This series is inspired by a Calvin and Hobbes comic that touches on an important concept. If I remember correctly from my bathroom reading, the first picture is of Calvin having recently caught a butterfly in a glass jar. The second frame Hobbes somberly comments "If people could put rainbows in zoo's, they'd do it". The third frame is of Calvin looking contemplative, holding an empty glass jar high in the air and the butterfly fluttering away to freedom.
Last entry talked about the negative effects of replicating cheaper versions of beautiful creations such as art, food, and music.
This entry will deal with something far more serious.
orangutans
... not really. It will deal with faith and maybe love... and possibly we will touch into the primate realm, but don't get your hopes up.
I want to clarify something before I go any further in this post though. My argument is not that having wide spread access to beauty is a bad thing. It is an observation of the negative impact that this widespread availability can have when....
A: we lose our appreciation of the beauty because we have become numb to it.
B: we begin settling for cheap or false imitations of authentic beauty.
C: we can no longer differentiate between the authentic and the artificial.
If inspiration was found from somebody hearing Beethoven's 5th and it pushed them into a creative frenzy which led to yet another masterpiece being produced... that would not be a bad thing. It would be a bad thing if because you heard Beethoven's 5th your entire life, you never learned to appreciate what a beautiful piece of art it is. Make sense?
application:
So, most of you probably already see the connection to faith that exists with this concept.
Let's use the Gospel as an example.
Is it a bad thing that the Gospel is very widespread and available for many people to receive?
No, not a bad thing at all.
Is it a bad thing when a snot nosed kid goes through Sunday school, confirmation, all the bible camps, church retreats and mission trips, and eventually finds their way to a college campus and realizes that for the past eighteen years of their life they were simply being sent down a giant feel-good conveyor belt with a wwjd fish sticker slapped on it?
Yes, it is a bad thing.
and hey... guess what. this happens. a lot.
When I was in India last year one of the missionaries there made an interesting comment about the United States. He said something like "You are so clean you are making yourselves sick". This was referencing our lack of natural immunity because of our sterilized environments and how when we get out of those settings our bodies will often suffer more harm than they normally should because we never had an opportunity to allow our natural defenses to be built up.
Cleanliness is a good thing though? right?
I guess so, but when you realize that eventually you will find your way into a dirty environment you better be prepared to handle your surroundings appropriately.
Sometimes when we have exposure to something foreign or "bad" there is a change that takes place in us that allows us to survive. Physically you can see this happen when you get a flu shot... what makes the shot beneficial is that a small amount of the flu virus is placed in your body and it triggers your immune system and allows your body to become aware of a real potential threat and from this awakening of the flu as a threat, your body is now able to identify it and fight against it.
Another way to avoid getting the flu is to stay submerged in a bathtub filled with bleach and to use a filtered snorkel to help you maintain your breathing.
I think that many student ministries (parents included) use the bathtub of bleach approach to "discipleship" ( read-protecting) . They make sure their youth are constantly surrounded by the "right" friends, in the "right" school, listening to the "right" music... etc, and in most cases "right" can be roughly translated into "safe". Instead of holding hands with someone older and wiser and walking through a full spectrum of life, they only experience a very small and controlled glimpse of one specific picture of life. The result is that when they inevitably are forced to deal with opposition or danger, they are not prepared to stand on their own two legs and many times turn against the thing that has retarded their development... in this example, it is the church.
Jesus didn't do things like that. He made sure the disciples experienced the good, the bad, the rich, the poor, the joyful times, the times of mourning etc. As he walked his disciples through life, he was able to teach them and prepare them for a time when they would be on their own. Jesus did not use the bathtub of bleach technique... he gave his disciples a shot in the arm and said "this is real life, it doesn't feel good all the time and it is not going to. Remember that you are walking out my example, my love, my grace, and sharing my message to the lost and hurting with your words and actions. Now go out there and get your hands dirty because you know where to find me when you are bloodied and bruised and need to be bandaged up, and remember that through it all I will continue growing in my love for you" - (I think that is in "the message" version of Luke)
His life was set an example of true beauty, and demonstrated practically what the gospel looks like.
The majority of christians have settled for a cheaper more widespread version of the life we were called to live.
Bleach that.
translation:
A: we lose our appreciation of the beauty because we have become numb to it: The truth of salvation in Christ is absolutely beautiful. Our lives demonstrating freedom through Christ are just as beautiful and are a powerful testimony to who our God is. When we only see an environment that "celebrates" this or, at minimum claims it, we very quickly grow numb to the beautiful truth we are living in. This is even more the case if you have grown up within the system. This is an example of our faith changing from a belief to a sub-culture. We must be in "the world" in order to walk out our calling in obedience. It also reminds us of why the gospel really is good news.
B: we begin settling for cheap or false imitations of authentic beauty. When we simply begin protecting ourselves from the world instead of being a light in the midst of darkness, we are settling for a cheap imitation of our call. The Jesus of Suburbia talks about this concept. It argues that we have settled for a cheap and watered down imitation of Christ and in doing so we have settled for a cheap and watered down version of Christianity. I would agree.
C: we can no longer differentiate between the authentic and the artificial. The comfortably fear driven and gluttonous country club housewife who prays to Jabez for more Oil of Osteen and won't buy a cup of coffee from a "secular" store or give a dime toward a ministry that allows people with tattoos or minorities to do the work of the Lord, and is starting an anti-brothas to mothas team, can call herself a christian. The Apostle Paul is called a christian. Maybe that was a bad example? Basically, the cost of following Christ has lowered significantly since Jesus was walking the earth and demonstrating to us just what it meant to be his disciple, but we are still all put in the same category of "christian".
Ok... that is enough for now. we will approach "love" in part three perhaps?
Meanwhile, as usual, anyone who wants to give feedback is always invited...
... any bleach-babies out there?
Interesting and relevant historical information:
ReplyDeleteThe church established the ascetic, priestly, and celibate vocations as a way to make up for the slower speeds, so to speak, of the average lay person. However, there were many programs by churchly and civil elites to bring up the lay people up-to-speed; in fact, religion and polite society coalesced quite nicely in forming what we know as civilization. This all came to fore during the Reformation, especially the Calvinist and Radical end.
Up until that point, the cost of following Christ, or taking the demands of the Gospel seriously, was only undertaken by those who were so spiritually moved, or by those who were called. The average lay person could tap into this "Treasury of Merits" through ways instituted by the church (ie indulgences, acts of penance, petition Saints, etc.) In abolishing the system so described, radical Protestants in effect "excarnated" the Church. What embodied Christianity is no longer corporate ritual action, but personal decisions of faith. So, Christianity is thus atomized because the only embodiment a personal decision can have is within the mind of another person. Hence the word excarnated.
So Protestants now regularly sound the trumpet for revival because, in reality, we are never living up to the demands of the Gospel. We do, after all, feel compelled to be the church (reincarnate, as it were), by subjectively housing the right feelings, beliefs, attitudes, morals, etc.
The point is, posts like yours reflect the problems inherent in our achievements (by our, I mean that of Western Christendom). And it is quite an interesting set of problems we have created for ourselves, isn't it? We can't tell people to trust the established rites, because that is superstition. We can only tell people to execute their faith through their actions, and thus build the kingdom of God on earth.