Radical or Relevant?

Every new fad or movement always brings with it new "buzz words", words that always seem to define and/or to express the central motivation of the fad or movement. In recent years, the movement called the Emergent/Emerging church has brought in "relevant" as a buzz word. "The gospel should be relevant to the culture and it's not," they say. "The way we do church has to be relevant." Another buzz word that often follows closely on the heels of "relevant" is "rethink": "We need to rethink how we do church"; or "We need to rethink the gospel." Now, let me say that these are legitimate words and they come from sincere Christian hearts. But I'm not so sure that the applications and results are legitimate.


The problem that I see is this: in the attempt to "rethink" church and to be more "relevant" to the culture they wish to reach, they actually end up with something that doesn't resemble church at all. And "relevant" gets reduced down to a vague "conversation" (another buzz word) where boundaries and definitions often become sketchy. 


Now, in all fairness, the goal of the Emergent/Emerging crowd is to lose the belligerent and arrogant manner that has accompanied evangelical frontmen and their discussions in recent decades. However, they haven't gone to the other extreme. And, in a sense, that's the problem: they have stopped somewhere in between. In an attempt to not offend people with hot-headed "exclusivity" (another buzz word), they have gone to a luke-warm and nebulous middle, which is comfortable to everyone, believers and unbelievers. No one is offended, no one is belligerent; "we're having conversations about real world issues and we're seeking answers together. See, we can all get along."


In Exodus 8-11, The Lord says that he is making a distinction between his people and the Egyptians. In Ezekiel 22:26, the Lord says that his priests have profaned his name in this: they did not make a distinction between the holy and the common and they didn't teach the difference between the clean and the unclean. Holiness - distinctiveness, set apartness - seems to be important to the Lord. He wants his people to be different; but not just different for the sake of difference alone. He wants a distinctive difference; i.e., he wants a difference that marks us as His own, so that when the world looks at one or all of us, they know right away which King we belong to and which kingdom we live in. This distinction isn't called "relevant" - although it makes us relevant. It's called "radical". 


"Radical" comes from a word that literally means "root". And the main idea of the word doesn't refer to being "rooted" in something. It means "to live from the root" to the point that you resemble the root. The word itself calls us back to our roots; better, to the root, Jesus Christ. 


The question for us is this: What is of first importance to Jesus: radical or relevant? While we ponder this question, we must also remember that He is Lord; it's his decision - and his doing - that makes us both. Apart from him, we can't do either one.

Sophia calls...

"One thing that's clear in the Scriptures is that nations do not lead people to peace; rather, people lead nations to peace" - Shane Claiborne, Jesus For President, p. 306.


"There is enough for everyone's need but not enough for everyone's greed" - Gandhi.

The Gospel vs. The American Dream

In Luke 12:13-21, Jesus tells a parable about a wealthy farmer who was blessed by God with a bumper crop. His return was so abundant that he decided to build bigger barns so that he could store away all the abundance for himself. He then decides to kick back, take it easy, and live out the rest of his days indulging himself, denying himself of nothing. But God said, “You fool! This very night your life will be demanded from you” (v. 20). Jesus ends the story by saying, “This is how it will be with anyone who stores up things for himself but is not rich toward God” (v. 21).

But wait a minute! Jesus, you just shot down the whole American Dream!

From the time I was small up until now, from my parents and caring friends, even from the pulpit, I’ve been taught that I should do what the wealthy farmer in the story did: work hard and save, store up for the future; the goal being to save enough money that I can retire and enjoy myself – and my family – in my twilight years. We call it “financial security” and “financial independence”. These are to be pursued and desired above all else. But Jesus says, “Not so.”

In Luke 12:22-34, Jesus presents his way of security and independence – and it stands in glorious contrast to the American Dream.

He tells us to consider the ravens (considered unclean under Jewish ceremonial law): “They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them” (v. 24). God loves and values us more than the birds, Jesus says. Have you ever seen a scrawny bird? Have you ever seen any bird with a stomach bloated from malnutrition? Have you ever seen a bird on the sidewalk holding a cardboard sign that reads, “Will work for food” or “Need help”? And you never will, because God feeds them. “And how much more valuable you are than birds!”, says the Lord.

