Pharisees

Over most of Christmas break, I was really bored. And so I read my Bible. A lot. And I found a lot of things I never thought I’d find. A lot of things that have changed the way I think about faith.

Let’s face it. Jesus Christ was the greatest revolutionary history has ever known. His teachings flew in the face of the system. Jesus was the kind of guy who really stuck it to The Man.

In his day, The Man was generally the Pharisees, the religious leaders of the day, a bunch of pious, self righteous morons.

Frighteningly, that’s the description that secular society would give of Christians today. And a lot of us are.

I think it’s important to consider James 7: 8 – 10.
“
Jesus answered, “Isaiah was right about frauds like you, hit the bull’s-eye in fact:

These people make a big show of saying the right thing,
but their heart isn’t in it.

They act like they are worshiping me,
but they don’t mean it.

They just use me as a cover
for teaching whatever suits their fancy,

Ditching God’s command
and taking up the latest fads.”

“

Pretty startling indictment of people who hijack their religion in order to use it for their own means. And I think that’s a big problem about Christianity today. We tend to be far to quick to follow the commandments that give us a chance to show off how “Perfect” we are, and then ignore the fact that what Jesus really called us to do was to love and accept. That’s what he did.

I think far too often we forget that we’re all sinners, and that we’re all the same. Instead, we choose to pretend to be perfect, so that we can have someone to look down on.

Jesus didn’t look down on anyone. He loved and accepted the lowest members of society.

Maybe we should all give it a try. It’s something that I’ve failed at in the past. It’s something that I feel that I need to do better at in the future. Being judgemental isn’t a good thing.

Life in the iCulture

Today when we left the Adam’s Mark hotel, there was a man standing on the streetcorner, handing out little tracts for the Twelve Tribes cult.

All week we’d been warned to watch out for these people… These brainwashed cult members. And, sure enough, they were a little on the wierd side.

But if you know me, you’ll know that I’m never just going to take someone’s word for something. I’m going to check it out for myself. One of the papers they were handing out was called “iCulture”, a paper about how our culture is increasingly becoming more and more obsessed with ourselves.

The funny thing is that while what they’re selling is a little on the weird side, their sales pitch hit on an important point: Every person in our modern world has become obsessed with themselves. I think we all see it and we all have developed a love – hate relationship with it, which explains our fascination with people like the Twelve Tribes: Hippies living out in the woods in their little communes surrounded by peace and love.

But at the same time it seems strangely hellish: Life seperate from the iCulture means life seperate from being challenged spiritually. Life outside the iCulture is just running away from the problem.

I think people like the Twelve Tribes are ultimately asking the right question but giving the wrong answer. The iCulture is something that needs to be challenged. We, as a culture, need to stop trying to seperate ourselves from those around us and start trying to love each other. We have to do that within the context of society. Within the iCulture, we need to challenge that iCulture.

The iCulture has special meaning in an emerging context. Brian McLaren talks about how the modern church has become very self – focused; everyone is focused on their own salvation rather than on being mission – focused. I think realistically the modern church has become more of a problem than a solution: they continue to preach a gospel that is focused entirely on believing the right things theologically rather than on living the right way. And when it comes down to it, the best way to challenge the iCulture is not to focus inwardly – that’s how we got here. It’s to focus outwardly – to focus on living Christlike lives and on showing Christ to the world, instead of focusing inwardly and on ourselves.

Ultimately, that’s what the evangelicals preach, but it’s not how they live. Emerging Christians need to make this a point.