The prayer in often sincere ‘Lord, I give everything to you’. But I think it is a lame excuse to look pious for a moment just to start doing things again later that day. This begins a cycle of guilt, disconnects us from our mission and ultimately makes us at the centre, not Christ.
Are Christians ever commanded to ‘give up everything?’ The answer to this question would take more than I am willing to write at this moment, but the conclusion would be ‘not in the sense we often are thinking when we say that’. The disciples tell Jesus that they have left everything, the rich young ruler leaves sad because he doesn’t give up everything, and all things are to be subject to Christ in the next age. But does this mean that we are to give up EVERYTHING? I don’t think we mean ‘just sin’ when we say ‘everything’. I think we mean, literally everything.
I remember being at evening church gatherings where my worship of God was pure and honest. I left humbled, yet joyful over the power that God yields in my life. Yet before bed as I watched the eleven o’clock sports highlights I felt guilty for going back to the pagan things I repented of hours ago. I even felt guilty about going to bed, should I give that up too?
I don’t think so. If we follow the ultimate good of the idea of giving up everything for God I think we ultimately see ourselves in a perfect church, meditating, praying and drinking tea made with ingredients listed in the Old Testament. This isn’t what God wants. Please resist the desire to disagree with me here. God wants to redeem our lives. God wants to put us on a mission to proclaim the gospel. We should not think of giving up everything item by item until we are like him but rather redeeming everything so we are not empty, but full of godliness. We should keep our jobs, be connected to our culture, speak to our children, cut our lawns, make dinners, have sex with our spouse, clean our bathroom, vote in elections, and if there is time left over, watch the sports highlights.
The end result of giving everything up to God is a Christian elitism where some Christians are superior to others and these elitists form a church that is disconnected from both the world and any Christians who are not as good as they are. This is not the church. The church is both radically connected to culture and radically different than culture at the same time.
If instead of trying to give up everything (which is really impossible anyway) and started asking God what he wants us to do with everything, we’ll be in the direction to transform our lives.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
The gospel...plus (part three)
Culture is unavoidable. The language we speak, our interests, jobs, food, humor, etc is all cultural. The idea that that the church needs to avoid cultural fads is simply an excuse to choose one cultural expression over another. It is impossible for the church to do things the same way for centuries and it obviously hasn’t happened.
There is one thing that should not change. It is the central teaching that we are bad, God is righteous and we can only be made righteous by God saving us through Jesus. This is the gospel, the only teaching the New Testament has.
The battle though, is often not fought for the gospel, but for how the gospel is applied in culture. We keep waiting for the ‘right’ cultural expression of the gospel and when we think we’ve found it, a little time goes by, our culture changes, and we are searching for it again. Some examples:
The Salvation army seemed to have it right when they sought to enroll people in ‘God’s army’ in the post-WWII culture. It was well respected until a new generation grew up in a country no longer at war. It was then criticized.
Dressing up for church, standing during services, removing hats at the church door seemed to be part of the Christian life for those who grew up respecting royalty. Since we took off our hats, dressed proper and stood at attention when the queen came to town, so much more should we do the same when we are in God’s house. Now that royalty looks less and less like God we don’t think this is so important anymore.
Reformers like Martin Luther wrote lyrics to songs sung in the pubs and the puritans brewed beer. Alcohol and Christianity went together like steak and red wine until prohibition 100 years ago. When drinking was associated with criminal activity drinking was heavily criticized. Only recently has this cultural trend swung back again and Christians once again drink beer and talk theology.
Since culture is not right and wrong, there will never be a perfect expression of the gospel. Rather we should seek to apply the unchanging truth about the work of God to love us in every culture. The application should constantly be changing, but the message not. Drinking or not drinking isn’t always right, but applying the gospel to the current culture.
I find this to be detrimental when churches create a culture that is so different from the surrounding city that they demand the people’s culture change so they can be forgiven by God. They ask them to listen to a specific style of music, do certain activities, speak a certain way, dress a certain way, vote for one particular political party, etc. I hope that our church looks like the cultures of Kimberley, but with the marked difference that the gospel makes.
I believe in the gospel, not the gospel plus common interests, not the gospel plus my position on a specific non-essential issue, and certainly not the gospel plus some cultural element.
There is one thing that should not change. It is the central teaching that we are bad, God is righteous and we can only be made righteous by God saving us through Jesus. This is the gospel, the only teaching the New Testament has.
The battle though, is often not fought for the gospel, but for how the gospel is applied in culture. We keep waiting for the ‘right’ cultural expression of the gospel and when we think we’ve found it, a little time goes by, our culture changes, and we are searching for it again. Some examples:
The Salvation army seemed to have it right when they sought to enroll people in ‘God’s army’ in the post-WWII culture. It was well respected until a new generation grew up in a country no longer at war. It was then criticized.
Dressing up for church, standing during services, removing hats at the church door seemed to be part of the Christian life for those who grew up respecting royalty. Since we took off our hats, dressed proper and stood at attention when the queen came to town, so much more should we do the same when we are in God’s house. Now that royalty looks less and less like God we don’t think this is so important anymore.
Reformers like Martin Luther wrote lyrics to songs sung in the pubs and the puritans brewed beer. Alcohol and Christianity went together like steak and red wine until prohibition 100 years ago. When drinking was associated with criminal activity drinking was heavily criticized. Only recently has this cultural trend swung back again and Christians once again drink beer and talk theology.
Since culture is not right and wrong, there will never be a perfect expression of the gospel. Rather we should seek to apply the unchanging truth about the work of God to love us in every culture. The application should constantly be changing, but the message not. Drinking or not drinking isn’t always right, but applying the gospel to the current culture.
I find this to be detrimental when churches create a culture that is so different from the surrounding city that they demand the people’s culture change so they can be forgiven by God. They ask them to listen to a specific style of music, do certain activities, speak a certain way, dress a certain way, vote for one particular political party, etc. I hope that our church looks like the cultures of Kimberley, but with the marked difference that the gospel makes.
I believe in the gospel, not the gospel plus common interests, not the gospel plus my position on a specific non-essential issue, and certainly not the gospel plus some cultural element.
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