Christians cannot choose what we care about

Christians cannot choose what we care about

There was a guy who said that you have to read your Bible and the newspaper side by side as a way of saying that acts of piety and acts of justice are interconnected.

I am ashamed to say that when I am in exclusively Christian circles, more than any other group, I hear the sentence, “Oh, I don’t watch the news. It is all horrible and awful.” Following that sentence, any number of people chime in and talk about just how much they dislike the news for whatever reason. I have yet to be in that conversation where someone stands up for watching the news as a critical element of being a Christian.

We no longer read the paper and Bible together.

I not only do not understand how we can decide that we do not want to watch the news because it is too depressing, but I also do not understand where we got the idea that we could choose not to care?

Christians cannot choose what we can and cannot care about. We are to die to ourselves and to conform our lives our wills our desires to that of Christ’s. We do not have the freedom to choose what we care about. We do not have the freedom to choose who to love. This is, in part, what it means to serve Christ.

Christians care about what Christ cares about. Christians care about who Christ cares about.

And who has Christ chosen to care about? The marginalized. The victims of violence. The beaten, the broken, the hurting, the sick, the dying the horrific events in the world.

And where do we learn about where the people Christ cares about?

The news.

Sure I would rather be entertained and binge watch my favorite show. I would rather check status updates, view follow twitter feeds, view filtered Instagram pictures and laugh at #FailVine.

But we do not get to choose when we want to care about who and what we want to care about.

Christ, our Lord and Teacher, already chose for me.

Questions I want to ask but don't

Are we reading the same Bible?  

Are we working toward the same goal or not?  

Do we trust this church leadership? 

How can we die to self and give all that we are to God if we are unwilling to change something as simple as music selection in worship? 

Do we really take "love your neighbor" seriously?  

Do we think that God's thoughts and our thoughts are the same every time?

Do we really think we understand Jesus?  

Are we aware that many clergy think of quitting being clergy often? 

What is the point of all this church thing anyway?  

Why do we give things to the church that we no longer want but think that someone else would want? 

Why don't we confess our sins? I mean really confess?

Do we really think that God is there to serve us?  

Why does our side have to always win?  

How can one person hijack the whole system? 

How is it that everyone seems to know how to do my job better than I do? 

Where is grace?  

Do we care more about fairness than about forgiveness?  

Why do I have to just "take it" while someone can say the most hurtful things to me? 

Why don't I just say this?  

Not impressed with a God that creates

Across denominations and religious traditions, the idea that God is creator is very clear. The idea of God as creator may be one of the handful of characteristics about God that every religion agrees. 

Which is why is may come as a surprise when I say, I am not too impressed with God as a creator.  

We all can create stuff. That really is not that impressive to me. The ability to create something new, while difficult, is much easier than the ability to transform something.  

Transformation requires not only the ability to see something for what it is, but also to see what it could be. Transformation requires that when we look at something we are not bound to the predefined limits of that object.  

For instance, in the amazing TED Talk by Ken Robinson, he brings up the paperclip question. Here is the section of the talk animated by RSA: 

You see most of us see the paperclip for what it is. We are bound to the predetermined limits of the paperclip. So we can think of 15 examples of uses of paperclips. However, with imagination we break out of the predetermined limits of the paperclip and see alternate uses if the paperclip was transformed in some way (200 feet tall). 

When God creates, God really is transforming. This is really quite awesome. We are impressed when we see something new - say a new house or a new car. But we are blown away when we see something transformed - say a car that was rebuilt after a crash.  

Transformation is so world changing that it may be worth noting that Jesus raises Lazarus from the dead but we do not have a religion of Lazarus. Both he and Jesus were brought back to life after they died, but only Jesus was understood to be the Son of God.

Why? 

Because Jesus was not brought back to life. Jesus was not resuscitated like Lazarus.  

Jesus was resurrected. Resurrection means you are different - transformed in some way yet recognizable.   

Creating something is great. But transforming something is earth changing.