Dismantling the American Jesus
by Roberto Esponja on Sunday, October 23, 2011 at 11:12pm ·
This
is not what I intended this to be; it isn't even the second or third
thing I thought it would possibly be. I am now simply calling it,
Dismantling the American Jesus, and I may even add Pt 1 to that as it
may turn out to be a multi-part work, but...it may end in the next 5
minutes, who knows....
Some things you should know up front:
I am not a person that is prone to regurgitating pre-formulated thoughts, or who likes to resort to cliché/path of least resistance type thinking.
I believe that if you can not be honest then you can not be anything that is worthy of being, for it will all be built on the shaky foundation of lies and will eventually crumble under its own weight.
The blessing being the curse as it often is, I have once more been given cause to think. So...here is my honest thinking submitted for your reading, once more.
It is, as usual, a stream of thought, complete with typos and spelling errors. Clearly I need an editor, so try to overlook these things and see my point through them. Remember, this a couch more than a classroom.
I post here and on my blog, so you may interject, and comment anonymously. I don't expect that anyone would care to be as "out there" as I am told that I am.
And so it begins:
I have been thinking a good deal lately about failure in the context of living out one’s faith…
We are a success driven culture, it is the nature of the free enterprise culture to be so. I have seen (and sadly have been guilty of myself) many believers shunned by other believers who might be failing, or who have, in a very limited view, failed for fear of being dragged into failure as well. It is shameful, and this is not the way of the Jesus I find in the bible, regarding those who may stumble in their pursuit of righteousness, nor should it be ours.
Jesus lived among the sinners, was shunned by the self-righteous religious leaders of his own day for doing so, rejected and labeled as a failure. He dared to challenge the traditional religious’ (and political hierarchy contained within) concepts of righteousness in pointing out that simply meeting the letter of the law was not by any means embracing the heart of the intention behind the law. In challenging them to re-think their practices, and examine their hearts, they understood that this would be the undoing of their greatest source of self-pride, the power structure, and the financial gain they enjoyed so greatly, by the strict regulation and religious burden on those who’s desire was truly that of God’s heart. At the outset, they knew he must be silenced, and when unable to outsmart him in religion, crucifixion suited the cause just fine.
We will find the same is true of many of the “religious” in our own day, and the greater the effect we have in causing people to think and change, the more vocal and forceful the protests will be.
In caring for the sinner, Jesus suffered with and for them, then and us as well today. Even knowing the depth of their failures, past, present and future, Jesus continued to see and treat people for their potential so that they too might realize it within themselves.
Consider Peter, while he was passionate, this emotion also drove his decisions in which ever way the wind blew. The other apostles must have seen this in instability him, and probably saw it as a jab of sorts, when Jesus called him the rock. Not unlike nicknaming an overweight person slim.
This was not the case at all though. Jesus was sincere in his renaming of Peter, because he alone knew the depth of failure Peter would reach, even before calling him Peter. (Petra, the rock, Peter) He told Peter in advance that he would deny Jesus 3 times. Peter refused to believe such a thing, but to his own shame Peter did in fact do. But Jesus did not hold this foreknown or previous failures against him, for he told Peter that upon this rock (Peter) he would build his church, and so he did.
Peter's identity was in Jesus, and Jesus in believing the best of Peter without keeping score of his failures, allowed Peter to do things, which Peter might never have done, or even considered as possible, on his own strength. Amazing...
I believe that this is how we too are viewed by Jesus, and we might not settle for spiritual mediocrity in our lives, but go on to accomplish far more for the kingdom if we were to find our own identity in Christ and believe this of ourselves.
This idealistic attitude runs contrary to human nature's quest for self-preservation and prosperity, and it is certainly counter to our American culture, because in doing so we may indeed find ourselves in situations where by we too suffer for the failures of others (on many different levels) by actually suffering with them. I believe that by showing compassion to others and making their failures our own, their growth through those difficult times would foster at least some degree of growth within ourselves for simply having done so. If our identity is truly realized through Jesus then it is our calling. For is that not the work of the cross, a suffering for the failure of others?
I believe that most of the answers we struggle with are in large part due to the manner in which we approach our questions. A good deal can be discerned about a person's level of maturity or depth of understanding by the manner in which their questions are posed. We are wise to remember as believers however that we are the finite attempting to pursue the infinite, the imperfect creation in pursuit of our perfect creator, a difficult task indeed, and impossible by our own merits!
