This is my kind of challenge and frustration at the moment. Another student and I were talking and I was sharing that I feel like I'm caught in this internal battle a lot of the time. I read what the Scriptures say, I begin to unpack what it means, I devour all this stuff about radical discipleship ... and my head, heart, the whole lot of me screams 'Amen, that's what I want to be.' I sense God's call within all of that ... and then the 'flesh' part of me kicks in again. How radical am I willing to be? How present am I willing to be? Am I prepared to pay the cost? And that's when all the other part of me screams 'No!' And so there is this internal struggle going on ...
I can not remain 'safe' and 'comfortable', for that is not how a Christian is called to live. A Chrsitian is called to follow after Christ, which may be an adventure, but is certainly not a safe, comfortable or tame adventure. I am a Christian and my desire is to own the name of Christ more, to more fully submitted to His rule. Yet those very ideas and all they contain scare the living daylights out of me. What if I am called to live among the poorest of the poor? What if I am to protest in the streets? What if I am to land in jail? What if this is what it means for me, personally to be fully submitted to the rule of Christ?
When talking about the Sermon on the Mount Dietrich Bonhoeffer says that when it is embodied it is a sign of the visible church. That is what we are to be, a visible church. Visibly putting ourselves in the places where good news and gospel need to be proclaimed and lived out ... embodied Christian ethical living in essence. Does how I live mark me out as being part of the visible church?
Am I willing to pay the cost? Am I willing to bear the consequences of not paying it? We explored Romans 12:1-2 today a little. Mercy ... sacrifice ... just some of the images present. The only problem with a living sacrifice is that it has a tendancy to crawl off the alter ... or at least this one name Mo does.
Therein lies the challenge ...
1 comment:
We are simply Christians who [claim to] love Jesus, yet we live our lives like headless chickens when it comes to sharing our faith with love and grace. Our attitudes come across too forceful, unloving or biased and at times without thought and care in our words and action... things slip out, so it seems. We lack the basic wisdom, knowledge and guidance and we don't often pray before speaking to folk, we just go about thinking we know what we want to say and what we want to do, but because there's no power in our actions, because we have decided to use our own knowledge to make our own assumption of the given situation, yet the bible tells us differently (Proverbs 3:5-6). Perhaps we need to start small and practice with those in the church, those that look lost during worship (those who stare into space and not the words of praise), those who stand still alone outside cliques and circles after service (those who have personal issues, be it emotional or physical, yet folk who go to church appear to be perfect as they hide their problems and pretend everything is A-okay... some Christians would rather kindle with friends only to hear good things and not be challenged by real-life issues with those who are not with cliques/circles) and those who pass the bread and wine without taking it themselves (these folk take an interest in church and have a grasp of the Christian faith, but there is a wall that they keep smacking into, because of past issues that are sensitive to discuss and share). With some understanding and confidence in Christ Jesus and knowing that one is actively making an effort to seek those *in* the church, should one do it outside church... otherwise, one would essentially be a hypocrite (you love Jesus, but you can't even love your neighbours in the church, never mind those outside the church), instead one is only wanting the comfort zone and never leaving to the battlefield as courageous Christian soldiers with the visible armour of God, but headless chickens... <><
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