The State of Christianity Today
Early in my Christian walk I tried to express to my fellow Christians what it was like to deal with Christians when I self-identified as gay. I came up with a little parable to better explain my experiences.
Imagine a beautiful lake surrounded by gently rolling green hills and edged all about with forest. About 50 yards from shore there appears to be a man drowning. Fortunately there is a little rowboat manned by two men, just to the left and just out of reach of the drowning man. One is at the boat's oars and the other is truly an odd sight to behold. The second man is attempting to stand at the front of the little boat, but what's really odd is the manner of the man's dress. The man attempting to stand in the boat is dressed from head to foot in high church garb, and he's carrying a rather ornate, but impractical looking, shepherd's crook. This "bishopy" looking fellow is wearing the high cone hat with tails, the long bejeweled outer robes, and there is a wide bejeweled church sash looking thing hanging about his neck and running half way down the front of his high church vestments. He's wearing little white gloves and in one hand he has what appears to be a small anchor. The high church, "bishopy" looking man is speaking to the drowning man. He says, warmly and with feeling, "Dear brother! We want you to know that we, our church, desire to stand with you in complete solidarity." The "bishopy" looking chap is struggling to maintain emotional composure, and even takes a moment to wipe away a small tear from his eye. He clears his tight throat a little, and says with a husky voice, "So that you may always know we support you completely, we have made this sculpture of an anchor for you." The high churchy man says, ceremoniously, "We give you this anchor to remind you, always, to stay anchored in who you think you are, and that we are with you in this your choice to drown yourself." The bishopy man and his oarsman smile, then offer small applause. Finally, with a wave of the "bishopy" chap's gloved hand, the fellow at the oars begins to pull at those oars and away they glide toward shore.
Off to the right of our little scene is a pier which juts from the land out onto the lake. Still the drowning man is about 50 yards from this pier to his right. At the end of this pier is another rather odd sight to behold. At the end of the pier is a man wearing a navy blue suit, sporting a well oiled crew cut, and in one of his hands is a coffee table Bible. (I mean the Bible is the size of a coffee table...King James Version, of course!). The man starts shouting out to the drowning man, "HEY!!! HEY YOU, DROWNING MAN!!! STOP THAT DROWNING!!! DON'T YOU KNOW THAT IF YOU DROWN YOU'LL BURN IN HELL?!?!? Immediately after shouting at the drowning man, the Bible toating man then hurls a rock at the man in the water. After throwing the rock the man yells, even louder, at the drowning man, "HEY!!! WHY DON'T YOU COME OVER HERE AND LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT JESUS?!?!?" The second shout is followed by another stone sent rocketing toward the head of the drowning man. Then shouting a third time, "HEY, DUDE!!! I KNOW YOU CAN HEAR ME!!! "IF YOU WOULD JUST STOP DROWNING LONG ENOUGH JESUS CAN SET YOU FREE AND THEN YOU CAN BE LIKE ME!!! Our religious zealot throws a new volley of rocks at the head of our drowning man, but soon decides to leave, grumbling about how the drowning man treated him. "Jesus said people would hate and persecute me, because I am a Christian."
Further from the shore of the lake is a man sitting with his wife on the fence which runs around the lake. The man says to his wife, "Say, do you think that guy is swimming, or do you think he might be drowning?" His wife squints up her eyes, uses her hand as a visor to block the glare of the sun and says, "I don't know, he's too far away for me to really tell what he's doing." The husband hunches into a Rodin's "The Thinker" kind of pose and considers the matter. Finally he says "Maybe we should call 911 for the guy." The wife quickly responds, "Honey, you're a good man, but we're to far away to really know what is going on over there. I'm afraid we might embarrass the man if he isn't really drowning." Then the wife continued sagely, "Judge not, lest you be judged..." And finally the wife said, "We don't know enough to make a real decision, so let's just enjoy our day out, and let that person in the water enjoy their day out at the lake."
What do you suppose happened to the man drowning in the lake? He drowned, of course. The man was accepted and loved right where he was. The man was condemned for where he was, and the man was ignored where he was, because "Who are we to say the guy is drowning, maybe he's doing some new kind of water exercise; it's best not to judge."