In light of this, we must keep in mind that we are certain to fail at some point or another, along the way, and probably often.
Show me a man that has not failed, and I will show you a man that has not tried.
If in our lives we wish to simply avoid failure, then all we must do is simply avoid success, and I'm afraid this is the spiritual state of many believers, including myself at times. We expect very little from God, and ask that he return the favor. We have settled for being luke warm, and Christ addresses that state as well in a far more than unfavorable way.
Our modern culture is one of instant gratification, and often our determination of failure, is such because we fail see the realization of success manifested within reference to our own imagined ideals of what success is, and within our own brief life spans. This is not how success and failure work in a spiritual context.
Success and failure cannot, if we are believers in God's sovereignty, be concluded merely by our limited observation and short sightedness, it must be considered as part of the whole, a much larger picture (God's purpose), of which we have a very limited view.
God, being eternal is not limited to time. Failure and success, as it were, is not realized in a given moment, or within anyone's individual accomplishments, it is rather realized within the context of eternity and its part in achieving his ultimate purpose.
We might consider "the failure of one the failure of all, and the success of one the success of all" in choosing or failing, to support one another in either.
In this process then, I have opted to go contrary to what I see as the "normal" approach, by focusing on failure more than success. Doing so has proven to be a very large and complicated task. My original intention was to examine the life of Moses, who experienced a great number of failures and successes, while being quite clever and insightful. I have once again foiled my own plan however, and the process has allowed me to make only some very basic, general observations.
Failure is not an option...
Often times not only is failure AN option, it is THE option, as it is required for our growth and in achieving God's purpose. Especially when it is considered within the context of salvation, recognizing and admitting failure by our own strengths is mandatory, or we negate the mission of Jesus himself.
I we could do anything but fail, even in our best attempts at righteousness, then the cross has no meaning.
I find it quite comforting that the bible is so free in exemplifying the failures of so many of its heroes, and in this regard I find that I do often look at the life of Moses.
God instructed Moses to return to his homeland of Egypt, from which he fled as a murderer years prior. He told Moses to talk to Pharaoh, instructing him to request that he let the Hebrews (slaves at the time) go into the wilderness to have a feast in honor of their God. However, and this is the part I really am inspired by, God also tells Moses that he will fail. Get it? It was a part of the plan; Moses would, as a mandatory part of accomplishing God's will, FAIL! He in fact, failed as a part of God's plan many times, and I believe so do we.
God's ways being higher than ours ways, and his thoughts higher than our thoughts, it is he that will have the final determination in defining our successes or failures, and it is ultimately not within our control. While success rather than failure is our goal, it is our perception of their purpose that will determine our response to these situations and what we do with them, and in the grand scheme what we perceive as either may be totally incorrect.
It seems to me we are more prone to introspection, thinking, learning and growing into maturity through our discomforts and afflictions, more so than we are in our comfort and success, as those seem more often to create within us complacency, self-centeredness, and pride. It is rare to recognize our need for God when we are comfortable, but in our failures we recognize our hopelessness and cry out to him.
On the return from a short-term mission trip to impoverished Mexico, I asked the prople around me what one thing they walked away with. The consistently the answers were based in gratitude for the affluent American lifestyle. This was deeply saddening to me because not one person seemed to notice the passionate worship and deep level of commitment to faith these people possessed.
Is our vision so focused on material wealth that we are blinded to our spiritual poverty?
As we tend to require so much of it ourselves in the process, failure is also a great catalyst for learning the importance of extending grace and mercy in order to encourage others to press forward as well, not accepting failure as defeat, but as part of a process. Many times I have received such encouragement, when it would have been far easier to be crushed by judgment and condemnation, regardless of how accurate those assertions may have been. (Sadly though, the opposite has also been the case far too often, and it has proven to be most disheartening and disillusioning when un-grace is so generously distributed by those claiming the name of Christ.)
We may view many failures as successes in a certain sense, both for others and ourselves if only in that regard. Often times in extending the opportunity for growth to others we too seem to grow.
