Don't Come to Church

I'm going to try to keep writing on "How We're Not Doing What Jesus Did" - I'm hoping that my thoughts come out clearly . . . because they probaby won't.

Brian McLaren writes that "Jesus didn't come to start another religion." I agree, based on the fact that he openly scolded the overly religious. His message was never about exlusive-ness, but that there is room for EVERYONE in the way of life that He proposes.

His message really seems to be summed up thusly:

• Love the Lord your God with all your heart and mind and soul and strength
• Love your neighbour as yourself
• I died so that all the world could live
• Go tell others that I died so that all the world could live
• Don't get caught up in earthly things while you're going to tell others that I died so that the world could live

A far cry from the buffet-style church selection that we have available today, with minor doctrinal differences tearing apart congregations on a regular basis. It's no longer about the love, no matter what we say. It's about division. It's about protest (a la PROTESTantism). Because I don't believe that the Holy Spirit dishes out the gift of tongues to the same degree as others do, I have a sense that I can't expect to work with them.

But that's stupid. We both love Jesus. Shouldn't that unite us?

The more I read and hear and think, the more I fear that we are a group of self-interested people seeking more self-gratification. We may masquerade with service, saying that we're interested in others, but our talk leads me to believe that we're more interested in the blessings that come to us in return for the good that we do for others. At the very least, we use those blessings that come to us as a selling point to do good things.

Jesus didn't institutionalize anything. People institutionalize Jesus, to the point, as McLaren says, that he is more of our Mascot than our Master. We should produce Disney-style Jesus beards (like Mickey Ears) and sell them to our neighbours that come at Easter and Christmas. We're trying to sell Jesus instead of spreading his love on people.

Our message is more like:

• Love God as much as you can - we know there's a lot of things going on, so it's OK to spread your love a little thinner nowadays.
• Love your neighbours - you'll probably get something good out of it.
• Jesus died so that I, myself, could live.
  
• Go tell the people at your church that you know that Jesus died so that I, myself, could live.
• Don't get caught up in earthly things while you're going to . . . ooooh, not now, the superbowl is on.

Kind of related, hopefully is this: Jesus didn't plan evangelical crusades, or protest homosexual activity, or protest the stoning of alduterers, or demand that the sanctuary temperature be more strictly regulated, or the music be more appealing to his ears, or the scrolls be writen in a language that flowed more easily off of the tongue. He didn't debate whether or not a person is saved once forever, or many times after each back-sliding.

He, the perfect example from which we as disciples of CHRIST take our lead, spoke to people. He actively sought people out sometimes. Other times, they came to Him. He met their needs, whether they were grateful or not, whether they worshipped or not. He didn't ask them to come join a club, but rather to go and sin no more (He ACTUALLY sent them away!).

We could learn a lot from this Jesus guy.

This isn't really the way I was going to write this at first - so it probably means there will be more installments of it. In any case, I hope it makes sense.

Grace.