Not Running With People of Color

I recently got a good deal on a printed T-Shirt and for those of you who know me, it would rightfully define some of my personality traits. It simply reads: I did not mean to offend you---that was just a bonus. With that said, I am once again going to be the unpopular killjoy that will most likely be offensive to the mainstream mediocre brand of American Christian.  Although my intentions are not to offend, I will most likely be offensive in stating what I believe is necessary truth that needs to be voiced. I am writing this on the heels of a weekend event held in Milwaukee: The Color Run. This yearly event is a well-organized, very popular attraction that is gaining momentum as one of those “cool things you can do for fun” that is for the most part, safe and family friendly. In fact, my sixteen year old daughter attended this year’s event. This being the second year we have allowed her to attend, I decided to take a closer look at what this event was all about. The primary focus of the run is to make people “happy.” Which in and of itself, is not a bad thing. It’s about having fun together in the context of community. So that’s a good thing right? After all, isn’t that what we are focusing on in the church of today? A place of community where we do life together and all is well? I almost betting that a Color Run church movement could draw a great crowd be an effective platform for a creative approach to reaching the lost for Christ. Well, not exactly. 

For a frame of reference, before I proceed to make my point, I want you to examine these images:

 

The upper images are from the Color Run. Perfectly harmless, right? The lower images are from the Festival of Holi, which is a celebration of worship based upon various Hindu legends of good triumphing over evil. In each legend, depending on what region of India of Nepal you may live, the story involves an evil deity being defeated by a good deity. The festival itself is celebrated around the spring equinox---thus the end of winter (Death) and the coming of spring (Life). 

So what is your point Jay? Are we not allowed to have some fun or are you about to compare the Color Run with pagan rituals? Yes, but its not just that. I’m tackling a greater concern which is becoming a more disturbing trend among the American brand of Christian. If you have not noticed, (if you really haven’t noticed, then I guess I am speaking directly to you), there has become a blending of the secular and sacred cultures. Its not that the world has decided to give in and involve themselves in the practices of the church; rather, the church has decided to involve themselves in the practices of culture, polished it off a bit, and slapped the label of endorsement upon it. We’ve joined forces, we’ve locked arm in solidarity, and we have refused to see any significant differences between us and them (After all, this would be considered prideful, judgmental, and downright rude!) Wait, I can hear it now, “Jesus would have run the Color Run, He identified with sinners.” That has about as much fact as the Scripture where Jesus allowed the demons to enter into the pigs, allows them to kill the pigs,  so He could use the pigs to enjoy a plate of bacon! Jesus may have talked to the sinner, reached out to the sinner, eaten with the sinner, but He never identified with them----sinners identified with Jesus. Jesus’ identification in life was crystal clear and it was not with man, but with His Father. He spoke this truth in phrases like, “If you have seen me, you have seen the Father (John 14:9) and I and the Father are one” (John 10:30). Jesus never made statements like, “Look at this world, you can see that I am just like them and I want you to be like them, to live as they live, so that you can identify with them.” In fact the premise of Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus’ commission to the church, was to make the world identify with Him in becoming disciples. (Just in case you need to be reminded, a disciple is literally to be a mirror reflection of who they are following).

In becoming a Christian, there is a metamorphosis. As Paul states, “If any one in Christ, he is a new creation, the old is past and the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are no longer to be identified with our old life. Paul makes this point clear to the Corinthian church, which by the way, continually struggled with their inability to separate themselves from the culture they lived in in serving Christ. Reflect upon this passage:

“Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship is there between light and darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols? For we are the temple of the living God (OUR IDENTIFICATION). As God has said, “I will live among them and I will be there God and they will be my people. Therefore, come out from among them and be separate,” says the Lord.                                                                       

(2 Corinthians 6:14-17)

Evangelism doesn’t take place through blending in with culture, it takes place when the believer stands apart from it and looks drastically different than the world around him. We have somehow convinced ourselves in the American church that in order to be effective in sharing our faith, we need to “do life” with unbelievers. In reality the opposite is true, we need to live in such a different way from the rest of the world, that unbelievers want to “do life” with us! We do have to live in this world and interact with those around us; however, there are limitations and definite lines which we can cross. Every time we compromise our witness by being participants in the things that would identify us with this world, we are allowing identity theft  to take place against Christ---and this is where things like the Color Run come into play. Yes its is something that our culture does; however, what is it identified with? I posed this question to my daughter upon her return: 

“Do we think that God looks at the Holi Festival in India any differently than the Color Run in America? That somehow, He says, ‘They’re worshiping demons overseas and just having a good time in the states?’ Do we think that someone who has never known of a Color Run, and yet, is a devout Hindu, would recognize any difference between the two events?”