Again, we can look to Jesus to see the attitude of non-judgment very clearly exemplified for us, as a pattern for living, which we should strive to attain. I will say though, that in looking to Jesus as our example we should look at the bigger picture, not expecting that the graces and mercies we extend will, as a matter of natural course, be returned, for we too will at times fail to do the same.
We should also recognize at this point, that Christ was very good to point out sin as the root cause for many afflictions, calling for repentance rather than doling out the judgment that he alone would have been justified to administer or by addressing the mere symptoms of sin without also addressing the underlying cause.
We are often people who sparingly extend our graces and mercies. When we do it is primarily based on the realization that within our own lives, we require the same. Compassion is consequently often born out of our own life experiences, and a person failing to encompass these things has most likely not recognized them having been or being extended to them, or perhaps even their need for them.
In some cases the failure to extend these graces may in fact just be a symptom of issues people are dealing with internally. On a darker note, and please forgive me, they may in fact not be believers at heart. Most likely you will never know these last two, and it will be up to you to extend the grace you have not been afforded and move on.
Love does not keep score, and you may find one day that you too (heaven forbid) are that person.
Jesus was generous to extend these things to those who asked sincerely, and he alone knew the extent of our sad human condition in doing so.
Part 2 Hang on, it's going to be a bumpy ride...
I used to get quite frustrated that many of the answers that Jesus gave in response to (seemingly) very direct questions, were often vague shadows of answers, portrayed in stories and left open for interpretation. I was dumbfounded when I read his response for doing so as being so that some would indeed not understand them. This seemed unfair and contrary to the loving Jesus I worshipped. I have found a certain understanding of this, however, through my own experiences.
Many of the answers we seek cannot be presented to us as mere formulas for success. There is usually a much larger picture that we fail to comprehend in asking many of our questions and the nature of many of the answers we seek are a result of our desire to relieve symptoms, rather than solving the root cause of them. As I previously touched on, Jesus did not allow this as an option, and does not address our problems without also addressing their underlying causes.
This is a blessing in my opinion, as it seems God is always good to give us what he knows we need, rather than what we seek as a result of our perceived needs. Anyone with children will understand the frustration of them, when instead of candy we offer a meal, or instead of watching a late night movie they must go to bed. They cannot understand why their greater good is entirely contrary to their wishes. We too often operate as children when it comes to our requests of God to meet "our needs".
Although many situations are the same in nature, no two situations are really ever the same in circumstance if/when we are discussing those in which people are involved. That being the case, even if it is only we who are involved in those situations, there is again the one person involved, with skewed and limited perspectives, ourselves.
With that being said, I have come to a couple of conclusions, over the years.
1) There are answers in life that can be found, but that the simple imparting wisdom will not satisfy.
In many instances, unless we can work through the given situation that has made us aware of our need for such an answer, we would not accept, recognize, or comprehend these answers. These are often answers that risk rejection by trying to simply explain them, without having experienced them firsthand. However sincere our desire to help may be, we do a certain dis-service when we try to do so.
To grow in our maturity of anything, but especially in our faith, is a process more than a product, and so we must see one step through to its end, before we can proceed to the next.
2) I have found that youth, either chronologically or in regard to our spiritual quest, affords us a strong certainty of things which our later experiences and maturity will simply not allow.
Immaturity would have us believe that the world is quite small, and is comprised primarily of what we perceive it to be by our own senses.
Children can be cruel and lacking in compassion. By virtue of their own limited experiences they simply cannot understand or relate to the needs of others, or what it takes as an adult to meet those needs. They assume the perspective of others must be the same as their own, if they consider those things at all, because of their ignorance. Any parent knows, and forgives this, because that's how children are and it's a part of the process of growing into maturity.
The other complicating factor in children is that they tend to paint the world with the brush of their own experience. My experience is that of being born into the American culture. To be born again in large part to being, and being surrounded by purely cultural Christians. Christians by proxy.
The faith we have been handed by our predecessors, is a faith that is so intertwined with the American dream and political agendas, that the deciphering and separation of the biblical Jesus and the American Jesus is almost impossible if our reliance is strictly based in the teachings of popular "Christian" celebrities, and even sincere but duped local leaders and teachers.
I have found that even among people who seem to see themselves as being fairly knowledgeable about the bible and its teachings, however "good" their intention, feel that their understanding of scripture is most certainly the "correct" meaning of any given text in the bible.
