Lately, I’ve been a little confused. I’ve had discussions on Facebook and Xanga and other blog sites where, although the topic was about Christianity in general, it seemed as though myself and the other person were talking about two completely different things. The topics have ranged from homosexuality, sin, politics, nonviolence, etc., and it seemed as if I was talking with someone who was in a completely different conversation. In fact, I’m not sure it could even be called conversation. This has been more like two or more people talking at the same time, each on different topics, all the while claiming to be talking about the same thing. To me, this is very tragic and sad.
It’s tragic and sad because we’ve ended up with something that I’m not quite sure should be called Christianity – at least, not with a capital letter “c”. In my opinion, we’ve allowed the basic message of America – freedom to choose – to become the object of our worship. And to make it worse, we believe that God is okay with whatever we choose. Our image of God has gone from being the angry, old grandfather in the sky who is just waiting for us to mess up so he can smack us to being the doting, non-involved grandfather who never corrects us but always bails us out and who blesses anything and everything we choose. I fear that we have reduced God down to nothing more than a servant that we can summon at will, who does what we say, and then goes back to his quarters to await further instructions. We have emasculated the Almighty God and turned Christianity into something like a Sears catalog that we flip through gloating and lusting but never enter the store. We merely find what we want and give the order. And if we don’t like it or it’s too slow in coming, we simply cancel the order and send it back.
The Scriptures say that we all see through a glass darkly. None of us sees everything perfectly. Knowing this should produce in us some level of humility, but instead I find it is used as an excuse to believe whatever I want (although this is certainly not true for everyone; just in general). Even Pilate, who condemned Christ, had the good sense to ask Jesus, “What is Truth?” – although his question may have been somewhat skeptical or sarcastic. But we, American christians, come before Him saying, “Truth is whatever I like, prefer, and feel comfortable with. Anything else is just opinion, or at best, suggestion.” But if Jesus said that He is the Truth, then real truth will always end up looking like Him, sounding like Him, being like Him, and living like Him. Anything else isn’t the truth.
I want to say clearly: Christianity is not a buffet or smorgasbord. The nature of real, true Christianity is not “pick-and-choose”. Besides, if I we could make good choices, we wouldn’t need Someone to save us. A slave can make choices but still not be free. And being free doesn’t mean that he’ll make good choices. We need not only a savior; we need a lord – a master, someone who owns us and who tells us what he wants from us, not the other way around.
