Wednesday, October 23, 2019

Realistic Christianity

As a colleague recently joked, we either live in a small world or clergy don't have enough friends, because recently I re-connected with a man who made a large impact in my life during my college days.  Apparently, this man is great friends with an UMC pastor who was appointed close to me a few months ago.  Who knew?  This man's name is Matthew Works (you can read about him and his mission here: Huff Post Article). 

Anyway, during my lunch conversation with Matthew, we were talking about some of his frustrations that his life and message hadn't yet led to any substantial change.  Why were churches not doing more to open themselves, literally and through communal life and ministry, to those who are homeless and/or in dire poverty?  Why do churches pride themselves more on offering hospitality to a homeless guest than on actually welcoming that person into the community?  While I reminded him that, indeed, his message had made substantial change in many people's lives, including my own, in how they disciple Jesus Christ, I did understand and relate to his frustrations.  As a preacher, I am often confused by the resistance many Christians have to the life and message of Christ.  Did Jesus himself not invite and call and command us to feed the hungry, shelter the homeless, and liberate the oppressed?  And did he not also say that those who did not follow this call as if the homeless, hungry, and oppressed are Jesus himself will find themselves rejected by the Lord in the life to come?  A long and fruitful conversation between us had begun as I recalled that, when I invited Matthew to speak at my alma mater, St. Michael's College, a professor welcomed his talk in one of his classes but then, afterwards, rather than comment on the meaning of a church's and society's need to open its doors, questioned Matthew's character.  I have never recovered from the shock I felt.  What, then, is the resistance all about?

Before I return to the fruit of the conversation I had with Matthew, it bears sharing a reflection on what we call evangelical Christianity I recently heard from a colleague.  After about a year of listening to Christian radio stations daily for an hour or more, he realized that he had never heard anyone quote the words of Jesus, except for self-referential statements--I am the Way, Son of God, etc.  I realize that I, too, have never heard Jesus's words quoted or spoken of on Christian radio stations.  Scripture most often quoted concern the peace that comes from faith, how to be saved, proverbs about working hard or being wise or putting trust in God, and the like.  My friend came to the right conclusion, I believe, in reflecting that evangelical Christianity shies away from discipleship, the type of radical life that our faith in Christ as disciples is supposed to lead to.  "Faith without works is dead."  Faith alone justifies us through Christ, but that faith should lead more and more to living the life Christ called us to.  To not speak about that life and what Jesus said about it means that we are purposely cutting off part, if not most, of one's faith life.  Perhaps it is because many are afraid of being as hospitable, inclusive, and justice-oriented as Jesus is, and we'd rather just say, "I'm saved, let's move on."

Or, perhaps, we ignore Jesus's statements on living out our faith through grace because we believe such calls are unrealistic.  That was my attempt at understanding in my conversation with Matthew, anyway.  How often so-called liberal Christians hear warnings that their demands and actions are unrealistic.  Even and maybe especially Martin Luther King, Jr. heard such warnings.  MLK's argument against white Christians' insistence on moderate, realistic change is one of the most powerful passages I've ever read.  Likewise, it must be plainly unrealistic to many Christians to open our churches to those without shelter, to be a constant refuge, to engage in ministries that fight for and enact systemic, meaningful change in and for people's lives rather than occasional alleviation.  'The way things are' simply make Jesus's "sell all your possessions" and other calls on our lives unrealistic, so why bother including any of that in our understanding of what it means to be a disciple?

Then Matthew's ready response floored me.  Referencing Peter's speech in Acts 3, Matthew commented that what Peter is really saying to those staring in unbelief and anger at the miracle Peter and John performed is, "Why do you wonder at what seems unrealistic?  Jesus the Christ, who claimed to be the ideal, was and is real after all, and it is through him that we heal."  Jesus the Christ, who claimed to be the ideal, and because of his claims was despised and later crucified, was and is real.  Now, there is nothing particularly startling in that observation.  Anyone who professes faith in Jesus as Son of God probably agrees.  But I suppose many, of which I was one before this conversation, may not have thought of Matthew's conclusion: therefore, a Christianity that is idealistic is also realistic; and a Christianity that is not idealistic is not realistic.  By urging gradual change, less radical policies, calling others to 'be realistic' because the ideal is impossible and won't work, by definition denies what is real--Jesus Christ himself who, according to Colossians, is the foundation of all that exists, all that is real.  Jesus Christ, the ideal, is the real, and is the foundation of all that is real.  To deny the ideal is thus to deny all that is real.

There is then no way out for us.  We cannot say, "that idea or way of living would be great, but it's too ideal."  The second we do, we deny Jesus, who was and is both ideal and the real.  We have to actually shelter the homeless, actually liberate the oppressed, actually bring good news to the poor, actually feed the hungry.  Whether we're talking about racial equality, income equality, gender and sex equality, housing equality, any number of other equalities, healthcare, pacifism, and on and one, the ideal must become the only goal for disciples of Christ because that is the only way to ensure a realistic Christianity.

I can hear a familiar refrained response rattling around in my head: "But there are some things that are just impossible."  The most common example I hear is that Jesus was Jesus and we can't be like Jesus, that's impossible.  I can imagine any number of other related arguments: it's impossible not to engage in war from time to time, and on and on.  Well, the funny thing about this familiar refrain is that Jesus preemptively destroyed its power.  "Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect."  "The student will do greater things than the teacher."  "Abide in me, and I'll abide in you."  "Go, and do likewise."  For those who ignore Jesus's non-self-referential statements, it is easy to dismiss these as impossible, but then we are explicitly denying Jesus as real or otherwise and removing any meaning from our now defunct faith.  Jesus called us to be like him and more and then promised to grant us the Holy Spirit, his own peace, his grace, in order to fulfill the call.  To believe in Jesus as the Way, the Truth, the Life, the Son of God, is to necessarily also believe that he would not call us to what is impossible and instead make the impossible possible.  "How can this be?" Mary asked.  "With God, all things are possible."  (By the way, I wrote a book along these lines: Created Human Divinity: long subtitle.  Check it out)  When in 2 Peter we read that we have been given God's great promises in order to be "partakers of the divine nature," we must then understand ourselves to indeed be partakers--in other words, cooperative, also having. 

Perhaps we are afraid of what seems impossible and unrealistic.  Or perhaps even we feel weak and powerless and inferior in the face of the impossible and unrealistic.  Powerlessness and inferiority are not our friends, that's for sure.  Yet, God's promise is to make the impossible possible through his majestic grace, by pouring out His Holy Spirit upon us, to make us like Jesus, partakers of the divine nature even, to fulfill the call and model Jesus set out for us.  We must, then, in our personal lives, in our church lives, in our politics and in our advocacy, faithfully strive for and live into the radically unrealistic, the ideal.  We must counter resistance with the words and life of Jesus, the ideal, the real, and we must never give up or lose hope.  Only then is our faith at all real or realistic.

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