While I certainly wouldn't expect anyone to profess belief in something they actually didn't, what I have found is that many of these folks seem to read into the bibles teachings what isn't there by failing to remove their personal and political agendas at the outset. Perhaps not consciously, they in effect make their cause God's cause, when God's cause should be theirs. In doing so they put themselves in a very scary position of divine judgment for misrepresenting God and his word.
Although we fancy ourselves to be independent thinkers very few of us actually take the time or extend the effort to read and understand the very scriptures we profess to believe. Because we profess but don't practice our faith we are easily convinced to follow blindly, those who would lead us astray.
I'm certain that I too must be guilty of all of this to a large degree, although I struggle daily not to be.
We live in a culture that allows, encourages, and rewards non-thinkers.
We hold fame to be a virtue, give credit where it is not due, and celebrate the accomplishments of those that have accomplished nothing. We are a shallow people often believing that in parroting the thoughts of other popular and apparently more intelligent people that we too will appear to be thinking independently, as they are, and in doing wrongly esteem ourselves quite highly.
This thinking is as immature as seeking acceptance from your peers by wearing the t-shirt of a band, or dawning a logo as to provide instant status and credibility, simply by association. Sadly, we seem to buy in to this logic quite a bit as well.
So, where am I going with all of this?
Well In considering the determination of success and failure, as Christians we fail when we do not seek. While it is clearly good to seek teaching, we must also validate that teaching with our own study and pursuit of God's heart in doing so.
To me, as a believer, this is the only true failure. All other failures are merely stepping stone failures. The sorts of failures that can prepare us for real success when we learn from them whatever it is God intends to teach us as a result.
These are the sorts of failures contained within scripture, for it is not God who fails, but we who fail when we seek to live by our own wisdom and strength instead of searching for and submitting to God's providence.
The highest and most honorable success we may hope to have is that of being used by God for the manifestation of his glory and work through our lives. If this is our goal then failure is only a part of the process in finding success.
I will close with these final thoughts:
1) One failure may be the catalyst to a great number of later successes, but one success may require many failures before coming to fruition.
2) Our greatest successes will be our greatest failures if Christ alone is not at the center of them.
Let your ultimate hope lie in the ultimate hope...
Some things you should know up front:
I am not a person that is prone to regurgitating pre-formulated thoughts, or who likes to resort to cliché/path of least resistance type thinking.
I believe that if you can not be honest then you can not be anything that is worthy of being, for it will all be built on the shaky foundation of lies and will eventually crumble under its own weight.
The blessing being the curse as it often is, I have once more been given cause to think. So...here is my honest thinking submitted for your reading, once more.
It is, as usual, a stream of thought, complete with typos and spelling errors. Clearly I need an editor, so try to overlook these things and see my point through them. Remember, this a couch more than a classroom.
I post here and on my blog, so you may interject, and comment anonymously. I don't expect that anyone would care to be as "out there" as I am told that I am.
And so it begins:
I have been thinking a good deal lately about failure in the context of living out one’s faith…
We are a success driven culture, it is the nature of the free enterprise culture to be so. I have seen (and sadly have been guilty of myself) many believers shunned by other believers who might be failing, or who have, in a very limited view, failed for fear of being dragged into failure as well. It is shameful, and this is not the way of the Jesus I find in the bible, regarding those who may stumble in their pursuit of righteousness, nor should it be ours.
Jesus lived among the sinners, was shunned by the self-righteous religious leaders of his own day for doing so, rejected and labeled as a failure. He dared to challenge the traditional religious’ (and political hierarchy contained within) concepts of righteousness in pointing out that simply meeting the letter of the law was not by any means embracing the heart of the intention behind the law. In challenging them to re-think their practices, and examine their hearts, they understood that this would be the undoing of their greatest source of self-pride, the power structure, and the financial gain they enjoyed so greatly, by the strict regulation and religious burden on those who’s desire was truly that of God’s heart. At the outset, they knew he must be silenced, and when unable to outsmart him in religion, crucifixion suited the cause just fine.
We will find the same is true of many of the “religious” in our own day, and the greater the effect we have in causing people to think and change, the more vocal and forceful the protests will be.
In caring for the sinner, Jesus suffered with and for them, then and us as well today. Even knowing the depth of their failures, past, present and future, Jesus continued to see and treat people for their potential so that they too might realize it within themselves.
