Where I come from if you aren't the norm you are one of these. If you are too enthusiastic, if you are too quiet, if you wear to much black, if you have long hair, if you believe in magic, if you don't believe in God, if you believe in mythology, if you wear weird clothes, if you are an adherent to liberalism, if you are a hippie, if you like to be alone, if you pray five times per day in a particular direction, if you hope to achieve Nirvana, if you have a red dot on your forehead, if you want to kill people for your faith, if you burn incense, if you wear a prayer shawl, if you blaspheme the name of the Lord, if you burn crosses and wear white hoods, if you do all the taboos of a Christian culture (ironically you are not one of these if you curse, speak and act in lust, steal, disrespect and mistreat other people, hate, lie, or indulge in worldly living). You are not a weirdo, however, if you go to church. You are not a weirdo if you are a Christian. You are not even a weirdo if you get baptized or pay tithes. You are normal. Christianity is normal. Christians are normal.
The entropy in the universe needs little help.
It's just that most of the time, these days, I have thought that if we truly lived like a Christian, that is one who tries to mimic Christ, we would be weirdos too. It's like we've reduced a Christian lifestyle to a happy medium where we can maintain the largest population of followers, but as it would turn out, in reducing the lifestyle we've accumulated followers to something much different than what Christianity is.
In David Platt's book Radical he comments on Jesus' habit of "turning away thousands of people." He writes:
Whenever the crowd got big, he'd say something such as, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." Not exactly the sharpest church-growth tactic. I can almost picture the looks on the disciples' faces. "No, not the drink-my-blood speech! We'll never get on the list of the fastest-growing movements if you keep asking them to eat you."
He continues:
At the end of Luke 9, we find a story about three men who appraocehd Jesus, eager to follow him. In surprising fashion, though, Jesus seesms to have tried to talk them out of doing so. The first guy said, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus responded, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."...The second man told Jesus that his father had just died. The man wanted to go back, bury his father and then follow Jesus. Jesus replied, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."...A third man approached Jesus and told him that he wanted to follow him, but before he did, he wanted to say good-bye to his family. Jesus wouldn't let him. He told the man, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."...[in summary] Become homeless. Let someone else bury your dad. Don't even say goodbye to your family.
And:
On another occasion, when surrounded by a crowd of eager followers, Jesus turned to them and remarked, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple...then he continued: "Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." Now this is taking it to another level. Pick up your instrument of torture and follow me....[in summary] Give up everything you have, carry a cross, and hate your family. This sounds a lot different than "Admit, believe, confess, and pray a prayer after me."
I'll say it sounds different. It sounds weird. We gravitate away from these verses in Sunday school. It puts me in mind of the recounting of the rich young ruler, which we've probably heard before we whip out our wallets if for no other reason. The way I usually hear it is something like this:
There was a rich, young ruler who approached Jesus and asked Him what it was he must do to achieve eternal life. Jesus told him he should follow God's commandments. He said he'd done this since he was a little guy, and then Jesus came out with the big guns, "Go sell everything you have and give it to the poor and follow me and you will have a lasting reward in Heaven." Now, I'm not saying you have to sell everything you have, but....
No, Mr. Preacher sir, you are not saying we have to, but it seems that Jesus did say that.
But that's weird. That's radical.
It appears we have made Christianity very cozy and very acceptable. The church in the Bible was a hard-knock life and culturally unsound and nearly offensive. When we come to know Christ we become citizens of a foreign kingdom. We become adherents to the supernatural rather than the natural, believers in the extraordinary, moreso than the ordinary. That is, weird as opposed to normal. We are thereby aliens on earth. We aren't supposed to fit in. In fact Jesus says the world will hate us because it has hated him and we are supposed to be like him.
I guess one thing we should be careful not to do is confuse morality with Christianity. They are not the same. There are plenty of people who do beautiful things for mankind who know not Christ. Weird as it is to say, Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven.
Jesus is what really sets us apart from the world. Our attempted mimicry of Him is what should set us apart.
The entropy in the universe needs little help.
It's just that most of the time, these days, I have thought that if we truly lived like a Christian, that is one who tries to mimic Christ, we would be weirdos too. It's like we've reduced a Christian lifestyle to a happy medium where we can maintain the largest population of followers, but as it would turn out, in reducing the lifestyle we've accumulated followers to something much different than what Christianity is.
In David Platt's book Radical he comments on Jesus' habit of "turning away thousands of people." He writes:
Whenever the crowd got big, he'd say something such as, "Unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you." Not exactly the sharpest church-growth tactic. I can almost picture the looks on the disciples' faces. "No, not the drink-my-blood speech! We'll never get on the list of the fastest-growing movements if you keep asking them to eat you."
He continues:
At the end of Luke 9, we find a story about three men who appraocehd Jesus, eager to follow him. In surprising fashion, though, Jesus seesms to have tried to talk them out of doing so. The first guy said, "I will follow you wherever you go." Jesus responded, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head."...The second man told Jesus that his father had just died. The man wanted to go back, bury his father and then follow Jesus. Jesus replied, "Let the dead bury their own dead, but you go and proclaim the kingdom of God."...A third man approached Jesus and told him that he wanted to follow him, but before he did, he wanted to say good-bye to his family. Jesus wouldn't let him. He told the man, "No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."...[in summary] Become homeless. Let someone else bury your dad. Don't even say goodbye to your family.
And:
On another occasion, when surrounded by a crowd of eager followers, Jesus turned to them and remarked, "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters--yes, even his own life--he cannot be my disciple...then he continued: "Anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple." Now this is taking it to another level. Pick up your instrument of torture and follow me....[in summary] Give up everything you have, carry a cross, and hate your family. This sounds a lot different than "Admit, believe, confess, and pray a prayer after me."
I'll say it sounds different. It sounds weird. We gravitate away from these verses in Sunday school. It puts me in mind of the recounting of the rich young ruler, which we've probably heard before we whip out our wallets if for no other reason. The way I usually hear it is something like this:
There was a rich, young ruler who approached Jesus and asked Him what it was he must do to achieve eternal life. Jesus told him he should follow God's commandments. He said he'd done this since he was a little guy, and then Jesus came out with the big guns, "Go sell everything you have and give it to the poor and follow me and you will have a lasting reward in Heaven." Now, I'm not saying you have to sell everything you have, but....
No, Mr. Preacher sir, you are not saying we have to, but it seems that Jesus did say that.
But that's weird. That's radical.
It appears we have made Christianity very cozy and very acceptable. The church in the Bible was a hard-knock life and culturally unsound and nearly offensive. When we come to know Christ we become citizens of a foreign kingdom. We become adherents to the supernatural rather than the natural, believers in the extraordinary, moreso than the ordinary. That is, weird as opposed to normal. We are thereby aliens on earth. We aren't supposed to fit in. In fact Jesus says the world will hate us because it has hated him and we are supposed to be like him.
I guess one thing we should be careful not to do is confuse morality with Christianity. They are not the same. There are plenty of people who do beautiful things for mankind who know not Christ. Weird as it is to say, Jesus Christ is the only way to heaven.
Jesus is what really sets us apart from the world. Our attempted mimicry of Him is what should set us apart.
