In the Midst of Distraction

It's been a while...time flies when you're supposedly busy.

Christians are irking. Christians are easily distracted. It's no wonder the greater mass of philosophers have often looked at Christianity as a quasi-political, financial, or ignoramus social-structure whose assertion of power is only overshadowed by their ungrace and disgrace of those "sinners" who are so "different" from themselves. Sadly, there is a horrible and tradgic correlation often between one's adjective of Christianity and one's dilusion of purpose within the life of being a genuine, faith-driven Christ-follower. How easy it is to, despite our obvious commitment to adhere to God's Will and Word, to blind ourselves with self-agendas while we slowly alienate ourselves from the path Christ has called for us. In this way, we've become idol-worshipers whose concern is political and cultural (not that these do not have purpose) rather than primarily as a loyal citizen of God's kingdom. For example, abortion is never explicitly mentioned in the entire Bible yet often it becomes a halmark issue for the Christian community, we cry out "murder, murder" and create sarcastic phrases such as "How would you feel if you were aborted?" and such which only further divided the undecided and lost, the pregenant prostitute and the raped teenager. Yet, in the midst of such protest and petition, enraged speech and outright condemnation, have we yet realized that one of the most spoken topics in the entire Bible is in fact the horrors of the sin of greed? Yet, how often are we as Christians so happy to scream out the wrongs of abortion while our bank accounts are full and soon emptied on our own selfish desires rather than the world's suffering?

Here's the deal. We've destracted ourselves, we've let ourselves become totally blinded by our idealogies and have forgotten that our love and proclomation of the gospel, the "good news" (euangellos), is first and foremost concern in our lives rather than creating an earthly kingdom where we can remain comfortable. We are supposed to be proclaiming our savior in our schools, our jobs, our homes, and on our way throughout the world, as St. Francis says using words if our actions through our faith fail utterly. We are to proclaim. As Barth says in his Church Dogmatics;
"If the social work of the Church as such were to try to be proclamation, it could only become propaganda, and not very worthy propaganda at that. Genuine Christian love must always start back at the thought of pretending to proclamation of the love of Christ with it's only too human action." Church Dogmatics; Vol. 1, Sec. 3, pg. 50
Our social activism is meaningful and important, but in the midst of our political and cultural action, we cannot ignore the importance of our calling to truly bring Christ to the alienated and isolated. We cannot as Christ-followers continue to concern ourselves with our self-will and self-proclamation of our greatness and ideals while the gospel and love of Christ remains a dormant object, a resounding gong.

It doesn't matter what it is, if it is of this earth it is mere noise and racket unless such action proclames revelation to God and His perfect will. We have spent too much time complaining about political oppression, cultural shock, and even the supposed falling-short of our fellow Christians. In fact, we could fill sermon after sermon criticizing each other and our fallenness, and I am sure we would never come close to running out of material! But, is that what it means to be a Christ-follower? To proclaim something or someone other than Christ, His will, love, and work in us? Take a second. Think about it. In the midst of conforming to our Savior, we have tripped up again and in this way we have gone from abundance to decay and are now just realizing something is wrong with Christianity, and believe me, removing our educators, petitioning our government, or hiding our blasphemous greed is mere idolitry of this world rather than dedication to our Lord and Savior.

We must proclaim with our lives and our mouth first and foremost. Live your agendas and self-issues at the door. The truest servent of their Savior will let His Source flow living water through him or her rather than their own brilliance, arrogance, or proclamations.

Devote yourself to Him, He won't let you down.