Consider Peter, while he was passionate, this emotion also drove his decisions in which ever way the wind blew. The other apostles must have seen this in instability him, and probably saw it as a jab of sorts, when Jesus called him the rock. Not unlike nicknaming an overweight person slim.
This was not the case at all though. Jesus was sincere in his renaming of Peter, because he alone knew the depth of failure Peter would reach, even before calling him Peter. (Petra, the rock, Peter) He told Peter in advance that he would deny Jesus 3 times. Peter refused to believe such a thing, but to his own shame Peter did in fact do. But Jesus did not hold this foreknown or previous failures against him, for he told Peter that upon this rock (Peter) he would build his church, and so he did.
Peter's identity was in Jesus, and Jesus in believing the best of Peter without keeping score of his failures, allowed Peter to do things, which Peter might never have done, or even considered as possible, on his own strength. Amazing...
I believe that this is how we too are viewed by Jesus, and we might not settle for spiritual mediocrity in our lives, but go on to accomplish far more for the kingdom if we were to find our own identity in Christ and believe this of ourselves.
This idealistic attitude runs contrary to human nature's quest for self-preservation and prosperity, and it is certainly counter to our American culture, because in doing so we may indeed find ourselves in situations where by we too suffer for the failures of others (on many different levels) by actually suffering with them. I believe that by showing compassion to others and making their failures our own, their growth through those difficult times would foster at least some degree of growth within ourselves for simply having done so. If our identity is truly realized through Jesus then it is our calling. For is that not the work of the cross, a suffering for the failure of others?
I believe that most of the answers we struggle with are in large part due to the manner in which we approach our questions. A good deal can be discerned about a person's level of maturity or depth of understanding by the manner in which their questions are posed. We are wise to remember as believers however that we are the finite attempting to pursue the infinite, the imperfect creation in pursuit of our perfect creator, a difficult task indeed, and impossible by our own merits!
In light of this, we must keep in mind that we are certain to fail at some point or another, along the way, and probably often.
Show me a man that has not failed, and I will show you a man that has not tried.
If in our lives we wish to simply avoid failure, then all we must do is simply avoid success, and I'm afraid this is the spiritual state of many believers, including myself at times. We expect very little from God, and ask that he return the favor. We have settled for being luke warm, and Christ addresses that state as well in a far more than unfavorable way.
Our modern culture is one of instant gratification, and often our determination of failure, is such because we fail see the realization of success manifested within reference to our own imagined ideals of what success is, and within our own brief life spans. This is not how success and failure work in a spiritual context.
Success and failure cannot, if we are believers in God's sovereignty, be concluded merely by our limited observation and short sightedness, it must be considered as part of the whole, a much larger picture (God's purpose), of which we have a very limited view.
God, being eternal is not limited to time. Failure and success, as it were, is not realized in a given moment, or within anyone's individual accomplishments, it is rather realized within the context of eternity and its part in achieving his ultimate purpose.
We might consider "the failure of one the failure of all, and the success of one the success of all" in choosing or failing, to support one another in either.
In this process then, I have opted to go contrary to what I see as the "normal" approach, by focusing on failure more than success. Doing so has proven to be a very large and complicated task. My original intention was to examine the life of Moses, who experienced a great number of failures and successes, while being quite clever and insightful. I have once again foiled my own plan however, and the process has allowed me to make only some very basic, general observations.
Failure is not an option...
Often times not only is failure AN option, it is THE option, as it is required for our growth and in achieving God's purpose. Especially when it is considered within the context of salvation, recognizing and admitting failure by our own strengths is mandatory, or we negate the mission of Jesus himself.
I we could do anything but fail, even in our best attempts at righteousness, then the cross has no meaning.
I find it quite comforting that the bible is so free in exemplifying the failures of so many of its heroes, and in this regard I find that I do often look at the life of Moses.
God instructed Moses to return to his homeland of Egypt, from which he fled as a murderer years prior. He told Moses to talk to Pharaoh, instructing him to request that he let the Hebrews (slaves at the time) go into the wilderness to have a feast in honor of their God. However, and this is the part I really am inspired by, God also tells Moses that he will fail. Get it? It was a part of the plan; Moses would, as a mandatory part of accomplishing God's will, FAIL! He in fact, failed as a part of God's plan many times, and I believe so do we.
