If our faith is indeed the one and only truth, it will be proven so. Nothing will shake it if it is on the foundation of truth that is the Word of God, Jesus Christ. We have to be constantly open to renewal of our ideas about our faith, otherwise we will miss something terribly, vitally important. Today Galileo is hailed as a revolutionary thinker, yet he was persecuted by the Roman Catholic Church for daring to turn the ideas upon which science and the view of the Universe were founded, upside down. A church that clung to tradition and one way of seeing the universe was afraid of the truth, lest it rock their leaking boat. Martin Luther turned the idea of worshipping God upside down in his day, only to establish another church which would get itself entangled in tradition and religion, trying its best to keep Christianity “respectable.” As did so many Christian visionaries and churches that came afterwards. All shook the assumptions of their day, but all eventually lost sight of the person of Jesus Christ and what he really meant to the world.
Was Christianity ever meant to be respectable, in the worldly sense? Looking at Jesus for a start, we see a man who was deemed a drunkard and who kept the company of low-lifers like prostitutes and tax collectors. The powers-that-be treated the apostles who spread the Good News of Jesus’s message afterwards with total distrust: they were imprisoned, stoned and beaten. It was only because this underground movement was threatening the stability of Rome that it was made a state religion. The ungodly relationship of church and state permeated history: when the Mediaeval Christian apologist Marguerite Porete wrote her book The Mirror of Simple Souls in which she claimed that one could follow Christ without going to church, she was charged with treason and eventually burned at the stake.
More recently, US Senator Barry M. Goldwater had this to say about the Religious Right in his country: “Mark my word: if and when these preachers get control of the [Republican] party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know; I've tried to deal with them.” Church and State are to be kept separate for a good reason. They are the death of freedom and truth when acting in combination: "conversions" at swordpoint in the days of Emperor Constantine and Church-blessed crusades in historical and modern times have proved this.
The Church was never meant to uphold the status quo of any society. Stability brings stagnation and stagnation breeds death and evil. Pre-Revolutionary France bears witness to this: the Church aristocracy colluded with their secular counterparts in keeping the population in a state of semi-slavery, reaping the benefits of excruciating tax burdens placed upon the peasants as well as the bourgeoisie. It was in the name of the Church that knights of Europe found an excuse to go and wage Crusades in the “Holy Land” – a concept that still sees people thinking of Jerusalem as an earthly city, a political entity, instead of a heavenly concept to draw the metaphysical pilgrim through this crazy reality to a better place.
George W. Bush’s administration initially treated the war in Iraq as a Crusade, even though the American Constitution provides strictly for the separation of Church and State.
Any attempt by western powers to interfere with Arab or Muslim affairs is viewed through the twin lenses of Christian Crusades and European colonialism. That, more than anything, is the contemporary legacy of the Crusades and one which will continue to afflict relations between Islam and Christianity for a long time to come. http://atheism.about.com/od/crusades/a/crusadesviews_4.htm
A church that upholds the status quo is guilty of the same as the Protestant and Catholic Church in Nazi Germany: “Historically the German Evangelical Church viewed itself as one of the pillars of German culture and society, with a theologically grounded tradition of loyalty to the state.” http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10005206. The Catholic Church initially protested the anti-Semitism of the Nazi regime, but both churches remained largely silent during the war. “After 1945, the silence of the church leadership and the widespread complicity of "ordinary Christians" compelled leaders of both churches to address issues of guilt and complicity during the Holocaust—a process that continues internationally to this day.”
Is it not the church’s business to show society an alternative to the solutions that politicians offer to today’s problems and every man’s struggles? Look at it this way: Let’s say two German workers, call them Hans and Fritz, had the same job. Hans was a cheerful bloke: he enjoyed a stable family life, had a hearty appetite, loved his job. Fritz, on the other hand, was psychotic and fearful, couldn’t relate to his family, couldn’t sleep and hated his job. Now we would be quick to say that Hans was the well-adjusted one and Fritz the one in need of psychiatric help. Until we learn that they are both Auschwitz extermination camp guards. This can be extrapolated to today’s society: who is really ill? The person who fits into this society, or the misfit who is in need of psychiatry – but is actually showing a healthy reaction to a sick reality? Is Church guilty of supporting this society and the political powers that control it, or is it helping its members by equipping them with a solid set of values and views in this strange reality, keeping their focus on a world beyond this tragic one?