What I needed from Christians was for one of them to dive into my situation. What I needed was someone to believe God rather than what their feelings, or the feelings of others told them. I was drowning and everyone judged my situation. No one judged my situation from a place of understanding or experience, everyone judged my situation from their own person feelings about where and what I was. Granted there were lots of drowning people around me who kept telling everyone we were fine, we were just born to drown, as it were, and, "Leave us alone or you're judgmental and hateful!" God clearly sees the world drowning in sin, and he expects those who call themselves Christians/Christ followers to ask him for eyes to see the way he sees. God looks on the inside, and knows drowning when he sees it. It isn't a bad thing not to jump to judgment, but walk closer to the situation and judge from up close. It isn't a bad thing to hold to God's righteous standard, but move closer and learn that though the lost may have done a swan dive into the deep end, of their own free will, they now need saving. All the right knowledge in the world about lifesaving are pointless and useless, if no one dives into to actually save the drowning person. It is good to accept people where they are, but God has something much better for them. Don't offer a person help to keep drowning. God loves us where we are, but he saves us from drowning in our own sins.
Jesus came to a world which hated, reviled, and ultimately murdered him. Jesus didn't come to condemn or confirm sinners in their sins. Jesus came to find and save what was lost. What Jesus did is overcome the world, and anyone truly born again; born of God's own Spirit; given a new born spirit called the "divine seed" which literally means "sperm of God", will be conformed to the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. Jesus came to find and save, and that is the same thing Christ followers will do. It's isn't optional it is hardwired into our new spiritual DNA. Jesus dove into a drowning world, and started pulling drowning people to eternal life, freedom, and safety. That is the Christian's birthright and the Christian's call. You can't belong to Christ and love people til they drown. You can't belong to Christ and condemn them from drowning. And you can't belong to Christ sitting on a fence with no opinion on sin when God tells us exactly what he thinks of sin.
No one dove into the water to save the dying man. Everyone did what was right in his own mind, but Jesus dove in to rescue. We are warned again and again by Christ and the apostles he appointed and empowered to do and speak for him.
"To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.”
John 8:31-32
Believing
means doing. Belief in Jesus Christ is always a 3 part matter. 1) Do
what Jesus says. 2) This makes us true disciples, and as we do more and
more what Jesus teaches the more we become his true disciples. 3) As we
practice Jesus' teaching, becoming more and more his disciples, then
the truth sets us free. Being and doing go hand in hand.
"For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."
Ephesians 2:10
Think about Moses parting the Red Sea. We like to see things the way Cecil B. Demille saw Moses. We imagine Moses standing on a rock ledge jutting out over the sea, and Moses grandly gesturing for the sea to part. The truth is God commanded Moses to start walking toward the sea. Moses grand gesture was to walk straight into the sea. Many have said the sea probably parted about the time the water was licking at Moses' bottom lip.
That's it! That's what I'm talkin' bout!!
"Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says."
James 1:22
There
is no way around it. We will either go with our own thinking about
things, or we will obey God, and do what Jesus teaches. We will either
find reasons not to dive into a drowning world, or we will be like Jesus
Christ, and dive, without knowing anything more than he has called us
to obedience. We may call ourselves by which ever religious sounding
term we choose, but the Bible is utterly clear about what a Christian is
to do. To merely listen to right teaching without right action is
self-deception.
“If you love me, keep my commands."
John 14:15
No
one says it better than Jesus! Stop doing what you think is right, and
then stamping God's name on it. If the sinner drowns, but you've
excused yourself and didn't dive in, then expect the righteous judgment
of God condemning you for not being like Christ. You're going to have
to be like Moses and get wet. 4 times Moses gave God good reasons why
he, Moses, was the wrong guy to send to Pharaoh demanding the freedom of
the Hebrew Slaves. God didn't become angry with Moses, but carefully
explained to him that he would be there to get Moses out of trouble.
The fifth time Moses came clean and asked God to send some other savior
to Egypt. When Moses asked God to find someone else to send to Egypt,
we are told, "God's anger burned against Moses." Seriously, honestly,
do you, Christian/Christ follower believe God will withhold his anger if
you make excuses, and then refuse to obey his commands? So, okay, be
self-serving if you must. If you're not motivated by empathy and
compassion for the drowning man, then dive in to save your own skin.
Dive in to reach a drowning world because you fear God, and his
condemnation for your disobedience.
The
point has never been the sin of the world, the point has always been
that Jesus overcomes the sin of the world. If you have the cure, then
the point is to offer the cure. If the world rejects the cure then
you're off the hook. But if you offer everything including acceptance
of sin, condemnation, or nothing at all, that is NOT offering Jesus'
overcoming the world. God has the answer simply give that answer. But
you're going to have to dive in to give that answer up close and
personal, just the way Jesus did. From God's point of view we shouldn't
worried about our "rights" in this world, we should be focused on our
responsibilities to serve God and his kingdom, just exactly the way
Jesus did.
"Jesus
gave them this answer: “Very truly I tell you, the Son can do nothing
by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because
whatever the Father does the Son also does."
John 5:19
GET THE POINT?? Now go ye, and do likewise!
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