God's ways being higher than ours ways, and his thoughts higher than our thoughts, it is he that will have the final determination in defining our successes or failures, and it is ultimately not within our control. While success rather than failure is our goal, it is our perception of their purpose that will determine our response to these situations and what we do with them, and in the grand scheme what we perceive as either may be totally incorrect.
It seems to me we are more prone to introspection, thinking, learning and growing into maturity through our discomforts and afflictions, more so than we are in our comfort and success, as those seem more often to create within us complacency, self-centeredness, and pride. It is rare to recognize our need for God when we are comfortable, but in our failures we recognize our hopelessness and cry out to him.
On the return from a short-term mission trip to impoverished Mexico, I asked the prople around me what one thing they walked away with. The consistently the answers were based in gratitude for the affluent American lifestyle. This was deeply saddening to me because not one person seemed to notice the passionate worship and deep level of commitment to faith these people possessed.
Is our vision so focused on material wealth that we are blinded to our spiritual poverty?
As we tend to require so much of it ourselves in the process, failure is also a great catalyst for learning the importance of extending grace and mercy in order to encourage others to press forward as well, not accepting failure as defeat, but as part of a process. Many times I have received such encouragement, when it would have been far easier to be crushed by judgment and condemnation, regardless of how accurate those assertions may have been. (Sadly though, the opposite has also been the case far too often, and it has proven to be most disheartening and disillusioning when un-grace is so generously distributed by those claiming the name of Christ.)
We may view many failures as successes in a certain sense, both for others and ourselves if only in that regard. Often times in extending the opportunity for growth to others we too seem to grow.
Again, we can look to Jesus to see the attitude of non-judgment very clearly exemplified for us, as a pattern for living, which we should strive to attain. I will say though, that in looking to Jesus as our example we should look at the bigger picture, not expecting that the graces and mercies we extend will, as a matter of natural course, be returned, for we too will at times fail to do the same.
We should also recognize at this point, that Christ was very good to point out sin as the root cause for many afflictions, calling for repentance rather than doling out the judgment that he alone would have been justified to administer or by addressing the mere symptoms of sin without also addressing the underlying cause.
We are often people who sparingly extend our graces and mercies. When we do it is primarily based on the realization that within our own lives, we require the same. Compassion is consequently often born out of our own life experiences, and a person failing to encompass these things has most likely not recognized them having been or being extended to them, or perhaps even their need for them.
In some cases the failure to extend these graces may in fact just be a symptom of issues people are dealing with internally. On a darker note, and please forgive me, they may in fact not be believers at heart. Most likely you will never know these last two, and it will be up to you to extend the grace you have not been afforded and move on.
Love does not keep score, and you may find one day that you too (heaven forbid) are that person.
Jesus was generous to extend these things to those who asked sincerely, and he alone knew the extent of our sad human condition in doing so.
Part 2 Hang on, it's going to be a bumpy ride...
I used to get quite frustrated that many of the answers that Jesus gave in response to (seemingly) very direct questions, were often vague shadows of answers, portrayed in stories and left open for interpretation. I was dumbfounded when I read his response for doing so as being so that some would indeed not understand them. This seemed unfair and contrary to the loving Jesus I worshipped. I have found a certain understanding of this, however, through my own experiences.
Many of the answers we seek cannot be presented to us as mere formulas for success. There is usually a much larger picture that we fail to comprehend in asking many of our questions and the nature of many of the answers we seek are a result of our desire to relieve symptoms, rather than solving the root cause of them. As I previously touched on, Jesus did not allow this as an option, and does not address our problems without also addressing their underlying causes.
This is a blessing in my opinion, as it seems God is always good to give us what he knows we need, rather than what we seek as a result of our perceived needs. Anyone with children will understand the frustration of them, when instead of candy we offer a meal, or instead of watching a late night movie they must go to bed. They cannot understand why their greater good is entirely contrary to their wishes. We too often operate as children when it comes to our requests of God to meet "our needs".
Although many situations are the same in nature, no two situations are really ever the same in circumstance if/when we are discussing those in which people are involved. That being the case, even if it is only we who are involved in those situations, there is again the one person involved, with skewed and limited perspectives, ourselves.
