CommonChristianity: finding Jesus

5:00 PM | Posted by Common Christianity | | Edit Post

Spirituality Column #624

October 30, 2018

Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

Sales Pitch

By Bob Walters

Christians are promised persecution and suffering – the Bible tells me so – yet preachers continually sell Jesus as a real-time antidote to worldly problems.

Let’s discuss that for a couple of minutes.

There are two fairly obvious but not quite opposite ends of the modern American evangelical spectrum at play – commonly, sadly, almost predominantly – that really don’t have much to do with anything the Bible actually says. On the one hand, it is routinely implied that if you are sitting in church your presence must indicate that your life is a real mess. Why else would you go to church if not to fix your problems? And Jesus will fix them, right?

A down-the-road cousin of that doctrine – another wrong shoe on the same false foot – is the prosperity crowd: folks who have been in church for a while and crow about the wonderfulness of their worldly lives since they found Jesus. They are rich, smart, good looking, and healthy. You just have to pray right and act right.

In the first case we have Jesus as “Mr. Fix-it”; the identifier of that kind of faith is your necessary misery. In the other, the identifier is the “Blessed!” license plate frame on your Mercedes. Both are false doctrinal flags of the same skewed orthodoxy: the focus is on the appetite-filled worldly self, not the freeing, forgiving divine Jesus.

Another false yet common ecclesial gambit is the doctrine of “nothing you are doing with your faith is quite right.” You don’t pray right, you don’t give right, you don’t worship right, you don’t read the Bible right. “You’re a sinner condemned to Hell … and that’s the good news,” my wry preacher friend Shane Fuller likes to say. There is no comfort to be had in a life of faith in Jesus Christ, because – these preachers constantly declare – there is always something you’re doing wrong. The identifier here is guilt.

Where we are confused is at the intersection of our worldly wants and our divine needs. Your life is a mess? Find Jesus! You want wealth? Find Jesus! You found Jesus and are happy? You must be doing something wrong! Seriously…?

None of these describe my own experience – I hope they don’t describe yours, either – but it’s no surprise that the mysteries of the holy Jesus prompt folks to create hard-edged yet woefully off-base, legalistic interpretations of what we are supposed to do with love, joy, humility, and sacrifice all in the same basket. “Persecution and hardship” isn’t much of a sales pitch. A loving God who says you will suffer? Ick.

“I don’t want that God; that’s not fair! That’s not loving,” the world proclaims.

For me, finding Jesus later in life was like putting on a pair of track shoes. I had been through plenty: some not as bad as it sounds and some worse than you can imagine. But it is the eternal trusting in Jesus that allows all the contradictions of this fallen life – past and present – to coalesce into hope for the road ahead; whether in sickness or health; want or wealth; a mess or blessed. Heaven is our divine need.

Run life’s race not out of despair, greed, or guilt. Instead, buy into the steadfast truth of God’s wisdom, righteousness, and compassion. Suffering in this life is because of a broken world, not a broken God, and Jesus is one salesman you can always trust.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) embraces God’s mysteries, not life’s vagaries.

533 - I Want That

4:51 PM | Posted by Bob Walters | | Edit Post

Spirituality Column No. 533
January 31, 2017
Common Christianity / Uncommon Commentary

I Want That

By Bob Walters

“Sell everything you have … then come, follow me.” – Jesus to the rich ruler, Luke 18:22.

Leaving a known and worldly life behind and forging an unknown and eternal life in Christ ahead is difficult, scary, confusing and humbling.

And then it is easy, joyful and obvious.

Done right, it remains humbling though believers often don’t notice that part. We’re too busy being thankful and amazed by the vast depth, dimension and intensity of the love of God, the light, wisdom and sacrifice of Jesus Christ and the abiding closeness of the Holy Spirit. It’s all right there with us, by us, in us. We know it.

This is how I’d describe “coming to Christ” and living in His grace. The “find” is often more of a stumble than a ballet; quite likely a surprising accident not a systematic discovery. You can be sure that the most unshakeable Christian faith is founded in freedom and love, not bondage and coercion. The truth of Jesus arrives by accepting a relationship in love; not in losing or conceding an argument in anger.

We may not even be seeking the Kingdom of God – many of us are not. In fact we might resist it vigorously and mock the “weak-minded fools” who profess to truly know and trust Jesus; who in their faith uncritically love God and others.

In this fallen world we have no idea, no concept, no comparison by which to find the right and the wrong, the true and the false, the wise and foolish, the good and the evil by anything less than the love of Jesus. Oh, we think we do. But we don’t.

Jesus is why discernment of these things exists; He, in His person, is Truth.

The Bible verse above about the “Rich Ruler” or “Rich Young Man” is a basic idea presented in Matthew (19:24), Mark (10:21) and Luke – that those with great riches in this world have great difficulty accepting the greater glory of the world to come: the Kingdom of God. There is really nothing one can say to those steeped and probably trapped in the mortal coils of self-directed life. Debate will not unshackle their self-sustained opinion. Nor are our selfless love and example – not even the example of Christ – guarantors of transforming sometimes even an open human mind.

When we crave to share the truth, grace and glory of Christ but see any person, whether a rich ruler or more likely a beloved family member or friend, walk away from sChrist’s command to “Follow me,” don’t we want to say more? To plead, in love:

“Don’t go! You don’t know what you are missing.”

For a midlife convert to Christ, which I am, it was that specific line in the movie “The Resurrection of Gavin Stone” that nearly put me in a teary puddle on the floor of the theater. In a good way.

In finding Christ, I know from my experience on the outside what doesn’t work.

But I sure understand what did for Gavin Stone. See the movie. Take a tissue.

Walters (rlwcom@aol.com) shakes his head looking back on his life before Christ. He’s not bragging about humility; he’s reflecting on narrow-minded stupidity.

624 - Sales Pitch

533 - I Want That

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