It Ain't Me Babe

With risk of sounding like a broken record, there's something I feel the church desperately needs to embody. I've written about 50% of my blogs on here about the big picture of the gospel. But I find it so frustrating and I think that now
more than ever it is important to realise this.

Jesus speaks to his people right at the beginning of his ministry and tells them: "you're the light of the world! A city can't be hidden if it's on top of a hill....you must shine your light in front of people! Then they will see the wonderful things you do, and they'll give glory to your father in heaven."

Throughout history this has been the case with the most famous growth in the church- they offer something bright, something distinctive. The church today however, is seen as behind the times, struggling to keep up with post modern, relative culture. I sincerely believe we have a message which is the light of the world.

My knowledge of politics and economics is pretty bad. But it's pretty clear to me that capitalism is in a bit of a mess.
The crash of western economy, mass unemployment, the awful riots that have emerged up and down the UK. Something isn't working.

Capitalist culture is all about me. It's all about the consumer; what I can get. I want an out of season vegetable grown in north africa; I've got tesco. I earn my money, I work hard, I'm entitled to spend it on what I want. I can get pretty much anything I want and get it now. We are very independent but not very self sufficient. If every supermarket shut tomorrow- the UK would be in crisis. We have no community; I cannot pop down the road to my mate bob who grows carrots and my uncle gregg who can get me some milk from his cows. We depend largely on the global market.

And to some extent the church has followed suit. Whilst we might have reformed away from dependence on priests and rituals, we've pretty much replaced them with preachers who know their theology. I wonder what would happen if every church leader dropped down dead tomorrow. What would our churches look like? Who would do the preach? Who would lead the meeting? We've made church into part of our consumer culture. The number of times we say things like "that's not the kind of worship I enjoy" or the number of churches that are filled with pew fillers who come in, hear the talk and then go their merry way. We are consumers of Christianity, not participants.

To me this is sad. It's not the way I think the church was intended and it reflects a deeper truth we need to hear: You are not the light of the world, I am not the light of the world.

The gospel doesn't revolve around my salvation and my relationship at all. It revolves around Gods plan for humanity of which I'm a part, of which you're a part.

Tom Wright claims: " 'you mean I don't have to do anything ? God loves me and accepts me as I am, just because Jesus died for me' ought to give once to a deeper realisation down exactly the same line 'you mean it isn't about ME after all? I'm not the centre of the universe? It's all about God and his purposes?' "

Thats it- he totally hits the nail
on the head I think. It's not about me- it never has been. The church needs to learn this lesson- because if it does, I really think it has the potential to be light in an awfully dark world. Society doesn't need something 'relevant' right now, it needs something different. We are longing for it, society is longing for it- the truth that actually, it's not about me at all.

The world teaches the very opposite- it's all about me. Why do you think it's called the iPhone? Marketing is tailored around making the individual happy, fulfilling the individual needs. But we know it's a lie. Its not about me, it's about us. We are part of something much bigger.

The church needs to find a way to embody this- to become true communities, that stray away from consumerism and to focus on the big picture. We need to start figuring out how.

Shine a Light

I think often we have this idea as Christians that people look at us and see in us something they want. That just being around us is enough to make them realise that we’re ‘distinctive’, that there’s something different about us that they want for their lives and then they become Christians. I’ve heard this idea preached about and talked about so many times. But honestly, I’m not sure how true it is. Firstly, it doesn’t obviously work; if it did then there wouldn’t be as many people that were close to us that weren’t Christians. Surely they would have ‘seen the light’ by now. But as far as I can see, I’ve got plenty of non-Christian friends who are quite happy with their lives, and don’t particularly want what I’ve got. They’re quite happy for me to believe what I believe but they don’t want it. Should my job be to convince them that they need to change?

