Life On The Fringe

Tuesday, as I thought out loud about intelligent design and evolution I said, “Unless something significant happens in my life today to blog about, tomorrow I think I’ll write about how the churches are as bad as the schools in speculative teaching on nonessential matters”.

Well, significant things did happen yesterday as I had contact with nine live humans, including our children, as well as phone calls and e-mails.

However my life yesterday gave little evidence of intelligence and none of design.

I live like a Christian pin in the bowling alley of life.

And yesterday was typical. Not unusual. I’ve lived like this for years.

My biggest problem as a Christian is not believing doctrines, but living life.

These two elements seldom mesh.

When Ginny & I were first married, for several years we drove an over the road tractor trailer rig all over the United States. Each Sunday we attended a different church in a different city. One thing determined our choice of which church to attend – the size of the parking lot.

So we were exposed to many different styles of worship and emphasizes in teaching. It seemed to me that most churches have little to do with God and virtually nothing to do with me.

After settling here in Jacksonville, until recently we attended the same church for 27 years. But we were active in a number of interdenominational and ecumenical endeavors as well.

One thing strikes me from these experiences: we Christians dwell on peripheral issues and neglect our own basics.

For instance, in a liberal church I heard an impassioned sermon on how we ought to write our congressman about pending oil depletion allowance legislation

In a conservative church the pastor railed against women wearing slacks because he said the Bible forbids women dressing in men’s clothing.

Here’s an odd aside:

Once I chanced to be at church on a weeknight while an AIDS support group from outside the church was meeting. Their scheduled speaker canceled and the group leader asked me to present a devotional message. Having less than ten minutes warning, I repeated a Bible lesson I’d taught to an adult class the Sunday before. A gorgeous young woman – lets call her Betty --came up to me afterwards saying that my talk helped her and tell me about her failing T-cell count. I invited her to the regular adult class.

The following Sunday a number of strangers showed up in the class and afterwards a handsome young man introduced himself to me.

It was Betty!

I welcomed him/her and said, “I don’t know quite what to say; you’re the first transvestite I’ve ever had in one of my classes”.

“John,” he said, “You mean that I’m the first one that you know about”.

My teaching must not have helped because a few weeks later he killed himself.

Anyhow, neither oil depletion allowances nor slacks have much to do with Christianity. Yet we Christians continue to emphasize such peripheral matters – matters which demand no commitment on our part.

Some Christians talk as though a Seven Day Creation is the very bedrock of our faith. But knowing the details of creation requires no commitment on my part.

Some Christians just about wet their pews when talking about the end of the world. Believing this or that about a Pre-Millennial or Post Millennial Second Advent again requires no commitment from me.

What am I supposed to do about the beginning or the end of the world?

Exciting stuff to speculate about, but nothing I can do about either one.

Every once in a while a movie comes to Jacksonville and church people march with placards protesting, thus drawing tv cameras and newspaper reporters and giving the film free advertising.

Abortion protests. Rock concerts. Marches for Jesus. In God We Trust on money. Prayer at high school graduation. Chain letter e-mails that promises blessing if you forward within 15 minutes. Church bake sales. Buying carpet for the sanctuary – All of these quasi-religious activities have one thing in common:

They push the rock bottom central teaching of Christianity into the background to be neglected and ignored.

The devil loves for us to get involved in peripheral, non-essential causes. And we ourselves loved to get involved in great causes. It make us feel a part of things, with it, insiders. Besides, going on a protest in the name of faith is so much easier and more exciting than cooking supper for a grumpy husband, or helping the kids with homework, or listening to that mother-in-law criticize , or caring for Daddy’s Alzheimer’s.

So we gleefully march in marches, or write books, or do anything and everything to avoid the central basic factor in Christianity:

Jesus rose or rotted.

That’s the one fundamental.

If he died and rotted in the dirt then what he said or did has no more weight that the words and actions of Jessie James. Jesus is just another dead guy. The world’s full of ‘em . You can’t walk anywhere without kicking up their dust.

If he rotted then that stuff he taught -- nice as it is -- just doesn’t matter.

But, if Jesus Christ walked out of that tomb after we tortured him to death, if he walked out under his own steam, then he is declared to be the Son of God by his resurrection from the dead -- and what he taught really does matter.

Why?

Because we are also headed toward a tomb.

Our own.

If He is indeed the Son of God, the Alpha and Omega, the Prince of Life, the Bright and Morning Star, The Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the Almighty God, then nothing else in my life counts other than my relationship with Him.

And that means commitment.

Life commitment.

If he’s dead, he’s dead; if he’s living, he’s Lord.

But the allure of lesser things attracts me. My books. My slippers. My pipe. My plans.

Surely Jesus would be satisfied if I spend my time on the fringe of faith, not outside all together but not wholly involved either. Surely there’s some way to show I’ a Christian without being fanatical about it.

Ah, here’s just the thing…

As I started writing this posting this morning, a friend dropped by to show me a catalogue of religious paraphernalia. The cover says these items promote “a celebration of faith”. I can order an expression of my Christian faith -- and it won’t cost me a penny more than $14.95.

Much better than a life commitment.

It epitomizes what pure religion and undefiled is all about.

If I have one of these everybody will know for sure that I’m a Christian.

It’s called “a long-armed religious gorilla”. It’s got a cross and everything. Here’s a picture:

I think the lime green one looks holier than the purple one, don’t you? Yes indeed, when it comes to religion, we need to stick to what’s important.