A faith out of sorts

It seems like everywhere I go lately, christians are talking about the ‘deconstruction’ or ‘evolving’ of their faith and expressing a growing sense of unease about labelling themselves ‘a christian’. 

And to be honest, I absolutely get it because lately I have often felt the same way. It’s not that I have a problem with Jesus and His teachings in any way; it’s just that so much of the present ‘brand’ of western, evangelical christianity has become too toxic and mis-representative.

It can be pretty embarrassing to have to admit that you’re a christian or part of a church community at all, when that’s so often interpreted to mean that you’re a right-wing, racist, homophobic, and basically ‘anti’ all sorts of people and things.

It’s really hard to wear a label that increasingly feels ill-fitting because it implies certain values that sit ideologically far away from your own, and have almost nothing at all to do with the life of love that Jesus called us to.

And whilst I wouldn’t say that Trump’s current brand of politics is solely responsible for this corrosion of Jesus centred values in the church (I think he’s really just tapped into what was already lurking behind the pews), but to me it does feel like another nail in the coffin…

How did we get here?

All of this leaves me wondering, how did we get here? And how do we find a way through, without trashing everything about our faith that we hold dear?

Whenever I open the Bible, it strikes me that issues around religious ‘hijacking’ by the powers that be are really nothing new, and that the answers are really best modelled in Jesus’ life itself.

So many people forget that Jesus was a revolutionary and a rule breaker, who openly challenged the religious and political power structures of his time – particularly those leaders who exalted religious legalism, judgment and exclusion, over His uniting message of love.

In fact, the whole central narrative that runs throughout the Gospels is that Jesus came to replace the law with all of its inflexible regulations and restrictions, replacing that old form of religion entirely, with a personal relationship instead. 

And so it’s kind of hard to understand why so much of the institutionalised church throughout history has continued to be so preoccupied with upholding rules and creating more bureaucracy in His name.

I guess that part of the problem with Jesus’ message about living a life of love being the totality of what it means to follow Him, is that although it’s so simple, it’s also hard to do consistently and well.

So maybe instead of trusting that grace is enough to cover our lack, the temptation is for people to end up adding their own external markers and measures back into the equation too. 

And maybe it’s also just part of human nature to want to limit and control and put extra small print around a message that is so wild and inclusive and outrageously good.

The greatest command

Jesus was actually very clear on this point. In fact, He was once directly asked, “Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the law?” In other words – what is the single, most important thing about living this life of faith well? 

And these were the words that He replied, recorded in the gospel of Matthew, chapter 22:

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.  This is the first and greatest commandment. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbour as yourself. There is no commandment greater than these.”

(Matthew 22: 36 -40)

Love God and love others. Not either/or, but both. And that’s it. That’s all! There’s nothing more we need to add. He said that ‘all the law and the prophets’ hang on this one thing… 

So all of the Old Testament blood sacrifices to atone for sins, the food laws to separate out God's people, the temple to contain the presence of God, and priesthood which acted as a bridge between God and man… Jesus came to replace it all with this single, yet all-encompassing, command to simply love God and love one another.

And, if all the law can be summed up in this one commandment, then really that’s the only measure left for us today about whether we’re really living a life that’s pleasing to God or not. 

It’s not about works, or apologetics, or theological interpretation and arguments. It’s not about how much you know, or even how good a person you are either. It’s simply about growing your capacity for love.

How beautiful, how freeing, and what wonderfully good news!

Yet how often do we forget this as followers of Jesus, or find ourselves trying to tell a more complex story?

Politics of religion

In lots of ways 2018 was a pretty divisive year in both religion and in politics, and so far 2019 doesn’t look to be any better. 

But I really do think that this world has had its fill of people who claim to represent Jesus, whilst armed with protest signs, personal prejudices, and silent rules about what kinds of sinners are welcome in their midst or not. And the steadily declining church attendance figures seem to agree…

Of course, it’s too easy to point the finger at larger forces such as the overtly racist, sexist and exploitative strand of politics being peddled by the Trump administration, and the dangerous L evangelical alignment with an increasingly rightwing party in America.

But don’t we all also need to look a bit closer to home, in our own communities, churches, and social spaces too?

I think it’s a question worthy of some personal reflection as we move into this new year:

Are we really following Jesus and demonstrating his good news, or just peddling a religious system too preoccupied with its own preservation, power and influence?

At its very worst, the church has become so bound in bureaucracy, tribalism, and self-preservation, as well as the exclusion of those who are ‘outsiders’.

Yet I have also seen glimmers of it at its best too, which give me hope that ‘the church’ – by which I mean the people of God, not the buildings or institutions – is still God’s very best vessel for demonstrating His love to a grace-starved world.

Love wins

Throughout the entirety of the Gospel, the Jesus I read about just keeps on telling us the same story in lots of different ways, that the greatest thing is love. 

That love extends to the orphan, the widow, the weak, the marginalised, the poor, the sick, the foreigner, the criminal, and to every person who’s opinion or lifestyle is different to our own. 

In the gospel of John 13:35, Jesus himself is recorded as saying this:

‘A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples’.

So I wonder, why don’t we just take him at His word?

Because honestly, that’s exactly the kind of church that I really long to be a part of; a community of people set apart simply by how well they love God and others. No other strings attached.

And isn’t the world hungry for that kind of christianity to make its presence really felt in society right now as well?

I know that it’s a constant challenge to live out this value of love moment by moment and day by day. Preferring others to yourself is hard. It doesn’t come very naturally to most of us, and so we really need His help.

But the thing that I just can’t get away from is Jesus’ instruction that love has to be my start point, my end point, and the litmus test for almost everything I do… 

So whatever your personal theology, politics or religious practices, preferences and persuasions, if you’re a follower of the teachings of Jesus, the simple bottom line should always be this one thing: Am I becoming more loving? 

If the fruit of your faith is something that’s leading you to love God and love others better than you did yesterday, then chances are you might be onto something good. But if not, then it might need a slight adjustment or a rethink…

An aspiration for this year

Whenever it feels hard to open my heart up to people who look and vote and think and worship and live differently to me, I just keep making it my prayer that He would enlarge my capacity for love.

James 4:6 says this: ‘But He gives us more grace’ – and so my hope and prayer for myself, my community, and for you too, is that whatever ‘buts’ we might face in this coming year, that we would discover more of His love and His grace for ourselves and for others.

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