With that being said, I have come to a couple of conclusions, over the years.
1) There are answers in life that can be found, but that the simple imparting wisdom will not satisfy.
In many instances, unless we can work through the given situation that has made us aware of our need for such an answer, we would not accept, recognize, or comprehend these answers. These are often answers that risk rejection by trying to simply explain them, without having experienced them firsthand. However sincere our desire to help may be, we do a certain dis-service when we try to do so.
To grow in our maturity of anything, but especially in our faith, is a process more than a product, and so we must see one step through to its end, before we can proceed to the next.
2) I have found that youth, either chronologically or in regard to our spiritual quest, affords us a strong certainty of things which our later experiences and maturity will simply not allow.
Immaturity would have us believe that the world is quite small, and is comprised primarily of what we perceive it to be by our own senses.
Children can be cruel and lacking in compassion. By virtue of their own limited experiences they simply cannot understand or relate to the needs of others, or what it takes as an adult to meet those needs. They assume the perspective of others must be the same as their own, if they consider those things at all, because of their ignorance. Any parent knows, and forgives this, because that's how children are and it's a part of the process of growing into maturity.
The other complicating factor in children is that they tend to paint the world with the brush of their own experience. My experience is that of being born into the American culture. To be born again in large part to being, and being surrounded by purely cultural Christians. Christians by proxy.
The faith we have been handed by our predecessors, is a faith that is so intertwined with the American dream and political agendas, that the deciphering and separation of the biblical Jesus and the American Jesus is almost impossible if our reliance is strictly based in the teachings of popular "Christian" celebrities, and even sincere but duped local leaders and teachers.
I have found that even among people who seem to see themselves as being fairly knowledgeable about the bible and its teachings, however "good" their intention, feel that their understanding of scripture is most certainly the "correct" meaning of any given text in the bible.
While I certainly wouldn't expect anyone to profess belief in something they actually didn't, what I have found is that many of these folks seem to read into the bibles teachings what isn't there by failing to remove their personal and political agendas at the outset. Perhaps not consciously, they in effect make their cause God's cause, when God's cause should be theirs. In doing so they put themselves in a very scary position of divine judgment for misrepresenting God and his word.
Although we fancy ourselves to be independent thinkers very few of us actually take the time or extend the effort to read and understand the very scriptures we profess to believe. Because we profess but don't practice our faith we are easily convinced to follow blindly, those who would lead us astray.
I'm certain that I too must be guilty of all of this to a large degree, although I struggle daily not to be.
We live in a culture that allows, encourages, and rewards non-thinkers.
We hold fame to be a virtue, give credit where it is not due, and celebrate the accomplishments of those that have accomplished nothing. We are a shallow people often believing that in parroting the thoughts of other popular and apparently more intelligent people that we too will appear to be thinking independently, as they are, and in doing wrongly esteem ourselves quite highly.
This thinking is as immature as seeking acceptance from your peers by wearing the t-shirt of a band, or dawning a logo as to provide instant status and credibility, simply by association. Sadly, we seem to buy in to this logic quite a bit as well.
So, where am I going with all of this?
Well In considering the determination of success and failure, as Christians we fail when we do not seek. While it is clearly good to seek teaching, we must also validate that teaching with our own study and pursuit of God's heart in doing so.
To me, as a believer, this is the only true failure. All other failures are merely stepping stone failures. The sorts of failures that can prepare us for real success when we learn from them whatever it is God intends to teach us as a result.
These are the sorts of failures contained within scripture, for it is not God who fails, but we who fail when we seek to live by our own wisdom and strength instead of searching for and submitting to God's providence.
The highest and most honorable success we may hope to have is that of being used by God for the manifestation of his glory and work through our lives. If this is our goal then failure is only a part of the process in finding success.
I will close with these final thoughts:
1) One failure may be the catalyst to a great number of later successes, but one success may require many failures before coming to fruition.
2) Our greatest successes will be our greatest failures if Christ alone is not at the center of them.
Let your ultimate hope lie in the ultimate hope...