The big bully (the “Nazi”, if you wish) today all over the world is all-pervasive materialism and consumerism, a society where you are out of place if you are not conspicuously spending money on all sorts of toys, or where you cheat, lie (also called “advertise”) and steal to get what you want. Two years ago there was a programme on NZTV about the rise of informal churches such as the house church to which my family and I belong. A leader of the mega church in Auckland had a number of criticisms aimed against any gathering of believers other than a formal church format and used the programme as a platform for plugging his own brand of church, couching it in frighteningly familiar commercial terms.
"We package it [the Christian message] in a contemporary manner so that it's relevant to the modern person.” He markets the mega church as, "A church that's progressive", a church that's worth "investing your money in". Now I wonder: by “modern person,” does he mean “thoughtless consumer”? Does he, by implication, mean a church that unquestioningly embraces today's materialism? A church to "invest" in so that they can erect a huge building and install state of the art PA systems, lights etc. to put on a show for the masses? A church where the orchestration of the masses ("If I don't raise my hands when I sing in church there's something wrong with me") is more important than the questions and issues that the individual is grappling with?
I remember when I was a praise & worship leader in the Big Church how our PA system just wouldn't work one Sunday. I clearly felt led to do something different that day after we'd prayed about it - I couldn't exactly put my finger on it, but it was something to do with the praise & worship team being part of the congregation instead of being out there on the stage. I told one of the leaders about it and he nearly frothed at the mouth, saying "Don't come with that super-spiritual stuff - you've just got to make the system work!" And yes, the PA system eventually worked, but I couldn't help feeling that we had missed something important that day, something about being flexible to the Word of God, following his agenda rather than the structured format of a human imposed order of proceedings for the sake of the preacher’s super circus show.
Does the mega church leader mean a church with a corporate image, like so many other organisations? The term "corporate" has taken on a frightening meaning in this church with its leadership structures mirroring those of a big corporation with CEOs and tiered management, when Christ has expressly spoken out against the human way of lording it over minions in the way that worldly institutions administer their organisations. There is also such emphasis on team playing and group work at the workplace, in schools and in society today that we are in danger of neglecting personal responsibility and accountability in favour of fitting in lest we become "losers" bullied by preachers with super-spiritual quick-fixes.
Or does he mean a church that questions the assumptions that have been made about the Bible and the way we justify the accumulation of wealth; a church that does not believe in the persecution of homosexuals, the invasion of "non-Christian" countries in the name of the monstrosity of Christian nationalism and ignorance of the plight of the downtrodden and the "losers" of this world – caring for them rather than converting them? A church that challenges, instead of turning a blind eye to or supporting the big bullies of our day: the corporations and unscrupulous politicians?
The big, modern church seems to attract many people, but it would be interesting to do a study on how long, on average, members stay – what the member turnover is, to use a lovely corporate term. Many serious, deep-thinking people are leaving the church because they have become disillusioned with organised religion which has no spirit or love. Those who remain are fearful of the secularising influence of science and popular culture, or bold in completely the wrong way: publicly taking a stand against homosexuality, abortion and Darwinism or whatever worldly trend is current, but without any real clue as to what we are standing for.
One of the most important messages I ever heard in church was the following: “Two men set up hamburger stands in a city. The one is Christian and the other isn't. As Christians, which hamburger stand should we support?” Now many people would super-spiritually think it should be the Christian one, because being Christian automatically makes it better, right? But here’s the answer: it’s the one that sells the best burgers! And I think that if we call ourselves Christian we will make damn sure that the burger, or music, or service or any aspect of our secular life that we offer, will be the best, will draw people to Christ through the spirit in which we do things: going the extra mile, forgiving and getting on with life, turning the other cheek, to name a few.
We need to take a long, hard look at our Christian community and honestly ask, “Is there anything good, wholesome and attractive about us? Are we displaying a lifestyle that shows life (note: not material goods) in abundance? Or are we a cosy little subculture patting each other on the backs and condemning outsiders who are different from and think differently to us?”
What do we stand for, and what would attract people to our faith? Not cosy church-based coffee clubs, not Jesus-music of the emotive type. Brian McLaren (http://www.brianmclaren.net/) in an open letter to worship leaders, says,
A popular worship song I've heard in many venues says that worship is ‘all about You, Jesus.’ But apart from that line, it really feels like worship and Christianity in general have become “all about me, me, me,” or maybe "us, us, us" (where us = privileged spiritual consumers in the Western religious industrial complex).
