Greetings All,
In
fact, after pointing out how the modern church loves to parade around, "famous
athletes, politicians, entertainers, ad other icons of popular culture... as
trophies of grace," he very validly asks, "Have you ever
seen a janitor interviewed for his testimony?" What about people
like the poor widow who gave her last two pennies to the Lord's work, but never
(as far as we know) got blessed with a hundred-fold return, or millions of
dollars as compensation for her extreme devotion? A lady who was poor,
and remained poor, yet loved the Lord with all that was in her? Are there
not millions of such believers the world over? Where is our
acknowledgment of their great faith in our churches or television
broadcasts? We do speak of martyrs, but what about those so poor they, "went about in sheepskins and goatskins,
destitute... and mistreated"? Those who "wandered in
deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground" -- yet were faithful
to the end, thus earning them the title: "those of whom the world was not
worthy" and people who were "commended (by
God) for their faith." If our faith cannot look up to them -- MORE than to the STAR ATHLETE
or SELF-MADE MILLIONAIRE -- then we must ask what has happened to the
Christian faith that James describes as the valid kind in James 2:1-13?
I
believe Horton does make a very valid point. And I share this thought to
challenge us to separate worldly triumphalism from true biblical Christianity.
Enjoy.
God of the Cross
"We
don't like to think of ourselves as losers, especially in America. Even popular
religion is often exploited in what Friedrich Nietzsche would celebrate as
"the will to power." If it is going to sell in the marketplace,
it must be clearly seen that our particular brand of religion will make us
winners in business and politics, boost our self-confidence, and position us
and our families as the envy of our non-Christian neighbors.
In
part, this is an attempt to answer the claim that religion in general, but
Christianity in particular, is for the weak... Media mogul Ted Turner,
who, though raised in a conservative Christian background, now reportedly calls
Christianity, "a religion for losers." How do you react when
you read these words, or encounter them in veiled remarks by friends,
co-workers, and relatives who do not know Christ? For at least a century
and a half, American evangelism has spent great effort and money on public
relations campaigns for Christianity in just this area of concern. Famous
athletes, politicians, entertainers, and other icons of popular culture are
regularly trotted out as trophies of grace. Have you ever seen a janitor
interviewed for his testimony?
Of
course, there are notable exceptions, such as Joni Eareckson Tada, who has
brought so much wisdom to suffering since her diving accident left her
paralyzed. But we seem obsessed at times with convincing the world that we are
cool, which especially in this culture means healthy, good-looking, prosperous,
and, even better, famous. Not only can one remain cool in Christ; it is
this personal relationship with Jesus that, far from calling us to die, gives
us that little bit extra to, "be all we can be." At least
that's what the before-and-after testimonies seem to suggest. Jesus came to
recruit a team of all-stars and coach them to the Super Bowl of better
living. As the title of one religious bestseller has it, we can have our
best life now, just by following a few principles for daily success.
Any Place for Weakness?
How
do we square all this with Jesus' statement that... "I have not come to
call the righteous, but sinners to repentance" (Luke 5:31-32)? Paul
also gives a recurring emphasis to weakness: "On my own behalf I will not
boast, except of my weaknesses... But [the Lord] said to me, My grace is
sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness. Therefore I boast
all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon
me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults,
hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am
strong" (II Corinthians 12:5, 9-10). Would Paul have made a
very good spokesman for "muscular Christianity" or for the other
images of success so widely praised among us?
In
his "Varieties of Religious Experience" (1902) Harvard professor and
philosopher William James distinguished between two types of religion:
"healthy-minded" and "morbid-minded." Those belonging
to the sick-soul camp (the morbid-minded), he said, see themselves as sinful,
dispossessed, and disinherited, while the healthy-minded exude optimism.
America has attracted the disinherited of the earth to our shores in order to
make a better life for themselves and their posterity. It's one of the amazing
gifts we have: to pull ourselves up by our own bootstraps" by starting out
in the mail room and ending up in the board room. But this healthy
optimism has also led to a practical denial of the dark side of life. In
religious terms it has meant that the bad stuff has got to go -- no downers,
such as human depravity, and inability for self-salvation, or the need for
divine rescue, and so forth... Feeling good has emerged as not only a national
priority but a religious obsession for Christians and non-Christians alike... I
do not think that a biblical sense of human sin and the need for redemption
from outside ourselves requires national pessimism, but a religion of human
goodness will never sustain a people in times of disaster and threat. We may be
able to explain the "evil empires" beyond our borders by their lack
of our national values, but what happens when we experience our own homegrown
varieties of terrorism, violence, and social disintegration?
The
religion of the healthy-minded is persuasive in our time... However, a religion
of healthy-mindedness, which ignores the reality of the fall in all its
aspects, renders itself finally nothing more than a form of therapy during
times of plenty and irrelevant in times of tragedy. What we need is not
therapy, but news -- good news! ... The bottom line of this book is that the
Gospel is for losers. And that, in fact, we are all losers if we measure
ourselves by God's interpretation of reality rather than our own. The demand
for glory, comfort, autonomy, health and wealth creates a vicious cycle of
craving and disillusionment. It even creates its own industry of
therapists and exercise, style, and self-esteem gurus -- and churches -- to
massage the egos wounded by this hedonism. We become prisoners of our own
felt needs, which were inculcated in us in the first place by the very
marketplace that promises a "fix." We become victims of our own
shallow hopes... Consider the fame of the great stars of stage and screen
whose lives we secretly wanted to share, who are now in Hollywood nursing
homes, often with only memories to comfort them. How quickly adoring fans lose
their interest when the vigor of youth can no longer be sustained by surgeries
and lotions and diets...
Ironically,
it is precisely where the world detects the most obvious example of weakness --
the cross -- that God triumphs over sin and death at the peak of their most
deadly power. Here's the irony: Just where the highest and holiest victim of
truly undeserved suffering cries, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken
me?" victory over sin and death is taking place. This is the foolishness
and weakness that trump the wisdom and power of the ages."
The
discerning person will find it impossible to suggest that Horton has not hit a
nail on the head. American Christianity, out of a shame the apostle Paul
did not have about his weaknesses, has worked to become acceptable to the surrounding
culture by turning its back on biblical Christianity and embracing American
triumphalism, as well as elements of its materialism and hedonism. Many
believers now seek their "best life now," while millions go without
and the world perishes in their sin. In fact, the Church has joined the
world in its worldly pursuits, thinking we could actually do what Jesus says no
person can do -- that is, serve two masters -- God and money (or the things it
can buy).
May
we come to see, before it's too late, that the ultimate treasure is Christ
Himself. That He is enough. Or as one dear saint
put it: "He
who possesses all things without God possesses nothing, but he who possesses
God, possesses in Him all things." We need to get it
right! Its not what we can get from God, it is simply having God that is
the greatest and most fulfilling of all desirable treasures.
May we all pause to consider what we believe, why we believe it,
and where those beliefs come from -- because many don't come from the Bible.
In
the bonds of the Gospel, Pastor Jeff