- 5 shares
Roberto Esponja If you wish to reply anonymously please visit my blog.October 23, 2011 at 11:21pm ·
Joe Brackman
The thing that's bugging me, to be honest, is the idea of the "American Jesus" being so messed up. Sure, there are plenty of problems in the church in America, but there are also a ton of amazing saints here who are doing God's work faithfully. I've gotten tired of the "you're doing it wrong" crowd who, frankly, slander their brothers in the Lord in America (and think the rest of the world is somehow fully sanctified, to rely on their telling--it's a 'grass is greener' kind of thing). You're not exactly doing that, but it's triggering me. Maybe choose a different name, or a different theme, and I, for one, might be more open. Your writing is lucid, frank, and soul-baring, as usual, and I like it.
Roberto Esponja
I totally agree, there are a ton of great things happening within the Christian community. Many good works of service being done in with the glory being placed appropriately.
My only real point in naming it such is to contrast the cultural versus the biblical Jesus, as there are quite a few people who would sincerely believe they can opt to be Christians by osmosis, rather than recognizing the need to be Christians in practice.
I think without a stark contrast, and perhaps not even with one, many people are apt to many faults in others and fail to recognize these things within themselves.
It is in fact why I included references to myself as also being a part of the problem. (passive protesting on fb notes and blogs).
I will consider your thoughts however, because while my aim isn't necessarily to avoid offense, to cause it by the wrong application is certainly not what I am trying to do.
This also the partial reasoning in writing this response, as an encouragement to believers that may be struggling.
Thanks Joe Brackman
Roberto Esponja BTW, seriously, thanks for taking time out to read and reply. I really appreciate the feedback.
Joe Brackman
Sure, and I read a lot of truth here in your words. I just think the broadbrush potential of "American Jesus" is a bit dangerous.
Speaking of including yourself in the criticism, I love that part of Blue Like Jazz where Miller is at some protest decrying some sort of evil, and then he, introspectively, realizes that his own evil heart is part of the problem. Amen, dude.
Love you, brother. You are truly humble, teachable, and honest. Love it.
David Steinbrenner
What the heck. Let me be a dissenting voice...sort of. I completely agree that there are many many faithful Christians in faithful communities that are serving Christ through serving the world and others and they often go unnoticed (Flashes of the gospel, like Jesus, are often not born on the heights of flashy power in Rome, but in the tiniest of backwater places like Bethlehem). It can be too easy and lazy for folks to go ahead and just pick on the Church and what a failure it is. However, that is not what Roberto has done in this essay (and Joe, I know you are not saying that he did). I think that the important thing to recognize in all of this is that the American Jesus as Roberto is calling "him"/it is NOT the same person/thing as the Jesus proclaimed in Scripture by the worldwide/catholic Church that has carried and imperfectly embodied the Good News of Jesus. I do think that because of America's particular history and founding that the Church in America and the American society that embodies Americanism ended up co-opting each other (The problem with this is Jesus does not seem to offer the option of his sharing his Lordship with Enlightenment philosophy and the cultural patterns wedded to it. Remember in the story of Elijah and the Baal prophets, Ahab and Israel did not abandon or stop worshiping YHWH. The problem was they became syncrenistic and started worshiping Baal IN ADDITION TO YHWH to hedge their bets against the uncertainties in life and for the sake of political relationships with the Phoneticians via Jezebel.) So, blah blah blah, what i am trying to say is that the American Jesus--or the Canadian Jesus or British Jesus or Columbian Jesus or any other Jesus that has been co-opted by rulers and societies for the sake of power and coercion--should be criticized and called out heavily. Again, how can this be in light of all of the good things I have acknowledged the Church has done and does in America? Because criticizing the American Jesus is NOT criticizing the Jesus of Scripture proclaimed by the Church. I can appreciate in our cultural context that even using the language of American Jesus to criticize the syncretic Christianity around us might seem provocative or button-pushing, but I cannot think of anymore accurate language to use, nor any language that is more jarring to get one to stop and think about how we all--myself included--worship at the alter of Baal without even realizing it. So, hats off to the Roberto article!
Roberto Esponja For the record, I say American Jesus, because I am an American. Were I in Canada, or any of those other places, I would have used that name instead, because I have made sure to include myslef in the critisim.
David Steinbrenner Thanks. This all reminds me of that analogy of inoculation. I cannot remember who said it, but someone stated that the problem that we have in the West is that we have been inoculated with a weak enough of a strain of Christianity that we are now almost immune to full-strength real thing.
