TOO SERIOUSLY?

Fresh out of college I found myself living and working in LeMars, Iowa - a small town about 30 minutes north of Sioux City and known primarily for being the home of Blue Bunny Ice Cream.

I was hired to be the youth pastor for the two United Methodist Churches in LeMars and I shared an apartment with an earnest little guy named Ray who had been hired to be the youth pastor at the local Presbyterian Church.

Ray connected quickly with a core group of the teenage boys in the youth group and soon they were doing Bible studies together on a regular basis, even outside of the regular youth group schedule. Ray was excited about the deepening of these boys' faith.

But one night Ray slouched into the apartment completely dejected. I couldn't believe what had happened. The mother of one of these young men had confronted him on behalf of herself and the other moms. She wanted Ray to back off from the Bible studies and the extra time outside of church.

Why?

Because the moms had decided that their boys were starting to take their faith "too seriously"!

Ray was absolutely wrecked. 

Satan got a two for one out of that deal: he derailed any discipleship progress in those young men while also deflating the youth pastor's zeal for making disciples.

When Paul writes to the Colossians these lines in chapter 3 -

 "1 If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God",

- it is clear that he has no concept of a believer taking his or her relationship with Jesus too seriously.

There's simply no such thing. 

HIDDEN ABOVE

Colossians 3:1-4

1 Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3 For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4 When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Paul says so much here in just a few words.

A few early notes on the passage I will be preaching this coming Sunday ...

Therefore, since you have been raised with Christ, strive for the things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 

Verse 1 - The verb "strive for" is the same word Jesus uses in Matthew 6:13, there translated as "seek": "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added unto you."

The image of Christ seated at the right hand of God is significant. "In Jewish traditions, God alone sits in the heavens, while the other subordinating angelic beings (i.e. the divine council) stand before him. Christ's being seated at the right hand of God, therefore, points to his sharing of God's sovereign rule." (Pao, p.211)

Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 

Verse 2 - If the main feature of "the things above" is Jesus seated in power - as King - alongside the Father, then "setting your mind on things above" has to do with giving serious thought to God's will. In contrast, "the earthly things" are "practices that refuse to acknowledge Christ as the sovereign Lord of all". (Pao, p.212)

"Believers are not to escape from this material world; rather, they are to focus on Christ as they live faithfully on earth." (Pao, p.213)

For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God.

Verse 3 - In Colossians 2:3, Paul has already asserted that "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden" in Christ. Now, he says the believer himself is hidden there. This is a place of safety, security, and fulfillment, as well as identity.

When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with Him in glory.

Verse 4 - This "hiddenness", and the security which it brings, lasts right up until the moment Christ returns - when He is "revealed". When His glory is revealed, we who were hidden with Him will also erupt into glory! 

THE SECOND ACT GOSPEL

I've been looking for a metaphor to explain the shortcomings of the typical American "gospel": i.e., "You're a sinner so Christ died in your place to enable you to someday go to Heaven." 

Here's one that came to mind today that might have some potential: the Gospel as a Three Act Play.

In your typical play, the acts fall along these lines:

Act 1 = Exposition. All the relevant background information is established and the conflict is introduced.

Act 2 = Complication. Something stands in the way of the hero's achievement.

Act 3 = Resolution. The hero succeeds. He reaches his ultimate goal. 

So for the Gospel, my rough draft of the layout would be something like this:

Act 1 - Jesus is introduced. He is the Son of God and announces Himself as the King of the coming Kingdom of God (with the entirety of the Old Testament as exposition). This is Good News - this Kingdom is the very place every man and woman ultimately desires - it is fulfillment of Purpose. Although a small group hang on His every word and soak up His teachings about the nature of this Kingdom, most people have grown accustomed to the dark and they reject both the King and His Kingdom. 

Act 2 - Even for those who desire to join God's Kingdom, there's a major problem: sin cannot coexist with God's presence. Sins must be washed away and forgiven once and forever. But this requires a perfect sacrifice. There is only One on earth who can serve as that sacrifice and it is the King Himself. Even as humanity does its worst to the Creator God, He uses their violence to provide the Blood which will cleanse them. Death - the ultimate consequence of sin - seems to have won, but it cannot hold the perfect Son of God. Jesus rises from the dead!

Act 3 - The King returns (temporarily) to Heaven but sends the Holy Spirit to enable the birth of God's Kingdom on Earth, the Church. Many who had rejected Jesus as King are now eager to join His Body. They enter the Kingdom by following Jesus' example: they die to self, are cleansed of their sins, and are raised to a new life, becoming a new, unstoppable creation. 

Epilogue: The Kingdom spreads and grows but finds resistance at every turn since much of the world continues in darkness. But the King has promised that He will return one day and put everything right, fully establishing His perfect Kingdom on Earth. 

Now, if the biblical Gospel is a 3 Act Play, then the American "gospel" is a "Second Act Gospel". 

It skips over Act 1 and focuses on Act 2. 

And because it has skipped Act 1 and all the Kingdom exposition, it largely neglects Act 3 and then goes on to misunderstand the Epilogue - having Jesus whisking His followers off to Heaven instead of joining them on the earth as their King. 

Too many modern American Christians are Second Act believers, missing the flow of the overall Story. 

No wonder they can't adequately explain the Gospel - Act 2 doesn't really make sense without the context of the whole play.

What a mess. 

KNOWING THAT IDEAS TAKE CAPTIVES

"People don't have ideas, ideas have people."

