New Year, Same Calling

The New Year always brings resolutions. New diets, new exercise programs, and new goals for improvement. What about us as a church? Do we also create new goals, expectations, or even a new Christianity? I do not suggest that we need it, but actually wonder if we have already.

Have we changed the Christianity of the Bible to fit our lifestyles, our own interpretation, and our blindness? I love Christmas, but through many hours of study and discussing the meaning of Christmas with fellow pastors, it became evident that we have a romanticized view of Christmas, but also Christianity as a whole. Christmas didn’t happen to two star crossed lovers, but by two people arranged to be married, pregnant out of wedlock, sitting lower than they could go in society, and nothing other than a cave filled with animal poop.

I’ve come to think about what have we watered down in Christianity. We’ve convinced ourselves that we are disciples when we might actually be Pharisees. Do we hold onto the knowledge of a savior, or do we actively spread it like the disciples? Are we Herod, who is afraid of an infant because it’s a threat to our own power and control in our lives, or are we shepherds where we give the good news for all who may listen.

I’m not calling anyone King Herod or calling people Pharisees, but I simply wonder if we have forgotten how radical, challenging, and provocative the gospel is. The gospel doesn’t tell us that nice people go to heaven; it says that those who go to heaven are those who follow Jesus. Jesus was very challenging, even once saying to his friend/disciple, “Get behind me Satan!” Jesus wasn’t just nice, but he told it how it is. Jesus confronted people and made them choose to either be a better person, or they ended up walking away.

Let us set goals to let the gospel challenge what we think, and let us accept the challenge to who we are.  Let us live the gospel, let us live like disciples, and let us share the good news with others rather than keeping it for ourselves.