  

The truth is, when we place ourselves in various cultural practices, we seldom think about the identity of Christ within us. We pretend that there are no repercussions to our participating in activities that identify us with the world. In essence, we are making Jesus to look like someone He is truly not. He was all embracing to people, but not all embracing of what people did. He did not strive to be relevant, accepted, or even liked. But what He did was to tear apart His culture’s understanding of what it truly meant to worship God, by exposing the falseness of the practices of the day that were not based upon the truth of Scripture. Why? Because His culture was misrepresenting God. Whether it was the Pharisees, Sadducees, Samaritans, or Syrophoenians , Jesus attempted to correct the perspective of people when it came to their approach in identifying who they believed God to be. In the end, we want to believe that what “we do” doesn’t matter because of our misguided understanding of grace and love. In reality, it does matter whether we choose to believe it or not. One only has to read through the New Testament to see that Scripture is overwhelmingly clear about our identity as believers and our participation in our culture. If what we do is going to misidentify Christ in our lives, making Him embrace things which He never would have identified with, then we are doing nothing more than worshiping the pagan gods while believing that we are just having “fun.”

Being Distracted to Death

Distractions! They are all around us. As of late, my life feels bombarded with circumstances, issues, and focuses that make me feel as if my life is ebbing away into a purposeless abyss. It is as if my heart longs for being in the presence of God and yet, it seems as if I cannot get there. Although I attempt to seek the Lord on a daily basis, my mind is continually being pulled away by all of the other happenings of life. While many would excuse that as simply being “real life” in that we cannot expect to go through life and not have other things that are not “God” at the forefront of the our minds at times, I would offer another explanation. From the way I read Scripture, God never intended for us to be distracted by the cares of this world. In fact, he warns us that it is possible that the life he offers us can be “choked out” by the “worries of life and the deceitfulness of wealth” (Matthew 13:22). Maybe that’s how I feel, like the life of Christ in me is being choked out by all of the other things I am dwelling upon in my life. The rigors of day to day life have taken their toll and I have caught myself thinking about so many other things that truly do not matter when compared to what Jesus Christ offers me.

I know that it sounds as if I am “burning out or backsliding” but in all honesty, that’s not the case. I am simply suggesting that I am sick of all of the things in my life that I have discovered which are competing against Jesus in me! Song of Solomon says it best in reminding us to “Catch for us the foxes, the little foxes that ruin the vineyards, our vineyards that are in bloom” (Song of Solomon 2:15). In the beauty of this intimate relationship between two lovers, they had to stop for a moment and realize that there are things that can potentially damage their relationship. They weren’t concerned with the “big things” like an “affair or abuse;” rather, they recognized that relationships are ruined by the slow and subtle things that come into our lives almost unnoticed. In surveying a vineyard full of fruit, one would hardly notice if a few grapes were missing off of a vine. You could look across that lush growth of your labor and not notice the weeds that were beginning to work their way up the vines to choke the life from the plant. Unfortunately, it is only after the destruction is noticeable that many people take action.

I cannot help to consider the several warnings of Jesus in reminding his disciples that when the “Master” returns he wants to find his servants “doing” what he is has commanded (Matthew 24:46 and Luke 12:43). What is it the Lord expects us to be doing? Did he intend for us to get so involved in the everyday affairs of life on earth that the thought of Him is just another aspect of our lives that we have to juggle in our busy schedules? Did he intend for us to make our own plans as what we are to do with our time, money, and resources in this life (see Matthew 25:14-30 to answer this question)? Hebrews 12:1 reminds us that in the race of life that we are to “throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles.” How do we do that? By “FIXING OUR EYES ON JESUS” (Hebrews 12:2). The servant who is not doing what His Master has commanded him to do has his eyes fixed upon the wrong focus-----and this is what distractions aim to do.

For me, I had to be confronted with the convicting question of “why?” Why do I choose to fix my eyes on others things? Why do I choose to look toward other things in life as if they are more important and interesting than Christ? Distractions are one of the most effective tools of the enemy. If he can keep our eyes fixed on this world and “distracted” from keeping our eyes fixed on Jesus, then we will be “hindered” and “entangled” in our lives. This world offers so many things that will compete for our attention and affection; consequently, when we feel like God is not addressing certain needs in our lives---for pleasure, peace, and prosperity-----we naturally turn our gaze to anything else that appeals to us. The Master, however, has commanded that we be faithful. We cannot afford to neglect our “vineyard” because we are tired and bored with looking at the same fruit day after day. The little foxes seldom come to the vineyard where there is no fruit. Rather, they wait until the fruit is ripe for harvest! Proverbs 4:23 reminds “Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.” We need to be mindful of taking care of what God has given us in this life. We will find ourselves in great danger of ruining the work that He has accomplished in us when we begin to look at His abundant blessings as being nothing more then “common” items that are associated with being a “Christian.” When we are easily distracted by what this world brings our way, we in one sense are telling God, “You’re not enough to hold my attention. I just have to look at this thing over here that is by far more interesting and important!” Believe me, as I write this, I stand guilty of doing this more often than not.