Carl Jung's profound insight is the sort whose application spreads ever further the more you think on it. 

It strikes me that for the preacher, there's a two-sided application.

A preacher should:

1 - Seek to understand which foreign ideas already own a part of your congregation's heart and mind. What philosophical barnacles are already attached to the hull of their "gospel". (There's a real possibility in many congregations of more barnacle than hull.)

2 - Work towards the grand "idea" of Christ owning every member individually and the congregation as a whole. If Jesus is presented in His full glory and splendor, He is an "idea" worthy of taking captive every thought, word, and deed. 

Logically, it seems to me that #1 has to be explored thoroughly before #2 can hope to be a possibility.

SYNCRETISM

Syncretism - "the attempted reconciliation or union of different or opposing principles, practices, or parties, as in philosophy or religion." (dictionary.com)

It's such a cool word - but such a terrible reality within the Body of Christ.

"Syncretism" is when someone decides that Jesus Christ is not enough and turns Christianity into a formula: "Jesus plus something else = salvation". 

For example, I had a couple of Mormons wanting to convince me that Jesus is the Way to salvation as long as I was baptized by the proper authorities. 

I think, too, of Haiti. I once heard someone describe Haiti's spiritual makeup as "90% Christian and 100% voodoo". When Christianity was introduced to Haiti, it didn't replace the old pagan African beliefs - too often the two belief systems simply intermixed. 

This is syncretism on a large scale, but I think many present-day American believers have a syncretistic faith on an individual level. They have accumulated unnecessary baggage on top of their core biblical belief system. 

And sometimes, like in the case of Haitian spirituality, the non-biblical beliefs have deeper roots. [And, yes, I would classify Calvinism as a type of syncretism. Thanks, St. Augustine.]

False teachers always seem to locate plenty of fertile ground for syncretistic beliefs. 

This is what Paul is warning the church of Colossae about in the second chapter of his letter to the believers there. 

See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. (Colossians 2:8)

Ideas have amazing power to take people captive. 

If the internet is to be trusted, it was Carl Jung who said, “People don't have ideas. Ideas have people.”

Ideas are sticky things. 

Along with teaching truth, a good teacher/preacher needs to be aware of what falsities have taken up residence in the minds of the congregation.

Syncretistic beliefs must be brought to light and pried loose. 

KINGDOM TALK

I skipped writing last night because I wanted to get to bed "early" - 10:15 pm. 

In general, I am starting to recall that I would feel a lot better if I had a more regular bedtime routine at an earlier hour.

Unfortunately, I woke up at 2:45 am, so it didn't necessarily help. I will try again tonight!

Anyway - Now it is 5 am and I am still ruminating on Dallas Willard's words in The Divine Conspiracy. I am resonating with his observations about the lack of a proper preaching focus in the American church. 

What important topic is lacking, according to Willard?

The very thing that Jesus Himself focused on: the Kingdom of God.

Speaking of the sort of vibrant life which disciples of Christ ought to be living, Willard writes:

"This cannot come about unless what Jesus himself believed practiced, and taught makes sense to us." (Emphasis in original, p. 59)

(THERE is the need for proper teaching. The gospel has to be explained in a way as to make sense to believers. You can't "live out" something which is muddled in your own head.)

"And [Jesus'] message must come to us free of the deadening legalisms, political sloganeering, and dogmatic traditionalisms long proven by history to be soul-crushing dead ends."

(Amen! All three of these continue to be issues within the church today.)

"Obviously it does not so come to us now, and this is a fact widely recognized." 

"At the 1974 Lausanne Conference on World Evangelization, Michael Green asked rhetorically, 'How much have you heard here about the Kingdom of God?' His answer was, 'Not much. It is not our language. But it was Jesus' prime concern.'"

(Yes! Why have we latched on to a phrase used once in one gospel (John) - "born again" - and completely skimmed over "Kingdom of God" and "Kingdom of Heaven", which are used repeatedly throughout the gospels?)

"Dr. I. Howard Marshall of the University of Aberdeen has commented, 'During the past sixteen years I can recollect only two occasions on which I have heard sermons specifically devoted to the theme of the Kingdom of God. ... I find this silence rather surprising because it is universally agreed by New Testament scholars that the central theme of the teaching of Jesus was the Kingdom of God.'" (p.59)

How has this happened? 

How does it get reversed?

JESUS THE TEACHER

Just a relevant quote from Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy tonight - one which echoes much of my thinking about current American church trends and where the disconnect lies:

The situation we have just described - the disconnection of life from faith, the absence from our churches of Jesus the teacher - is not caused by the wicked world, by social oppression, or by the stubborn meanness of the people who come to our church services and carry on the work of our congregations. It is largely caused and sustained by the basic message that we constantly hear from Christian pulpits. We are flooded with what I have called "gospels of sin management," in one form or another, while Jesus' invitation to eternal life now - right in the midst of work, business, and profession - remains for the most part ignored and unspoken. (p.57)

He continues:

We who profess Christianity will believe what is constantly presented to us as gospel. If gospels of sin management are preached, they are what Christians will believe. And those in the wider world who reject those gospels will believe that what they have rejected is the gospel of Jesus Christ himself - when, in fact, they haven't yet heard it.

And so we have the result noted: the resources of God's kingdom remain detached from human life. There is no gospel for human life and Christian discipleship, just one for death or one for social action. The souls of human beings are left to shrivel and die on the plains of life because they are not introduced into the environment for which they were made, the living kingdom of eternal life. (p.58)