Neither will a church building attract the needy to our faith, no matter how coolly modern or authentically antique the architecture is. What will give the breakthrough is being the authentic Jesus Christ in this world. Not the sanitised version of the most down-to-earth Man who ever lived that some Christians are trying to present. My late mother, for example (bless her soul) was convinced that drinking any form of alcohol was strictly taboo and tried to convince me that what was called “wine” in Biblical times was actually more like grape juice. Yet, the wine that Jesus changed water into at the wedding in Kana was of a good vintage! “Grape juice”? This is the real Jesus, the one who smells of earth and sweet heaven, who can laugh thunderously and weep passionately, the one with lightning in his eyes and a carpenter’s touch in his hands.
Somehow I get the idea that Jesus, God in human form, was the most human being that ever walked the earth. Down-to-earth, passionate, with no religious bullshit. He came to do away with all that ritual crap. The only thing that he required ritual-wise was for us to raise a glass of red goodness to remember the full-bodied blood that he shed for us so that we never have to feel ashamed about our weaknesses and stupidity anymore, and to break bread to remember how he was broken for us, died so that we could have the fullness of life through him.
A lovely metaphor for our salvation, our precious gift of new life, can be seen in the enterprising spirit of people in Paraguay living on a landfill: they provide the recycled materials for making violins, cellos – instruments for an entire symphony orchestra to make beautiful music: the “Landfill Harmonic” orchestra. (http://www.facebook.com/landfillharmonicmovie?fref=ts) Is this not at the heart of Christianity: taking that which was deemed useless by the world and turning it in to something meaningful, that brings joy? In Philippians we are encouraged to think on things that are uplifting to the spirit. There is so much in the world that is beautiful and positive – we tend to become fearful about the threats to our faith, instead of boldly looking for the good in everything and every person, turning things that may have been put there for evil purposes into things that can serve the highest good if only we can believe. It is with this spirit that we need to look for Christian narratives in everything, not just the well-worn sermons in church.
Have you become jaded with the pat answers and quick-fixes of your Christian community? Has Church become a chore, rather than a pleasure, or a bland “me, me” ritual instead of a challenge? Do yourself a favour: pretend that you have never heard of Christ before. Pretend that you have never set foot in a church building, never heard a sermon (don’t even know what it is), never read the Bible. All you have is, deep inside of you, the knowledge that there is something wrong with this world where people abuse and consume, make war and empty promises. Abraham, the father of the Judeo-Christian and Islamic faith set out for a promised land when God called them away from Haran where they were living among Abram’s father’s idolatrous household. Nobody – no preacher or prophet – told Abram (as he was known before God changed his name to Abraham) that what he was surrounded with was wrong, all he had was the voice of God – that quiet, clear voice calling him away to a place unseen and unheard of. A place that he did not get to, nor did generations of his offspring. We are not there yet. But in striving for this land beyond, we are bringing hope and change to this present reality by living not as exploiters and dominators of our world but as temporary custodians who get one chance to do things right before we get given our true destiny. But you must get to that place in the desert, where all the narratives that look for prime position in your life are stilled, where nobody stands between you and God but Jesus Christ himself, so that you can hear his voice.
I know that when we look for the truth, we will find it. But we have to be prepared to lay aside everything that we have accepted blindly in our lives in order to get to that truth. I have said to a friend – a former pupil at the school where I taught in South Africa who, after years of devoted Christianity, became atheist – that getting out of organised religion is probably his first step towards being a real Christian. Throw out all the old furnishings of your faith – or at least examine all those old habits and motions (the regular Sunday attendance, the formulated prayers, etc.) in the light of the Holy Spirit before you restore it: is it useful? Is it joyful? Will it lead to growth? What would Jesus say about it? Is it perhaps just baggage that serves no purpose?
Perhaps the most insidious, evil piece of baggage is the “Father Christmas/Santa Claus” model that we have of God, which tells us that we need to earn the gift by being a “good little kid.” This is the start of the division between religious robots and “irredeemable” sinners: if you’re a good little kid (or know exactly how to fool everybody) you get rewarded: the gift of Christmas is yours. If you misbehave, you forfeit the gift of salvation. What wicked, deceitful theology! The wonder of the gift of Christ is that it is there for everybody, especially those who know that they have done wrong and that we are and always will be bumbling idiots in our efforts to please God. Those who don’t are lifeless graves, cold and passionless but have managed to fool people into thinking that they are “good Christians.” This is just one example of this kind of superstition – nay, heresy – that has crept into the church.
