Cushy Christianity

I know most of you have read this...but I wanted to post it anyways. I updated it some. Don't think my church is some terrible, evil church because it's not, though I realize that this speech might possibly make it sound like it. My church definitely isn't perfect, but the people there really do try to love Jesus and learn more about Him and how to serve Him better.

“While we’ll be in heaven 10,000 years, they’ll be in hell-black as charcoal.”

What did he just say? Please, don’t tell me you just said that. You’ve got to be joking. Tell me you’re joking!

But it wasn’t a joke. Not in the least.

I watched in horror as the other students and teacher joined in laughing at the joke.

At Sunday School.

Yes, you read that correct. Sunday School.

I wanted to walk over and slap his face and then sit him down and inform him of how wrong he was. When did people going to hell become a joke? Isn’t that the exact purpose Jesus came? He cared enough about people’s eternal destination to hang, bleeding and bruised, on a cross. When, over the thousands of year since He resurrected, did we stop caring? Not only stop loving and caring, but making jokes about it? Jason Vana said, “Jesus spent time with prostitutes, hung out with traitors, thieves and liars, drank wine with his disciples, spoke against the religious institutions of the day, called religious leaders sons of hell, stood up for adulterers, and invited murderers to follow him. Don’t fool yourself into thinking that Jesus would be welcome in your church. Christians look down on such things.”

A couple weeks before that, our Sunday School lesson was about idols. My teacher commented that people who followed and worshipped idols become like their idols. While he didn’t use the exact words, it was obvious what he meant: useless, mute, and dumb. I found myself appalled as he went on say people choose to live in darkness, that they chose to ignore the truth. Last year on my mission trip to Nepal, I saw the exact opposite. Yes, I did see people who lived in darkness because they’ve never known anything else. How can they choose to live in spiritual darkness when they’ve never heard the truth proclaimed? I saw, met, touched, and led people to Christ who were blinded by thick darkness. It was like they were stumbling around in a dark room, searching for the light switch. They are so trapped in the bondage of culture, but I’ve experienced first-hand how desperately they not only need, but desire, the truth. They want to experience freedom, not prison walls caving in on them. But do we notice?

No.

Because we’re too busy judging them and making jokes about them going to hell to reach out and share the love of Christ with them. In Nepal, we had the chance to show people the light-the truth! How will these precious people know anything else but darkness unless we go and tell them? Sending a check just doesn’t cut it sometimes. And what about people who worship idols becoming like the idols? On every street in Nepal, vendor’s have tables spread out with hundreds of graven idols. The people who follow these idols aren’t mute and dumb and unresponsive. They’re blinded.

Every Sunday on the way to church, my Dad prays the same prayer. He prays that God will convict the world of “sin and judgment”. But what about love? Why not pray that God will convict people of love and compassion? Take India, for instance. Girls are literally thrown out the door and treated like garbage. My heart aches for them! The only things these girls have been told is how worthless they are. They have never known anything but the sting of pain and rejection. Mother Teresa said that when we judge, it leaves no time to love. I couldn’t agree more. Instead of throwing their sin back in their face, why not proclaim a new message-one they’ve never heard? My cousin recently saw a church signed that boldly declared: “Ready or not, here I come. -Death.” I hate it when people try to scare people into heaven. I don’t want to go to India to preach fire and brimstone. I don’t want to go tell sinners how lost they are. I don’t want to go to India to tell people that unless they become a Christian, they are going to hell. Instead, I want to go to India to tell people how loved and cherished they are.

Jesus Himself said He didn’t come to call the righteous to repentance, but sinners. It’s not the healthy that need a doctor, but the sick. Jesus Himself didn’t pat the Pharisees on the back and tell them how righteous they were. He reversed the religious normalcy of the way when He boldly proclaimed that the assumed “righteous” of the day were sinners and the “sinners” He called righteous. He graciously accepted the rejected and felt compassion on the people because they were like “sheep without a shepherd.”

A few years ago in Sunday School, another episode occurred a few minutes after the teachers disappeared out the doors. One of the girls in the class started telling us about a woman she’d seen. Correction-making fun of the woman she’d seen. The woman, who was obviously poor, was dressed in shabby clothes. She had, the girl informed us, most likely bought them at a cheap store.

When I went on a mission trip to Italy a couple years ago, one of my highlights was meeting Emon, a Muslim from Iran. After sharing the Gospel with him, he peppered us with questions about Jesus. Though he was a devout Muslim, he didn’t try to hide his interest in Jesus. But he told us his fear: “If I convert to Christianity in my country, I could be killed for my faith.” Three years later, I still remember his words. In America we are privileged to have religious freedom…but it is a “freedom” that comes with an enormous price tag: complacency. It is so easy for us to lose sight of what it looks like to radically follow Jesus, to radically abandon everything for Him, while misusing our religious freedom. Another time in Sunday School, the teacher asked as if it was hard for us to follow Jesus. “No,” the pastor’s daughter laughed, “I have a pretty cushy Christianity.” How can we radically follow Jesus while we are too busy enjoying our cushy Christianity?

Christianity has been morphed into a label instead of something that people are willing to sacrifice everything for. Modern Christianity is so diluted I’m not even sure that Jesus would recognize it. This is why I’m often ashamed to call myself a Christian. It’s not that I’m ashamed to be associated with Jesus, but with some Christians I know. What’s the definition of Christian, anyways? It’s definitely not a word that Jesus invented. I probably wouldn’t know some people were Christians unless it was for their Facebook religious views, and even then I seriously wonder. People frequently put “I love Jesus with all my heart!” on their Facebook information. My question is…where’s the evidence? Jesus Himself said that people will know us by our fruits. Our actions should speak louder than our words. Yes, I’m one of those crazy people who believe our love for God and others should be so obvious that we don’t need a Facebook status to reassure people of our loyalties. Don’t get me wrong. I know some of the best, most compassionate, caring Christians. They truly want to serve God, live out Christ’s words and reach out to the hurting and broken. They inspire to preach the Gospel in the slums, to the rich, and to the lost. They are willing to abandon everything for their Jesus as they radically follow Him no matter where it leads.

Christians like that are refreshing, but perhaps that is because they are so far and in-between. These days people post their Facebook statues something like, “Jesus said to pick up your cross and follow him. He also said that if you deny him before people, he’ll deny you before God in heaven. So re-post this status unless you want Jesus to deny you in heaven!” I can assure you that’s certainly not what Jesus meant when he said that. If we think that is all Christianity is, we are sadly mistaken. When Jesus invited people to pick up a cross and follow him, it was an invitation to die. The cross was an emblem of torture and death. The cross states that we must give up every thought that we have the right to do what we want to do or say what we want to say. Let me tell you something: just because you have your Facebook religious status as “Christian”, doesn’t mean you are. Just because you say you love Jesus, doesn’t mean you do. And posting some stupid status on Facebook isn’t picking up your cross.

Let me close by asking you a question: is this all your Jesus-your religion-means to you? a label? a Facebook status? Something that is neatly tucked in its own compartment, but doesn’t impact the rest of your life? It is wrong of us to boldly proclaim one message, but live an entirely different one.