He also tells us to consider the lilies, in particular how they grow: “They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these” (v.27). God loves and values us more than the lilies. He will clothe us in a splendor that only he can give. Have you ever seen a flower worrying about it’s appearance? Have you ever seen plants striving to provide their own clothing? Do flowers have to get for themselves their beauty? No, because God our Father provides for them everything they need to be adorned with a beauty and radiance that surpasses Solomon’s most regal attire. “How much more will he clothes you?”, Jesus asks.

Jesus ends by telling us how to be truly wealthy and rich toward God. “Do not be afraid, little flock, for your Father has been pleased to give you the kingdom. Sell your possessions and give to the poor. Provide purses for yourselves that will not wear out, a treasure in heaven that will not be exhausted, where no thief comes near and no moth destroys” (vs. 32-33). How do you secure your future? Give to the poor. Jesus says then your heart will be with God. If your treasure is stored on earth, then your heart will be also. And if your treasure can be stolen by thieves and eaten by moths, then your heart will be, too. “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (v.34). But if your treasure is in heaven, then your heart will be, too. And if your treasure is in heaven, it will never be exhausted; neither will your heart. And the purses – the generosity and the abundance of love – in your heart will never wear out.

Fashion Or Love?

“It’s fashionable to talk about helping the poor; it’s quite another thing to know them. When you love someone, you know their name” – Mother Teresa.

“Hungry for love, He looks at you. Thirsty for kindness, He begs from you. Naked for loyalty, He hopes in you. Sick and imprisoned for friendship, He wants from you. Homeless for shelter in your heart, He asks of you. Will you be that one to Him?’” – Mother Teresa.

“We know what real love is because Christ gave up his life for us…But if one of you has enough money to live well, and sees a brother or sister in need and refuses to help – how can God’s love be in that person? Dear children, let us stop just saying we love each other; let us really show it by our actions. It is by our actions that we know we are living in the truth, so we will be confident when we stand before the Lord…” – 1 John 3:16-19, New Living Translation.

What Kind of Love...?

Recently, I’ve been given the privilege of loving someone who is in desperate need of healing and healthy changes. This person is a beautiful and talented person with a kind heart, but has made choices over the years that have left them bankrupt spiritually and physically poor. Although this person knows of God’s love, they choose to remain in their poverty and slavery. They are homeless…in every sense of the word.

I have prayed for this person for years, but recently had decided that since they didn’t want to change, I would simply pray for them and leave it at that. I didn’t know how to relate to someone who didn’t want to change, must less see their need for change; so I decided to only pray for them and to care less whether I saw them or not. I didn’t know what to do with them, so this was the most honest and loving thing I could do. And I was certain that Jesus understood and agreed with me.

Weeks later, the Lord led me to a scripture that clearly said the opposite. To be honest, I looked it up in other translations and read study notes from a variety of study bibles trying to find some excuse or explanation that would let me off the hook. I found none. So, I surrendered and said yes to what Jesus was clearly and simply saying. And I’m glad that I did.

When I told the Lord that I would obey, I expressed to him how frustrating it was to be with someone who so desperately needed to change for their own well-being but wouldn’t. In response, I heard him ask this: “What if they never change? Will you love them anyway? If they never change, will they go to their grave knowing that they were loved by you? Or will you love them only if they show you the changes that you hope to see? I want you to love them in such a way that, if they died today, they would know that you not only loved them, you really liked them.”

After hearing this, I saw how conditional my “Christian love” had become. I saw that the only kind of love that I was offering people was not the love that God has for them; instead, it was the very same kind of love that has screwed them up to begin with – only it was dressed up in my own self-righteousness and smugly called “Christian”. How sick.