More difficult, perhaps, are the assumptions we have gone along with, because of what the church and other people have said about gay marriage, women’s rights, defending sexual abuse of children and spousal abuse. Telling a woman whose husband is killing her to “submit” to him, or telling a child who has been sexually abused by a parent to repent of their sins flies in the face of reason.
Another assumption is that our past life, pre-Christ, is all evil and never to be revisited. Being followers of Christ means using some of the old and some of the new: we take on a new truth about the universe when Christ enters our lives, but we also have experiences and wisdom we have picked up along the way to the cross, which we can now bring forth for the glory of God. We are given a part of the picture for our lives, the rest we fill in and enrich with bits of reality that we pick up along the way. Look for God in unexpected places, not just in church or in the Bible. Reading Carlos Castaneda’s books before I rededicated my life to Christ, on the old Mesoamerican Indian wizard Don Juan, taught me a number of truths about life and the universe. One of these is that we look for and find confirmation of our thoughts and ideas in the world around us – the hooter of a car, the whistle of a kettle, a chance remark from a passer-by can confirm ideas or thoughts we have at a particular time, almost as God used a donkey to speak to Balaam. Another lesson he teaches in Journey to Ixtlan is where he warns that on the journey of the person in search of wisdom, there will be many people who say they are walking the same road to Ixtlan; but in the end the voyager is alone, responsible for his own route there. This experience is also the story of my Christian walk: I have had to turn away from Christians who have tried to convince me that their way of worshiping God is the only way, or that my girlfriend (who is now my wife) is going to trip me up on my Christian walk, claiming literally to be “the voice of the Lord!” in an intense phone conversation attempting to dissuade me from pursuing a relationship that has been the most rewarding and challenging of my entire life. Every time I had to search in my own bosom for the answer; every time I had to shake my head sadly and part ways with my fellow traveller.
Today I am walking with a very small number of people who are also on that road, but in the end there is only my individual path which is my responsibility to find by working out my own salvation with “fear and trembling.” Not the fear of the recipient of the one mina (or talent) who buried it because he was too afraid to gamble with it, too afraid to step outside the norms of his cosy Christian subculture, but the awful knowledge that I have been charged with finding God and promoting him everywhere I possibly can through my actions and my words. And by “words” I don’t mean shoving my religion down people’s throats, but that by what I say I respect other people’s sincerely held beliefs, being sensitive to what God wants me to say in every situation, sprinkling my words with the salt of life experience, being totally real with people from all walks of life without using religious rhetoric which turns into “bla-bla” gobbledegook in the ears of unbelievers anyway.
This is not an advert for a new church format, much as I am a firm supporter of house church. Rather, it is a call for you, the serious follower of Christ to re-examine your values wherever you worship, to encourage you with this knowledge: There is a new generation of the followers of Christ dawning. They will burst forth with fountains of living water in the most unlikely places. Perhaps you are one? Then boldly plant yourself in this parched world like a sprayer in one of those camouflaged irrigation systems, ready to refresh this world with a surprising new outburst of God’s Spirit when the time comes. Inject your Facebook page with frothy good humour and uplifting repartee; have a pint in the pub with your good mates; be the first to crack a bawdy joke in the workplace – but be strangely different from those who don’t know Christ: when others gossip, defend the victim. When your colleagues complain and gripe, give them a friendly chiding and show them how to go the extra mile. When people spit in your face, turn the other cheek. This is showing the character of Jesus to the world. A WWJD bracelet just won’t crack it: that character has to dwell in you, be joyfully part of you and overflow into the world as naturally as water from a deep fountain that wells up from a peace and joy too deep and strange for words.
I leave you with the beautiful lyrics of “Be ye Glad” by Michael Kelly Blanchard:
So be like lights on the rim of the water,
giving hope in a storm sea of night.
Be a refuge amidst the slaughter,
for these fugitives in their flight.
For you are timeless and part of a puzzle.
You are winsome and young as a lad.
And there is no disease or no struggle,
that can pull you from God, be ye glad.
Oh, be ye glad, be ye glad,
Every debt that you ever had
Has been paid up in full by the grace of the Lord,
Be ye glad, be ye glad, be ye glad.