Jesus says that we’re called to be ‘light of the world’, that we should be distinctive and shine goodness where there is darkness, to show people the glory of the kingdom of God. My worry is that we’ve not got something the world wants anymore. What does the world see in Christian living that it wants? Often I think it sees only frigid, self denying, uptight, sexually frustrated hypocrites. That’s not to say that this is always the case, I think that there are genuine ‘lights’ out there. But I’m not one of them. It’s a little ignorant of us to assume that if our friends were all a little more like us and believed what we did that they would be better off. I think if we have the idea that just by being a Christian we’re a ‘light’ into their lives, we’re mistaken. Of course it could be that the world just can’t realise how much it needs what we’ve got. I’ve often heard the idea that we’re somehow ‘deep down’ happier and more content in a way that a non-Christian can never be. But I know plenty of miserable, grumpy Christians and plenty of genuine contented non-Christians. So what is it that I’ve got that makes me so ‘distinctive’; that makes me ‘light in the darkness’?

God’s promise to Abraham and his descendents was:

“I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse, and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you.”

I think this still is the promise God makes to us today. That because of the blessings he pours on us, that we can be a blessing to this world. The Jews had something that everyone wanted; victory assured in battle, security from their enemies. Today I think the perception of Christianity is that it’s all about moderation and abstinence. We become Christians and believe in God so that we can ‘go to heaven’ when we die, then we live our lives not having sex until we’re married, not getting drunk, not swearing and living by a bunch of out dated moral rules. Basically having less fun than everyone else but not being much different other than that. I think it’s summed up quite well in a Laura Marling lyric: “I sold my soul to Jesus and since then I’ve had no fun”. Rather than looking at Christians and thinking that they’re missing out on something I think most people think that it’s us that are somehow missing out.

If we’re no different to our friends who don’t know Jesus, then this isn’t really surprising. If the difference is that I go to Church on a Sunday, read my bible every day, drink a little less and don’t have sex then I don’t think we really understand ‘distinctiveness’. This isn’t something that the world wants to pursue. And to be honest, I don’t really blame them. If this is the only difference, then how am I in a position to tell someone they should live differently? When Jesus is talking about Salt & Light, I don’t think this is what he meant. The light of the world is not watered down, easy comfortable Christian living. It isn’t living like everyone else with a ‘secret guide’ telling us how to do it better than everyone else. Sometimes we have the tendency to think that Christian living is about living how others live but with our own built in sat-nav telling us what to do next.

If we don’t start seeking real kingdom transformation in our lives then we’re in danger of losing all relevance to this generation of people who are happy with what they’ve got. How can we expect people to change, how can we expect that we will be a blessing if we’ve got nothing to give? The kingdom of God is not an ‘ad-on’ to our lives, an enhancement to what we’re already doing, it is radical transformation. It is denying yourself to seek God's kingdom. Until I can see transformation in my life, I don’t expect anyone to notice what I’ve got, and why should they?

I think the imagery of ‘light’ is quite significant in what Jesus says. If we spend all of our time in comfortable Christianity it’s no wonder we’re not particularly distinctive. Try lighting a candle and putting it outside in the middle of summer. That’s not distinctive. Being ‘light’ requires us to shine in darkness. If we don’t seek darkness, it’s pretty difficult to know how light we’re shining. The whole idea of ‘blessed to be a blessing’ is that we become real change seekers. Not waiting for people notice what we’ve got, but taking light to the darkness. We should become the people that say ‘it’s not right that there are people are sleeping on our streets while we’re sleeping in beds’, ‘it’s not right that people are being trafficked in our cities’, ‘it’s not right that people die of curable diseases every day’. I long to be more radical in my living, to really seek kingdom change, but at the moment I live shining comfortably in the light.

Think of the darkest place you know. The place where there is a real absence of God, where people are just longing for change but can’t get it. Be light there. That’s distinctive. I long to live like this, but honestly most of the time I’m either crippled by doubt or fear. But this is what I think distinctive living really looks like. I want the world to look at me and see a change seeker, a justice seeker, a blessing, a light. At the moment I don’t think it’s any wonder that people don’t want what I’ve got.

The idea that people see something in me that they want can be a real catalyst to laziness, a motivation to stop seeking kingdom change, and just living comfortably among people hoping that they will notice. This is not what I want for my life.