Distractions should indicate an important truth: God is not having His rightful place in our lives. When things take us away from what God has called us to be and has called us to do, we are experiencing life without Him. Our focus moves away from making Him the center of our lives and we make whatever “distraction” we are gazed upon to be the thing that drives us. By doing so, we leave the fruit of our lives vulnerable to the attack of the enemy. How does a godly man or woman fall into sin? It wasn’t because their eyes were “fixed upon Jesus Christ, the Author and Perfecter of our faith.” Each time we choose to look away from God concerning the issues in our lives, we place ourselves in a potentially dangerous situation of having a thief come to “steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10) what God has done in our lives. Remember, in one split second life can become a tragedy; however, to those who will “fix their eyes” upon Jesus and “watch and wait” for their Master, they will never “fall and receive a rich welcome into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” (2 Peter 1:11).

Throwing Jesus Off A Cliff

If you consider yourself “human” (which I have yet to receive any hits on this blog outside the sphere of our planet), then we should never be surprised as to how people react when they feel threatened, hurt, offended, or angry. It’s not that I am advocating that some of those reactions are justified or warranted, but I am simply expressing the fact that when it comes to our humanity, all of us are capable of doing things which are beyond the confines of what we would consider “normal behavior.” For instance, take an incident which happened around two thousand years ago in which an unruly mob decided that they had enough of someone’s banter and they decided to do something about it. Unfortunately, this someone was Jesus. Luke 4:29 describes their reaction as being “They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built in order to throw him off the cliff.” Apparently, the ministry of Jesus to his hometown synagogue did not result in the congregation having that “kumbaya” feeling that is so prevalent in the church of today. This is the “loving and kind” Jesus! The One who “would never say anything to hurt us and make us uncomfortable” Jesus! What could He had possibly said or done that would cause these callously violent individuals to throw Him off of a cliff?

When Jesus came to the synagogue, He announced the fulfillment of what the prophets of the Old Testament testified of who one day would come to install God’s kingdom on earth. As Jesus quoted Isaiah 61 in saying “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me…” (Luke 4:18), the statement and all of the connotations with it echoed the anticipated arrival of the Messiah. Jesus’ action to open and close the scroll and then sitting down, verified his authoritative claim of “Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21)----and this is where the problems began. The response was typical of a Sunday morning church crowd in many churches of today, “That was a nice message” and then “let’s critic the pastor!” Those in the synagogue “were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips” (Luke 4:22). There was a great sense of “wondering” why Jesus said what he said and furthermore, appeared to assign himself to the role of Messiah. Their response of “Isn’t this Joseph’s son?” was more like our modern day response of “who does he think he is?” They had already heard the reports of what Jesus had done in fulfilling the Scripture which he announced from Isaiah 61 (Luke 4:23) and now, He began to expose the content of their faithless hearts (v.23-27).

As one reads Luke 4:16-30, the question of “Why didn’t they believe Jesus?” comes to mind. Sure, they knew Him as Joseph and Mary’s son, but they also heard of the teachings, healings, and the power of God that flowed through His life. Ironically, many in the church have heard the same stories about Jesus. They know all about who He is and what He has done, and yet, they still have so much unbelief! The problem is simple: “familiarity breeds contempt.” The church of today loves its comfortable and predictable setting. Ours is a world of enjoyable sermons that allow us to sit week after week in the church pew and never be confronted with the truth of needing to submit our lives under the lordship of Christ. We don’t see Jesus as the KING but we see Him as someone just like us and when He asks of us more than what we are willing to give, we no longer want “that kind of Jesus” in our midst!

The Jesus that came to Nazareth was an all too familiar face to those in the synagogue. Because of that, there was no room for Jesus to assert the authority of being Messiah in their lives. Jesus explained to them that those who understood the authority of the prophetic word and chose to submit to it were propelled into a life of freedom (Luke 4:24-27). Jesus said, “Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor” (Matthew 13:57) and the result is that Jesus did “not do many miracles there because their lack of faith” (v.58). Week after week the people of God sit in God’s house and many are not moved by the Spirit of the Lord. We causally stroll into our seats with coffee cups in hand as if we are going to an entertainment venue and we prepare ourselves to go through the same old familiar routine that we do week after week. We’ve mastered the art of being able to have our brain in two places of concentration at the same time (perhaps this is the only supernatural thing that happens in our churches) as we are able to simultaneously read the bulletin while absorbing the truths from the Word of God. We know that the Jesus of “our church” would never point out our weaknesses, flaws, and God forbid, say anything about our “sin.” And if by chance, He would venture through the message of the pastor or a word through the worship leader to “offend” us, then we do what all respectable mature children of God do-----throw Jesus off a cliff!

