"This pattern of the Cross means that the world's glorification of power, might, and status is exposed and defeated. On the Cross, Christ wins through losing, triumphs through defeat, achieves power through weakness and service, comes to wealth via giving all away. Jesus Christ turns the values of the world upside down...
This upside-down pattern so contradicts the thinking and practice of the world that it creates an 'alternate kingdom,' an alternate reality, a counterculture among those who have been transformed by it. In this peaceable kingdom there is a reversal of the values of the world with regard to power, recognition, status, and wealth. In this new counterculture, Christians look at money as something to give away. They look at power as something to use strictly for service. Racial class and superiority, accrual of money and power at the expense of others, yearning for popularity and recognition, these normal marks of human life, are the opposite of the midset of those who have understood and experienced the Cross. Christ creates a whole new life. Those who are shaped by the great reversal of the Cross no longer need self-justification through money, status, career, or pride of race or class. So the Cross creates a counterculture in which sex, money, and power cease to control us and are used in life-giving and community-building rather than destructive ways." (emphasis mine)
I think it's safe to admit that we have largely lost this ethos as the collective, universal community of Jesus-followers...at least we have in America. The statistics prove it every year...there is virtually no difference between Christians and non-Christians in terms of behavior, values, and relationships.
Just after the Cross, you would have been an idiot to call yourself a follower of Jesus, yet retain the world's value systems and only wiggle your toe in the upside-down, alternate kingdom that Jesus founded. You would have been an idiot because you would have been killed for something you only halfway believed in.
We are headed back to the culture the first disciples lived in after the Cross. Christianity is no longer at the center of American culture. And I'm not convinced that's a bad thing.
Yes, we should speak up for, defend, and fight for a Christian worldview. But maybe before we defend it and argue for it, we should actually try living it. Christianity being shoved from the center of American culture just may be the jolt that we need to return to this upside-down, countercultural ethos that defined Jesus and His first followers.
Yes, we should speak up for, defend, and fight for a Christian worldview. But maybe before we defend it and argue for it, we should actually try living it. Christianity being shoved from the center of American culture just may be the jolt that we need to return to this upside-down, countercultural ethos that defined Jesus and His first followers.
What if we all lived on less so we could give more. What if we leveraged the power and influence we have for those who have none and never will have any. What if we really embraced the Cross as all the justification we need...we are justified in and through Jesus and Him ALONE! No money, power, or sex can trump the justification of Jesus! What if we rested in that and then ordered our lives accordingly.
This is where I want to live...the upside-down, alternate kingdom of Jesus. I'm begging God to continue to break me of pride, of my need for justification from other sources, and of my selfishness. At the same time, I am begging Him to give me a heart full of His love and grace shown toward me so that I can freely live it and give it to others.
ditto..ejk
No comments:
Post a Comment