Mahatma Ghandi admired Christ. He quoted him often and the noted Christian, Earl Stanley Jones, asked him why he so adamantly rejected following him. "Oh," Ghandi replied, "I don't reject your Christ. I love your Christ. It's just that so many of you Christians are so unlike your Christ." Christ, in Ghandi's view, was passionate, but his followers were not; Christ was obedient even unto death, his followers aren't. In the hands of his followers, Christ's light doesn't shine, and the biggest basket that they hide it under... is the way in which they live. When asked what non-believers expect from Christians, the French philosopher, Camus said it plainly: "we expect Christians to speak out, loud and clear, so that never a doubt, not the slightest doubt, could rise in the heart of the simplest man. Christians should get away from abstractions and confront the blood-stained face that history has taken on today." Christ's voice is seldom heard, Camus thought, from the mouths of his followers, and it is muffled mostly by their desire to fit in with the world. Soren Kierkegaard put it this way long ago: "The Bible is very easy to understand, but we Christians are a bunch of scheming swindlers. We pretend that we don't understand it because we know very well that the minute we do, we will be obliged to act accordingly."
The the problem, then, seems to be one of motivation rather than education. We don't imitate Christ because we don't want to... and this is killing us. Kierkegaard noted that, "There is something frightful in the fact that the most dangerous thing of all, playing at Christianity, is never listed among the heresies." To which we can only say, "amen." Playing at Christianity. Pretending that we don't know what God wants from us. Pandering to the world. These are the reasons why the church is increasingly irrelevant. If the church was filled with passion, those who cannot help but give themselves to passion... would flock to it. If the church was filled with acceptance, if it was a place where people actually forgave one another, people would flock to it. We live in a world filled with critics... and if this church, or any church, offered a real difference, people would flock to it. If the church was a place of deep, life-changing thought, deep thinkers would flock to it because they so badly want to understand who and whose they are. If the church was a revolutionary center, people who would rise up and challenge "the man and his system"... would flock to it... because they are committed to making things right. If the church was filled with crosses, cross carriers would flock to it, and if the church's only goal was to be like Jesus, it would attract people who wanted to be like Jesus. But... if the church's main goal is to provide a comfortable place for the comfortable... it will be a place where nothing really... ever happens.
This is why the church is irrelevant today, whether we're talking about the big box entertainment centers (the so-called mega-churches) or the bland community centers (the so-called mainline churches,) where good people just come and go. It's a huge problem and we aren't likely to change the worldwide church here today...but we can commit ourselves to a more serious Christianity, right here, right now. We can commit ourselves to more intentional study- every elder and every serious deacon should be in Bible study... and to a broader and deeper prayer life. We can commit ourselves to a bolder presence in community... and to being a more vulnerable presence in this neighborhood. We can lift our church to a higher place... in which members become disciples, visitors become members... and where God is the ONLY spectator. If we become better Christians, our chances of growing will be much greater, and even if we aren't blessed in that way, we still would've touched lives by being better Christians. Friends, Christ has told us what to do. He said that the light that we've been given to shine... is powered by obedience and faith, and He has called us to love our neighbor and one another... sacrificially and completely. When Jesus walked among us, he revealed, in word and deed, the fullness of God's priorities. He showed us what to do, and much of what he did and said has been written in God's word.
Becoming a complete Christian is well beyond our scope today, but we can take a first step to be like Christ... and I can't think of a more powerful motivator that Paul's inspiring words in Philippians. If you want to be like Christ, Paul notes, give up gossip. Stay away from it. Challenge it, and reject it as something unChristian. Reject factions as well. Commit yourself to the common good... and consider others and their needs, not just your own. Let's train ourselves to ask, what does Christ want from our church... and how can I contribute to that goal? In this way, while we will still have honest differences, we will be of one mind... but Paul is calling us to something MUCH greater than simply agreeing to agree. Have the mind of Christ, he said, who felt that equality with God was not worth clinging to- not if God's people were sinning and dying. Embrace this same mindset- that superiority is not worth clinging to- and then become authentically vulnerable. Be of the same mind that Christ had when he voluntarily emptied himself of divinity... and came down, down, down to this sin-filled place, where he took on the form of a baby and laid helplessly in a cattle trough. If you want to grow in Christ, empty yourself of "self" and become vulnerable before God and this threatening world. Become a vulnerable and servant-oriented team player... by picking up the cross that Christ has already prepared for you. Get yourself out of the way. Lose the "I," and make Christ's foot-washing agenda your life's work! You will probably need a job to pay the bills... but make Christ's work... your work... and his people... your people. If we do this, if we do it together, and do it with humility, people will flock to our doors because it's hard to find heaven on earth! Amen.
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