If we truly want the answer of why we do not see more of the power of God in the church of today we may want to look at the depths of our own hearts. The Spirit of God is not being poured out in power because we do not allow Jesus to be the One who He claims to be! If we actually believed that He is Lord and King then we would cease doing much of the things we do. We would no longer remain the same people we have remained week after week in the church. There would be no such thing as “offense” and when we gathered together for worship, there would be a reverent awe that would fill the church rather than the smell of coffee and the chatter of the latest sporting events. People would not look bored out of their skulls but they would approach the throne of grace with humility, gratitude, and a love for Christ. Furthermore, all agendas would cease except for the one that says, “We just want to glorify our King.” In the end, we truly have to ask ourselves if we want Jesus to be the One who He claimed to be for our lives or are we content with believing something about Him that he never claimed to be? Jesus is not your “friend.” He is not someone who can stoop to that level of familiarity in your life. He cannot be reduced to just another face in the crowd of people in your life----HE IS THE KING OF KING AND LORD OF LORDS! And either you must accept that and respond accordingly or you will continually attempt to rid of his presence in your life by trying to throw Him off of a cliff. If you choose the latter, you will certainly experience what many are experiencing in the Body of Christ, “…he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.” (Luke 4:30).

Is Jesus Better?

The Song of Solomon is an often neglected and mistreated book of the Old Testament. Theologians have labored in finding its significance and preachers have abused its context in making it mean what it does not. Some have even developed end-times theologies based upon the “bride paradigm” and believe that the book unlocks mysteries that promote a deeper and more intimate relationship with Christ. In reality, the Song of Solomon is a poem about two lovers who celebrate the joy their marital relationship. This however, does not mean that there are no parallels that reflect upon our relationship with Christ. After all, we are the Bride of Christ and He is the Lover of Our Souls. Paul explained in Ephesians 5 that marriage is a reflection of one’s relationship with Christ. It is our earthy institution that best explains our heavenly relationship with Christ (v.31-32). With this in mind, the Song of Solomon provides some challenges for the reader in the area of evaluating one’s passion for Christ.

One verse in particular, brings a great deal of conviction when I ponder its implications in my relationship with Christ. The author writes, “How is your beloved better than others, most beautiful of women? How is your beloved better than others that you charge us so?” (Song of Solomon 5:9). The woman in this passage was passionately seeking after her lover and begged for her friends to join her in the pursuit of finding him. Their response in our vernacular would have sounded more like, “What makes him so great? What makes him so different that you’re asking us to join you in your pursuit?” I believe that this is a fair question for those friends to ask. After all, it is the middle of the night and the woman is asking her friends for quite a commitment on their part. Although we would most likely not ask our friends to help us chase down someone who we are madly in love with, we would ask others to consider following us as we follow after the Lover of Our Soul----and this is where this passage begins to convict.

As Christians, we make certain claims about Jesus. We believe Him to be the most important part of our lives. We believe His Word to be true and that He keeps that Word. We believe Him to be our strength, sufficiency, comfort, joy, and even our Healer. We believe that He is God Almighty and that He is to be worshiped with all of our heart. The problem lies that when others look at our lives, does our example answer the question of “How is your beloved better than others…how is your beloved better than others that you charge us so?” We make claims that we are worshipers of Jesus, but do the actions, attitudes, and activities we choose to participate in reflect those claims? I can say that living for Jesus is “better” than choosing to live for this world but if my life does not look any different from those choosing to NOT live for Christ, then who am I kidding? This extends well past the idea that “because I go to church” I show how much Jesus means to me mentality. A passion for Christ that screams “HE IS BETTER THAN ALL ELSE” is something that needs to be a part of every fabric of my life---otherwise I live as a hypocrite. Jesus did not claim that He was “the way for some of life, the truth for only what I choose to believe, and the life when only I want to act like someone who loves Christ.” No, He said He is “THE way, THE truth, and THE life!” (John 14:6).

In George Barna’s book Growing True Disciples, he conducted a study which discovered that for the most part, professing Christians are no different in beliefs, actions, and attitudes in life than non-believers. And yet, these same Christians also make the claim that “Jesus is better than all else.” The simple truth is that we cannot claim to be “following after Jesus” while living as those who do not follow after Jesus. If Jesus is “more” than all else in this life, then our example would fully promote that. We would not be focused upon the priorities of pursuing wealth, materialism, fashion, entertainment, success, and questionable indulging that identifies us with worldly living. Rather, we would show with our lives that Jesus has “another way” of living. Those who choose to follow that way will easily be able to answer the question of “What makes Jesus better than the life I already have?” In fact, they won’t have to speak a word to answer that question as the life that passionately pursues Jesus will be evident and DIFFERENT from anything this world has to offer!