Really got a hold on me?
Looking for Jesus followers among church folks
“Willingness to confess bafflement.” That’s from naturalist George Schaller. His bafflement came from the study of animals, but mine comes from observing a Christianity that doesn’t quite take hold. Yes, it does for many, maybe even for a great many, but I think for way too many who profess Christianity the hold is just their commitment to be in church most Sundays. It is a hold for minimal showing up, enduring what are sometimes boring services or repetitions of so much of what has been heard before. And they rarely let it touch their money, their sense of security in jobs or family or retirement or any other false idol like the National Football League or their favorite television show. I know this is harsh, but reading Maria Popova’s piece about George Schaller this morning leaves me baffled again. The central story of Jesus feels lost on way too many of those who claim to be followers of his way. Fairly regular church attendance feels like a poor substitute for the compassion, generosity, kindness and care modeled by Jesus. In my own life I would claim to be chief among sinners, but the Apostle Paul already staked out that claim.
A dear man I loved when I worked for his congregation at Tanner’s Grove was Earl King. King would talk about “real Christians,” and I always found it fascinating. He had a notion of what it really meant to follow Jesus, what it might cost, how the work, the play, the service, the sense of other people’s importance was as important as anything in his life. He had lined up his priorities under his reading of the gospel stories and although his wife and family were close to the center of how he saw his life, his devotion to Jesus was even closer. There have always been others who have inspired me to look at them and wonder at their devotion, but King had something rare and beautiful, something far better than sitting through one more church service that fails to inspire.
This I understand: there is a COST to being a real Christian; the Christian churches/pastors do not focus on that. If they did this world would be changed forever. That is why I had to leave being a "Christian" finally after 60 years. Sad to say it took me that long to realize it, because the language of the Christian church is so dated and incomprehensible.
Christians prefer to focus on the adorable story of birth of the baby Jesus and a coming savior, instead of focus on the suffering a real Christ follower MUST go through.
I knew someone who came to the U.S. from England. She was amazed at how many people went to church who otherwise had no real interest in Christianity. In England there was no social pressure or advantage attached to church attendance, so only people who wanted to go did it. Now the same is becoming true in the U.S. I am not at all sure the devotion to Christianity has lessened. Maybe it is just that you don't have to go on order to sell insurance or be considered an upstanding member of the community.
It was Langdon Gilkey who explained to me that for many Christians, piety was the mark of Christianity, not generosity or social justice. Prayer, church attendance, Bible reading, obeying the "rules" of what not to do were the requirements. He wrote "Shantung Compound" about his WWII experience in a camp in China. His interactions with Christians were often negative. When I asked him how this could be? Why did they demand more living space than others were getting, and why did they not share gifts of food that came their way, he explained it. It clicked. I got it. (He was a guest speaker, and I was ushering him around.).