Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Porkyjesus: Normandy Christianity

If you have not seen the opening scene from the film, “Saving Private Ryan” then you have missed what many call the most realistic reenactment of the WWII event of the American forces landing at Normandy, France. While I am on a reel I will refer to one more movie: Braveheart. If you are a man and have not seen Braveheart you need to. One of my favorite scenes is when the sword of William Wallace the main character is thrown high into the air and it lands point down in the ground as a symbol that the tyranny ends “here and now.”
You can see the clip at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGt2SoTPc2k

It is my deep conviction that for an extremely long time we have allowed painters and holiday card makers to focus our attention on the wrong image. In fact most of what we see going on in Christendom is as weak and worthless as a manger scene. Yes I said it, as worthless as a manger scene. You would think that the coming of Jesus had more to do with livestock than it does with Redemption. Christmas is not about a baby in a hay box. It’s about the King of Glory launching his attack under the cover of humanity, poverty and obscurity.

Christmas is about the Son of God putting on the uniform of flesh to wage war against sin death hell and the grave. Christmas was Jesus landing at Normandy to take on the evil power that had taken over the world. The truth is that Jesus was born in a cow stall because the devil was so in charge of the Temple and the country that Jesus had to mount His attack on the fringe of Bethlehem. The reason the whole world can embrace the celebration of Christmas is because we have allowed the real meaning and message of Christmas to be diluted, polluted and commercialized. Face it, babies, mangers and gifts, sell. The war against the dark powers of hell is reserved for Halloween!

When Jesus landed in Bethlehem a war started. A war that saw the murder of thousands of babies in an attempt to kill the Christ Child. Not many Christmas cards with “Rachel weeping for her children” is there? Christmas is about a Warrior King who against all odds mounted a one man war against the power of Rome and the power of Hell at a “Beach” called Bethlehem.

Easter is no different. We have surrendered the celebration of the greatest battle of History to become about eggs, bunnies and candy. The Cross was Jesus jamming His cross into the ground like a Braveheart sword and declaring to the world and to the king of this dark world that it was over. Sin was being defeated, death was being conquered and Hell was being invaded. Declaring that a world of people who would have lived and died and condemned to hell, were being set free! It was a war that started in Bethlehem and was finished in Jerusalem on a hill called Calvary! And those who walk in the power of the Resurrection would be able to change the world!

How in heavens name have we allowed the two most important events in History to be hijacked? It has been hijacked because we have forgotten that Christianity is about the power and purpose of a risen King. It is because Jesus is so small and insignificant in our lives that we hand over our faith and our truth without a fight.

The Church herself has taken the horror of the wrath of God and the punishment of sin through the Flood and the Ark to become about animals. Animals! God crushes the sin of the world and redeems one family and we turn it into a children’s story that focuses on animals. We have turned Christmas into a Manger scene when it was Jesus landing at the beach of humanity ready to destroy the kingdom of Satan. We have allowed Easter to become about everything in the world except the Kingdom and the Power and the glory of Jesus Christ! The greatest tragedy of all is that we have made our holidays to be about a day in the past instead of the power and dominion of Christ to be made real in every day and every area of our current life!

When I think about how we have allowed the power and truth of King Jesus to be obscured by the commercialization of holidays, I am more convinced than ever that all we speak is porkyjesus.

Monday, April 14, 2008

Fishers of Men

Who does not love to watch the Discovery Channel’s “Dangerous Catch?” Men risking life and limb in order to catch fish or crabs or whatever. When you watch the show you kind of figure out why a few clusters of crab legs cost so much!

When I think about how these men are so willing to risk their lives for us to eat crab, it really seems kind of crazy. In fact it makes me rather ashamed that I am not more willing to risk life and limb to be a fisher of men.

When Jesus called the sons of Jonah and the sons of Zebedee to follow Him and become fishers of men He was making quite the play on words. What Jesus was saying to these men was, “Follow me and I will give you a new vocation. I will make something completely new and different out of you.” He did not say come follow Me, I want to teach you how to use your skills as fishermen to gain converts for my new religious movement.

Yet for most of the modern church growth movement it seems that the goal is to apply the most recent marketing and recruiting “fishing” techniques in order to draw the greatest number of people into the organization. It seems that when we hear Jesus say “I will make you to be fishers of men” we think it’s about catching the most fish. The methodology then becomes about how well we can bait our traps and attract the most fish to come into them. Then we have to make sure that we have become so indispensable in their lives that they will keep coming and keep giving so we can build bigger and bigger traps and provide better and better bait.

But if I read the Gospels correctly Jesus did not call these men to use their fishing skills in the kingdom. Jesus called them and us to a whole new objective. To make every new fisher of men to be a person who is leading others to become fishers of men.

A true fisher of men is not looking for how many but how much of a difference he can make in someone else’s life. Someone said, “give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, teach him to fish and you feed him for a life time.”

The goal of Jesus was to turn those salty seamen into broken hearted followers who cried salty tears for those who are a heartbeat from hell. To see them lead others to a place where they were in a deep loving relationship with Jesus, loving and serving those around them and moved by that same compassion to reach others who are a heart beat from hell.

The evidence is that the bass tournament fishermen tactics that we use to grow our churches may in fact be working in direct opposition to the purposes of Jesus. In spite of how many fish our best anglers are catching we are losing the race in every way. The percentage of people who are unchurched and unsaved continues to grow. The difference between the lives of people who are in church and out of church has disappeared. The moral, ethical and spiritual condition of our country and our world continues to disintegrate at an alarming rate.

Maybe it’s time we took a hard look at exactly what Jesus called us to do and made sure we are making a difference in the lives of people and not just trying to find a better bait and build larger traps. Could it be that the difference between fishermen and fishers of men is as great as the difference between Porky Jesus and Portuguese? Ciao`