CHRISTIANITY 101:
YOU ARE THE ONLY BIBLE SOME PEOPLE WILL EVER READ
Early last January, a man walked up to the ticket booth at Heinz Field – the place where the Pittsburgh Steelers play – and asked if he could buy some playoff tickets. The ticket agent said to the man, “I’m sorry, sir. The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t make the playoffs this year.” The man said, “Thank you,” and then slowly walked away.
The very next day, that very same man walked up to that very same ticket booth and asked that very same woman if he could buy some playoff tickets. Again, the ticket agent said to the man, “I’m sorry, sir. The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t make the playoffs this year.” The man said, “Thank you,” and then slowly walked away.
Then, for the third day in a row, that very same man walked up to that very same ticket booth and asked that very same woman if he could buy some playoff tickets. The ticket agent said to the man, “I’m sorry, sir. The Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t make the playoffs this year.” Then she added, “Sir, this is the third day in a row you’ve come to ask me if you could buy playoff tickets, and I keep telling you that the Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t make the playoffs this year. Why do you keep coming back?” To which the man replied, “Ma’am, I’m a Cleveland Browns fan…and I just love hearing you say that the Pittsburgh Steelers didn’t make the playoffs this year!”
It never ceases to amaze me how rabid some N.F.L. football fans really are. They get all dressed up in face paint and jerseys, and abuse the fans of the opposing team. Their emotions – even their very lives – seem to rise and fall based upon the performance of twenty-two men on a field of grass. It seems as though we all need something for which we can hope, and – apparently lacking anything of greater substance – it seems a lot of people opt to place their hopes in the performance of some team.
Fifteen years ago, my oldest son was playing little league football in Salem, Ohio. Three of us fathers worked the chain gang…you know: the down and distance markers on the field. What that meant was that, during the game, we stood with our markers on the opponent’s sideline. We had a bird’s eye view of the field, which was great. But we also had to listen to the ranting and the raving of the parents of the opposing team.
One time a controversial call went our way, and the parents on the sideline were up in arms. They screamed at the referee as if he had robbed them of their souls. The referee then walked to the side of the field, simply shaking his head. I happened to catch his eye, and he said to me, “Can you believe these people?” I said, “I think the problem is that every one of these parents thinks that their little Johnny or their little Bobby is going to become the next great N.F.L star.” To which the referee replied, “I know…and that just ain’t-a-gonna happen!”
Like I said, we all need something for which we can hope. Sometimes it’s an N.F.L. football team. Sometimes it has to do with living vicariously through our children. Sometimes it has to do with a house or a job or a car. The point is that we all need something for which we can hope. We all need something upon which we can pin our aspirations for the future. Keep that thought in mind as we move on.
Several months ago, we postulated that our spiritual lives are shaped by three basic things: our narratives, our practices, and our communities. Our narratives frame our understanding of God and of ourselves. Our practices are the things we do on a regular basis that help to form who and what we are. Our communities are the places we go where we are surrounded by – and influenced by – other people…for better or for worse.
Then we worked very hard to establish a few new narratives about God. Looking at God through the lens of Jesus Christ, we determined that God is good, God is trustworthy, God is generous, God is love, God is holy, God is self-sacrificing, and God transforms. Then we wrestled in turn with overcoming anger, lust, lying and the law of reciprocity. We took a stab at defeating vainglory, avarice, worry and judgmentalism.
The theory behind such an endeavor is that abiding in the kingdom of God is different than abiding in the kingdom of this world. Those who abide in this world ask, “How can I get more?” Those who abide in the kingdom ask, “How can I give more?” Those who abide in this world ask, “How can I find myself?” Those who abide in the kingdom ask, “How can I lose myself?” Those who abide in this world ask, “How can I win friends and influence people?” Those who abide in the kingdom ask, “How can I truly serve God?” Ladies and gentlemen, there is a profound difference between abiding in the kingdom of this world…and abiding in the kingdom of God.
Today we continue the process of considering the communities that are meant to influence us from a spiritual standpoint. Obviously, the community we’re talking about here is the church. Since we’ve clearly seen that people need something for which they can hope, my theory today is that the church needs to be a hopeful community. The question now is: How do we get there?
