A guerrilla army
The followers of Christ are meant to be a guerrilla army, delightfully different from the stereotypes that the world cherishes. Crazy, joyful, passionate followers of our brother commander, with salty words and deeds of grace in a world that knows only how to consume and abuse. We need to stop being religious robots and open ourselves to what God’s spirit prompts us to do in the moment, which often means saying and doing things that go against a lifetime of religious indoctrination. We need to gamble the two, three or however many minas we have been given and do something new and unexpected wherever we can, as some (sometimes whacky) Christian movements have started doing.
A BBC News article. "The Heavy metal-loving Church" deals with people’s disenchantment with the traditional church and the rise of “Heavy Metal” churches that are reaching people on a completely different level, but with the message of Christ’s redemption and grace still firmly embedded. “Michael Bryzak plays in Bloodwork, a band he defines as ‘extreme metal’. ‘It's a mixture of death and black metal. Anything that sounds distorted and nasty,’ he says. ‘We sing about how bad life can be but always make sure there's a bit of hope.’ Echoing the views of many in the group, Paula Spirandio sees a difference between being Christian and being religious. ‘I'm totally against religion. To me, it just means tradition and going through the motions.’”
This is a far cry from the fearful Christianity I encountered in a girl at the school where I taught in South Africa. This school had a Christian organisation called JiK – Jesus is King. Lindy was the chairperson for this club. A very talented, intelligent girl, she was also part of the guitar club that I ran at the school. She was also devoutly Christian. What got me worried was one day in JiK when she announced that members of the organisation need to be more visible amongst their non-Christian peers. She suggested carrying Bibles around in plain sight. What bothers me to this day is that I didn’t point out to her that the religious people at the time of Christ had portions of Scripture tied to their foreheads, showing everybody how devout they were. And it was against these people that Jesus was the most outspoken. I also said nothing when she expressed concern at the fact that we were playing Pink Floyd songs at the guitar club, because she had heard some bad things about Pink Floyd.
Hell has been plundered
What fearful people like Lindy (I know there are many like her) do not seem to understand is that hell has been plundered! When Christ entered the realm of death he defeated the enemy totally and utterly. The light of God shone in the darkest place in existence and the light overcame the darkness. Nothing that originates in evil (or that which we think is evil) can harm me: I am clothed in the robes of royalty, no matter where I am. Listening to my children’s “satanic” music will not change my salvation one iota. Trying to understand what bands like Suicide Silence are trying to say – their justified dissatisfaction with this crazy world – will do more good in guiding my teenage child through his troubled years than forbidding his listening to this dark music. I have nothing to fear in this valley of the shadow of death. Jesus said: “Do not call that evil which God has not.” The closest Jesus came to calling anything evil was the people against whom he was most outspoken – not the prostitutes or wine drinkers, but the religious leaders of his time, the hypocrites who pretend holiness but lack love.
Love should compel us to having a fearless conversation with the world: keep your “bad” Facebook friends! If the god we are serving is the highest authority in this world, we have nothing to fear when we enter into a meaningful conversation (not a browbeating, Bible-bashing one) with the world. Remember that we are to BE Jesus, not “talk Jesus,” i.e. trying to convince people with our words. They are to “taste and see that the Lord is good.” I have worldly friends whom I love dearly. I am in contact with them on Facebook and they are well aware that I am Christian – but I never post anything overtly Christian. I do, however, subtly comment on any atheist rants, pointing out misconceptions about Christ and Christianity that they might harbour.
What, in the end, is “Christian”? The term seems to be one of those neat little categories by which the world is trying to lump together the followers of Christ. Sifted, filed and reviled, anachronistic. The enemy is trying to sift us – he is trying to sort us into neat little pigeonholes: if you like rock music, you must be a Satanist or on your way to becoming one; if you are Christian, then you only listen to songs with “Jesus” lyrics, wear “Jesus” T-shirts and drive a car with a “Jesus” bumper sticker. Safe little covers, fleshly insurance against evil, keeping us sanitised, blind to the social barometer, the gauge of the human condition that is fearfully called “the devil’s music” or “movies with Gnostic messages.”
We should stop being a paranoid army in our fortified holy huddles screaming "Heresy!" at anything outside of our ken. Think about the parable of the ten minas (or “talents”). We take everything that God has given us and we go into the world to show the fullness of life in Christ: our musicianship, our ability with beautiful words, our wicked sense of humour, our integrity in business, our warmth and acceptance of all people – poets, prostitutes and poofs alike – in order to show (not tell) that God is good. Fearful Christianity sits in a corner with its one mina (some notion about Christ and evangelism), burying it somewhere and shouting about it, but never showing God’s love and compassion to the world by entering into a conversation or a friendship in it.
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