A bit of thinking

A lot of the things I've been reading recently around "emergent" Christianity have brought my thinking back to ideas around why we often do things wrong, and why we should bother trying to do things right. Of course, this isn't an emergent idea as such, or even a Christian one, but I've found that the books and web pages that I've looked at have generally been concerned with how to live as a Christian today, and that includes revisiting some of these old questions. One of the main reasons for re-examining basic ideas like this is the move to what has been called "post-Christendom": a society in which Christianity is once more a minority religion and it is no longer the case that politicians and policy-makers "should" make decisions based on Christian values simply because a small group of people say so. So the moral and ethical standards that were part of society in the culture of Christendom are no longer taken for granted, and we have to ask similar questions to those asked by the Early Church, including variants of "Why shouldn't I just do what everyone else is doing (especially since they seem to be enjoying it so much)?" Of course, this applies, and has always applied, on a personal as well as a social level: "What does it mean to live a good life?" and "Why is it important?" are for every single person to answer in a way that makes sense to them. I think that the Good News is that there is a way to find an answer that makes sense; I also think that the questions have to be asked.

I feel like the church is trying hard to keep going with a Christendom mindset, that they are telling people what they must and should do, with the threat of a punishment in Hell that a lot of people don't believe in or the promise of a reward: either in a heaven that people don't believe in either or in a life of contentment and purpose that people feel they can attain in dozens of other ways without having to believe in anything at all.

And that, I think, is the problem: the church tells people what they have to believe, and makes decisions (or says that God makes decisions) based on what they believe. The question "Have you accepted Jesus as your saviour?" is a question about what you think is true. Now I'm sure that we are saved by faith - but this is faith as opposed to deeds, not faith that saves us by affirming a credal statement. I have no idea about whether or not God will make decisions at the Last Judgement that involve a record of whether people acknowledged Jesus as Lord, but there is some evidence that that won't be the only criterion. And a church that preaches salvation only as going to Heaven, or as being saved from Hell, has already lost those who don't believe in Heaven and Hell, just as a church that tells people they can be happy now will be told that sex or drinking or friends or career satisfaction is making people happy enough thank you very much. I did a talk a while back about Paul being happy that Christ was being preached, no matter what the motivation of the preacher; I mentioned then that I think our testimonies and our example do not transform people's lives; it is Jesus Christ that does that. And more and more, as I read and think about this, I become convinced that religion doesn't save people. Christianity never changed anyone. All the teaching and preaching and Bible reading in the world has never transformed a single life. Jesus does. Jesus saves us; Jesus changes us; Jesus transforms us. We do not become better people (whatever that means) by trying harder: we become the people we are intended to be through a relationship with the one who made us. We don't feel better or happier or richer or healthier by following the rules: our lives get closer to the picture of the way we should live that is in the Bible the closer we are to God. If a husband loves his wife (that is, he puts her wishes and needs before his own), then he will not be unfaithful; if he puts his own needs and wishes first, then it is more likely. If someone loves God, (that is, she puts His requirements and wishes before her own), then she will truly desire to follow the moral code as taught by Jesus; if she puts herself first then it is so much easier to follow whatever seems most attractive at any given moment.

I know that I have a lot more thinking to do about this, and that many many people have thought through all this before, often more coherently. But I really think that unless we get back to telling people less about church and more about Jesus, unless we follow Jesus instead of just following the rules, unless we give up trying to change and instead let ourselves be changed, then we, as a church, as the Body of Christ and his representation here on earth , have already failed in the mission he gave us.