In all of my life, when I was at my worst and sunk in my own sin, in the multitude of my selfish refusals of his love and the gift of change, Jesus has always shown me that he loved me deeply; and, most beautiful of all, that he really liked me and wanted to be with me.

And that’s the only reason I’ve ever changed at all…unconditional love.

A God of Our Making

Last week, I had a discussion about God and Christianity with a young man that I had met for the first time. He didn’t like what he had seen of Christianity (of christians, really) and proceeded to tell me that he believed in God, as well as what he believed about God. And he was very comfortable with what he believed about God. He talked and I just listened. Afterwards, while driving back to my motel room, I thought about what he had said and I realized how ridiculous his logic was.

Now, I don’t mean that to sound like I’m picking on him or just being critical. I really enjoyed my time with him. I’ve heard many other folks use the same logic. It usually goes something like this: “I believe in God, but if you’re talking about a God who let’s bad things happen to good people…”; or “…a God who would send someone to hell just because they didn’t say a prayer to Jesus… – then, I don’t believe that God is like that.”  The young man’s beliefs were more like “God put us here and he doesn’t expects us to be so weak that we can’t do anything; he expects us to do whatever we need to do. I don’t like it when people say they have to pray about something or have to call on God before they can do anything, because he gave us free will to do what we saw needed to be done.”  Something like that.

Here’s the problem with that logic. How can you form a belief about someone that you don’t know? And how can you embrace that belief when it has know solid basis in fact?  When a person does this, they are really saying, “I’ve never met this person, but I believe him to be like this way or that way – and therefore, I like this person I’ve never met because I believe they are this way or that.”  Do you see how ludicrous that thinking is?  The one who uses this type of logic and forms their life behaviors and responses on it are really basing their entire life upon their own ideas and opinions – not on truth and facts.

Suppose you found me packing a suitcase full of swim shorts, beach attire, sunscreen, etc.. “Going to the beach?” you ask. “Yeah,” I answer back. Then you ask, “Where?” I look up at you, and smiling, I say, “Antarctica.”  You would probably laugh and then say, “No, really.”  ”Really,” I insist.  You scratch your head and say to me, “There are no beaches in Antarctica.”  Imagine what you would think as I looked you straight in the eyes and said, “I believe there are beaches in Antarctica because that’s the kind of Antarctica that I believe in. Therefore, if you don’t mind, I’m going to finish packing. Now, hand me that bottle of sunscreen.”  You would think I was foolish, wouldn’t you? And yet, so many make statements like this all the time, declaring their beliefs in a god of their own making.

If I can make up anything I want to believe about God and then live my life based on that made-up attribute, I may as well not believe in God – because, in reality, that’s not who I’m believing in anyway. I’m believing in myself, only I’m disguising it as belief in God; only it’s not God, it’s a god that I’ve created to my own liking. And that makes me the Creator, doesn’t it? And that makes me God.

An Insufficient Gospel

I’m growing more and more uncomfortable and discontented with American Christianity.  I’m starting to believe that we have done what Bonhoeffer warned us about – we have cheapened the gospel. “Cheap grace” was his term for it; but I think “cheapened gospel” is a more accurate description of what we’ve done.

A young rich man came to Jesus and asked him, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?”  Jesus said, “You know the commandments: Do not murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, do not give false testimony, etc.”.  Every commandment he mentioned had to do with one’s relationship to and treatment of others. He didn’t say anything about the commandments related to God and our treatment of  him. Jesus also said, “You know the commandments” – the young man knew them and said he even kept them from his youth on. Jesus loved this guy, it says. Then, Jesus drops the bomb: “One thing you lack. Go, sell everything you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me” (Mark 10: 21). The young man went away sad because he was very wealthy.

If someone came up to you (or I) today and asked, “What must I do to inherit eternal life?” – What would your (my) answer be? John 3:16?  ”The Four Spiritual Laws”?  Lead them through the “Romans Road”?  What would you or I say?  The real question is “What did Jesus say?”

