Followers of Jesus
Fr. Tony’s Mid-week Message
July 1, 2015
“Christians are so bigoted.” “The
Church is just one big club of haters.” “Hypocrites!” “I like
Jesus, just can't stand Christians.”
With Gen-Xers and Millennials
increasingly marking “NONE OF THE ABOVE” on polls to identify religion, the
future of the institutional church in the U.S. looks bleak. If
you’re under the age of 35, you are increasingly unlikely to affiliate with a
faith community, and increasingly likely to declare that you are atheist or
agnostic. Oregon and Washington in some
ways have long led the nation in this regard: we are the most un-churched
of the 50 states, along with Vermont.
Seeing the bitter and ungracious
reaction of some of those who style themselves “Christians” in the last week to
Supreme Court decisions, it is easy to see why young people feel this way.
The problem is not that Christians are
too religious or too firm in their faith. Some are indeed too rigid in
how they understand the received faith.
But I think the basic problem is far deeper: we are not faithful
enough in following Jesus.
Jesus sided with the marginalized and
the outcast. He practiced open table fellowship with the disreputable and
shameful. He taught openness and trust in
a God whom he described as our intimate parent. He criticized people who
used religion to control others and gain status, wealth, and power. He condemned
the unholy link between religion and imperial power even as he poo-poohed mere
political revolution or liberation. He was harsh only with the
mighty that walked over others. When given a choice between purity or
ritual cleanness and social justice or compassion, he always—always!—chose
compassion and justice. He never once scolded anyone about sexual
immorality or breaking religious rules.
Martin Luther King prophetically wrote
the following from Birmingham Jail in April 1963:
So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an arch defender of the status quo. Far from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent—and often even vocal—sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it will lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust.
To recapture the imagination and the
hope of those about us, we need to stop talking doctrine and religious
law. We might need to start calling ourselves simple “followers of Jesus”
rather than “Christians,” at least until the brand is reclaimed for those with
a clear joyful witness to God’s love.
We need to be bold in witnessing to
Christ’s love in all our living and actions. Service and care for those
in need of care, standing with the downtrodden, giving hope and affirmation to
the unsteady—all of this we need to do. One of the things I love about
Trinity Church is that we are doing well with this.
Occasionally, we might need to open our
mouths: not to repeat tired platitudes, but to express our own passion for
Jesus and the reign of God he is calling us to live, right here, right
now. We need to give voice to our faith and trust: explain
how we manage to have trust and hope, how we have found in our own experience
that certain practices and rules of life affirm our lives, give us meaning, and
inspire hope in us. We need to gently
and honestly share our experience, faith, and hope in ways that invite others
to desire to have what we have, be like us. We need to listen. Our prayer life and
engagement with scripture need to be richer and deeper, so that we sink our own
roots deep to find living water in an otherwise arid landscape.
Jesus calls us to follow him. He
promised that though we may not succeed, we will have the assurance that all
will be well. That's what trusting God is all about.
Let’s be followers of Jesus!
Grace and Peace,
Fr. Tony+
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