When people find out that my wife is married to a Presbyterian minister, they often start asking her theological questions. You know, “How can a God of love allow evil in the world? How do you know that Christianity is the only faith that’s right? Do you really think there’s anything beyond this earthly life at all?” It frustrates her to no end. She’ll often say to me, “I wish I was as smart as you are!” No, I’m kidding! She’s never said that to me! But she will say, “I wish you’d been there to answer their questions. Sometimes I just don’t know what to say!”
Honestly, I’m not sure if my presence would help or hurt in a situation like that. You see, maybe the questions these people are asking aren’t really the issue. Maybe they’re actually smoke screens that hide what they really want to know. Maybe what they really want to know is this: “Is it true? Is there really something out there in which we can place our deepest, darkest hopes?” Perhaps the best argument in favor of that is not an intellectual idea. Perhaps the best argument in favor of that…is a well-lived Christian life. As I said last week, sometimes Christianity is better caught than it is compelled.
Consider the passage Bill read from the book of Colossians. The Apostle Paul says something profound there that really caught my eye. He says, “We thank God always, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you…because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus, and the love you have for all the saints – the faith and love that spring from the hope that is stored up for you in heaven, that you have heard about in the gospels.”
Did you catch that? Paul says here that faith and love spring from hope. Hope is not usually considered to be the source of faith and love, but it would appear as though that’s exactly what Paul is saying. Biblical scholar N.T. Wright puts it this way: “The solid fact about the future hope of Christians is a powerful motivation for constant faith and costly love in the present.” Hope is defined as confidence in a good future. What, then, is the future hope of Christians? The future hope of Christians is that there is something beyond this earthly life. That’s what keeps us from centering all our hope in a football team, or a child, or some material possession. As Christians, our hope is in God…and the marvelous future he has prepared for us.
Now there are actually two ways we can share this message. One is verbally; the other is by example. A lot of us don’t feel comfortable sharing the hope that is in us verbally. We’re afraid we’ll offend someone, or that we don’t know enough about the subject matter and we’ll end up looking stupid…or worse, intolerant. God forbid that we be labeled intolerant these days! Of course, if we worship regularly, pray daily and study diligently, that’s a lot less likely to happen. Yet the other way we can share the hope that is in us is by the way we live our lives. As the Apostle Paul said, faith and love spring from the hope that is in us. And that should necessarily impact the way we live our lives.
That which lies within us will always impact the way we live our lives. Madonna, of rock-and- roll fame, once said, “My drive in life comes from a fear of being mediocre. That is always pushing me. I push past one spell of it, and discover myself as a special human being, but then feel I am still mediocre and uninteresting unless I do something else. Because even though I have become somebody...I still have to prove that I am somebody. My struggle has never ended, and I guess it never will.”
Clinical psychologist Oliver James, in a book called Affluenza, describes very well what’s going on here. He writes: “Constantly comparing your lot with others leads to insecurity. You will have a nameless sense that there is always something you should be doing; call it a free-floating anxiety. You will be obsessively running yourself down because you do not do as well as others, yet moving the goal posts if you DO succeed.”
That sense of inadequacy is something we bring with us into church life. Maybe we look around the church and think, “I’m not as successful as he is,” or, “I’m not as gifted as she is.” At best, we fear being ordinary. At worst, we fear being irrelevant.
Whatever we wanted for our lives, if we’re Christian…we probably assumed that God wanted it for us as well. We might not admit it – even to ourselves – but we we’re pretty sure that God was going to come down and provide for us as only God can do. The problem, though, is that what we assumed was going to happen…is not necessarily what did happen.
Nobody ever grew up thinking, “I’m going to get cancer at age forty-one.” Nobody ever grew up thinking, “I’m going to get fired at age fifty-seven.” Nobody ever planned to be divorced twice by age forty-five, or alone and depressed at age thirty-two. Nobody thought their son would end up in prison at the age of twenty. Nobody ever imagined they would not be able to have a child. Nobody planned to be caught in a dead-end job. Nobody assumed their marriage would be mediocre at best. But sometimes it happens, and we end up being frustrated, or hurt, or
mad. Yet it’s times like these when the light that is in us can truly shine the brightest.
If you truly have faith in God, you have the hope of a brighter tomorrow…regardless of your present circumstances. Hope like that can become contagious. It impacts other people to the point that they want to have what you have. Thus, living a life of hope can become the greatest tool for evangelism there is. Why? Because you are the only Bible some people will ever read. Amen.
No comments:
Post a Comment