the world of God. This is a fact so enormous, a subversion so radical, that the liar in the biblical sense is largely taken for granted in our society. For the religious dimension of life is a kind of optional accessory, entirely a matter of taste. Faith is a halfhearted assent to a dusty pawnshop collection of dogmatic declarations. What's needed in this world are people of influence, people who move and shake with the best of them, people who stand on their own two feet and direct their own destinies. It is the powerful who get things done, not those who stand in brokenness and need.
Those, you might say, are the motives of the godless; we are different. We believe in religion, in faith. Perhaps. Yet, there is a breed of liars who are open to the Spirit of Jesus but in a superficial fashion. They receive everything, but nothing remains rooted. They champion ecclesial renewal and change for change's sake. They spot the speck of sawdust in the hierarchical eye but not the two-by-four in their own. They are pro-life where the unborn fetus is concerned but anti-life where the Muslim, the sinful, and the guilty are concerned. Butterfly types who sip on a thousand different blossom cups. Sanguine people of the moment-today elated to the heavens, tomorrow depressed to the point of death. They guide themselves by what's new and swim with the stream. Their highest moral imperative is to keep up a good front. Never suggest to them that the cost of discipleship is big, that there is no cheap Pentecost."
I've been wrestling pride for the ability to direct my future and become "successful" and "influential." I think Brennan nails it when he contrasts "movers and shakers" to those who "stand in brokenness and need."
I'm with you guys.
I want to be changed.
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