Wrong. I am done buying into that lie. It makes Christianity into a religion that serves self. It has lead me down a path toward flirting with rejecting God and considering abandoning my faith. Jesus said following him was about taking up a cross (I don't think any of us in the 21st century really even know what that means). It was was about death to self. The lie that following Jesus brings happiness, fulfillment, and purpose is a dangerous fusion between the promises of God and the promises of this world. There is a great hope and peace in following Jesus. But that hope is there to give Christians courage because the narrow road to life is hard. It is a full of danger, uncertainty, struggle, and hardship. Dying to oneself is one of the most difficult jobs for a human being corrupted by sinful desires. Because of sin, the image-bearers of God have become haters of God and lovers of self. I love myself, there is no other explanation why I still fall into sin, why I do not follow God perfectly. The journey of the Christian life is the journey away from self and towards God. Their is no higher calling and truthfully it is an impossible calling (from a human standpoint). No man can completely die to self and follow God. But herein lies one of the many reasons that God is worthy of giving up of myself. God made is possible through his grace for human beings to die to themselves and follow him. He is the power behind my death. He is the one who gives me the strength to die. I need to die, but on my own I would try to preserve my own life and therefore would perish. I will follow Jesus not because I want fulfillment, but because Jesus said "whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it" (Matthew 16:25 ESV).
I love myself; Jesus tells me I have to give up myself. The one I love most dearly is me; Jesus wants to replace me as this one that I love most dearly. This means seeking MY fulfillment, MY happiness, MY purpose just plain sounds silly, I am not the one that matters.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Friday, April 2, 2010
Parables and Stories
Something I think that Christians have lost is the power of story in our presentations of God to the world. May I remind you that the silly prophet named Jesus who walked around in Roman-occupied Israel spent most of time telling stories. I think the world is fed up with clever arguments for the truth of the "Good News" that Christians are preaching. There is something about being human and wrestling with truth that makes stories able to communicate truth in the best way that words can. The collection of writings that we have put together today and called the "Bible" (what a creative name) is mostly a collection of stories. In my own personal journey of seeking to find the truths of this world, I initially wanted concrete answers. I wanted to know the facts and everything else was a waste of time. But what I have been realizing is that truth can only be most clearly communicated in the context of a narrative. Embodied truth is far more powerful than disembodied truth.
I am pondering what it would be like if a Church would stop giving an instructive sermon one Sunday and instead told a Parable about the Christian life that communicated the same instructive truth through the different medium. I know that in our "post-modern" way of thinking we have twisted stories so that they no longer have real meaning. I want to avoid that and I feel this is the problem with my idea. I am not sure how one can present and story and insure that the audience does not take the story to mean something it doesn't. But then again, look at the parables of Jesus and how often they are over-analyzed by Christian preachers. I am sure God knew that his stories told through his son would be abused but he still chose to communicate truth through parables.
As an example of the power of story over argument and teaching, I am going to link you to a blog post by Michael Patton. He writes for a Christian theology blog called "Parchment and Pen". I want you to read his blog post about the Christian doctrine of Eternal Security and notice as you read that, regardless of whether you agree with him or not, his short parable he tells is the most powerful argument in his favor. It communicates what he is saying more powerfully than all his words before and after the story. You might argue for a middle ground here, that the words support the story and give the reader the ability to correctly interpret the story. I am fine with that. That might actually be the answer to the "post-modern dilemma" that comes with stories. I can think of a situation where Jesus takes his disciples aside and explains a parable to them so that they may more clearly understand the meaning (Matthew 13:36-43). My problem is that the Church tends to do more explaining of the story than actually story telling.
I am pondering what it would be like if a Church would stop giving an instructive sermon one Sunday and instead told a Parable about the Christian life that communicated the same instructive truth through the different medium. I know that in our "post-modern" way of thinking we have twisted stories so that they no longer have real meaning. I want to avoid that and I feel this is the problem with my idea. I am not sure how one can present and story and insure that the audience does not take the story to mean something it doesn't. But then again, look at the parables of Jesus and how often they are over-analyzed by Christian preachers. I am sure God knew that his stories told through his son would be abused but he still chose to communicate truth through parables.
As an example of the power of story over argument and teaching, I am going to link you to a blog post by Michael Patton. He writes for a Christian theology blog called "Parchment and Pen". I want you to read his blog post about the Christian doctrine of Eternal Security and notice as you read that, regardless of whether you agree with him or not, his short parable he tells is the most powerful argument in his favor. It communicates what he is saying more powerfully than all his words before and after the story. You might argue for a middle ground here, that the words support the story and give the reader the ability to correctly interpret the story. I am fine with that. That might actually be the answer to the "post-modern dilemma" that comes with stories. I can think of a situation where Jesus takes his disciples aside and explains a parable to them so that they may more clearly understand the meaning (Matthew 13:36-43). My problem is that the Church tends to do more explaining of the story than actually story telling.
I want to be a Child again.
I want to be a Child again. Everything I expirence has a tendency to become mundane and normal. The things that used to be new and exciting lose their luster as time passes. I hate how this translates into my expirence of God. How foolish am I to let him become mundane. To let him becoming boring. The beautiful and mysterious being that bought my heart is crying out so that I might know him more. I am praying that God would break me again so that I can see my need for the one who truly loves my soul.
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