Jesus brought up only the commandments within the Ten Commandments that had to do with the young man’s relationships with others and with his parents.  The young man, apparently thinking he had passed the test, said, “Teacher, all these I have kept since I was a boy.” In other words, he was saying, “I’ve done right by others in all my relationships.” That’s saying a lot. And Jesus didn’t refute it.

Jesus brought up his relationship to the poor. Why? Because Jesus loved him and wanted him to see two things: 1) though he had amassed much wealth on earth, he was bankrupt in heaven; he had no treasure in heaven. And, 2) the wealth he had needed to be given to the poor. Why? Because it was theirs!  What God gives us is not to be hoarded (although Proverbs says it’s wise to save up – not to hoard). It’s given to be given. Jesus was saying to the young man that wealth in heaven is obtained by giving freely to the poor and by taking care of them.

But here’s the biggie: Jesus told the young man to go and sell everything, give to the poor, and then come and follow. Jesus seemed to think that the item of first priority was selling all and giving to the poor. After that, then come and follow. Is Jesus saying that you can’t follow until you share what you have with the poor? Or is he speaking solely to the young man’s situation, that he personally needed to break the hold that wealth held over him by obeying this radical severing of dependence? I don’t know…but I’m leaning toward both.

Jesus never mentioned sin at all…or hell…or heaven…or any of the “standard” stuff. Does that stuff matter? Yes…I think. What I do see Jesus emphasizing is our relationship to and care for the poor and our love toward others, treating them as we would like to be treated ourselves. Can you see that Jesus’ gospel looks a lot different than what I’ve been taught? And sadly, our gospel is deficient and insufficient…

Generosity And Equality

The “Prosperity Gospel” is no gospel at all. It’s an American aberration. Does God want to prosper his people? Yes. Does prosperity mean everyone’s a millionaire? No. Prosperity simply means having more than you need. But, not so you can horde it or invest it; it’s so that you can give it away.  The goal of God’s blessing is not prosperity; it’s equality.

“Our desire is not that other might be relieved while you are hard pressed, but that there might be equality. At the present time your plenty will supply what they need, so that in turn their plenty will supply what you need. Then there will be equality, as it is written: ‘He who gathered much did not have too much, and he who gathered little did not have too little’” (2 Cor. 8:13-15).

Basil the Great said, “The bread you store up belongs to the hungry; the cloak that lies in your chest belongs to the naked; the gold you have hidden in the ground belongs to the poor.”

“All the believers were together and had everything in common. Selling their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need” (Acts 2:45).

The Gospels reveal that righteousness and justice go hand-in-hand. The same Greek word is used for both. The New Testament church clearly demonstrated that righteousness should produce justice. But the justice shown in the scriptures looks more like generosity and equality more than some judicial act or decree.

John the Baptist said, “Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.” Those who came to him asked, “What should we do then?” His responses were things like, “Share your extras with those who have none”; “Don’t extort and be content with your pay” (Luke 3:7-14) – all of his answers involved actions toward those disadvantaged and less fortunate. According to John the Baptist, the fruit of repentance/righteousness would be generosity and equality, caring for those in need.

Does the gospel we proclaim produce generosity, equality, care for each other and for the poor? Does the righteousness that we claim bring about justice? Or does the gospel we possess and its “righteousness” only produce self-centeredness and self-seeking  desire for personal wealth and asset accumulation?  Is the gospel we share the same gospel that Jesus shared? If not, it’s not good news and it will only further injustice.

A Provoking Thought

“[According to a profile in Christianity Today entitled] The Positive Prophet, … I have three things I’d like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don’t give a shit. What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.” – Tony Campolo

As a Christian, do I get upset over the wrong things? Do I value what Jesus values? What’s more important to me: righteousness, respectability, or religion?

Welcome To The Fly!

Welcome! The Fly is a blog where faith and modern life meet and have coffee together. The Fly listens and offers input on music, church life, culture, movies, books, relationships – in short, where we live.  The Fly seeks to radically follow Jesus in the world we know and to encourage and help others to do the same.  Like a fly on the wall, we’re listening… Welcome to The Fly!