Sacred Cynicism

    By this time I am sure that many of us have seen one of the Toy Story movies. One of my favorite things about this movie franchise is how well they remember the toys from my childhood days. Until these movies I had completely forgotten about the little wooden telephone that rolled along the floor with the smiling eyes in the front. I also remember GI Joe, Etch-A-Sketch, and bags full of army men. I know I am going to start sounding like the old man sitting on a bench in the town square, but we had no Playstation, Mario Kart or Wi. Our play station was a homemade treehouse we made out in the woods behind my home. Yet I do not remember feeling like we were lacking in the fun department.

  Perhaps my favorite toy was a metal suitcase that opened into a medieval fort. Inside the metal suitcase were guard towers, weapons, and an even amount of both knights and vikings. The idea of this set up was for the vikings to attack the knights, who defended the fort. You could not sell this today, because the metal suitcase had sharp edges, and came with catapults that lobbed little plastic balls into the fort. We soon discovered that Lincoln Logs were a far better weapon for the catapults than the little plastic balls the fort originally had. Between the sharp edges, its metal construction, and the catapult, the whole fort was an accident waiting to happen. Just perfect for the boys in our neighborhood.

After a few months our little metal fort began to get a little boring. After the knights had successfully defended the fort against viking attack, we began to find new methods for outside forces to attack the metal fort. Lego airplanes attacked from above, while Hot Wheels cars zoomed down from the couch and over a ramp so as to fly Evel Knievel style into the fort. A suit of armor works against a viking, but is no match for a Hot Wheels 69 Charger. The attack commenced on the fort, and its defenders quickly fell against the modern onslaught of Hot Wheels and Lincoln Logs.

   During the time of my youth the church seemed a lot like my metal suitcase fort. Like the knights in the fort, we were always on the defensive. Not defensive because we had to be, but it seemed we were defensive by choice. Everything out there was against us, we were told, and stood ready to destroy the faith. “One bad apple spoils the whole batch,” was our motto. So we stayed crouched inside our walls, unable to see out, and unwilling to engage the world out there which was out to get us. Success came to be measured by how well we stayed pure from everything out there. We became so inward focused that in many ways we lost all ability to engage our communities in any meaningful way.

    This is a far different picture from what Christianity has been down through the centuries. Far from a defensive posture adherents to Christianity have taken on a world. From the might and power of Rome to the fall of the Kremlin, Christianity has not shrunk in fear, but actually undermined the very foundations of real threats and powers. Could it be that we live without an appreciation for what those in Christ actually have?

    It seems to me this is exactly the idea that Jesus addressed. He came at a time when the Jews had selfishly hoarded God. So afraid that they might become stained with the outside world, they retreated inward, and used the rules as a means to keep others out. Jesus’ message was not “more inward focus,” but “go and make disciples from every nation.” We have done the same thing in our time. We have became fearful of what “they” might do to “us” that we have retreated out of fear. Perhaps we need to gain a new appreciation for what “we” in Christ can do to “them.” The Church has always done its best work when it has become offensive in nature. Our Christ works well in undermining the hatred and divisions that exist all around us. There are homes to be mended, friends to be reconciled, and sins to be forgiven, if only we peek out from our castles and see what is there.

   Listen to these words from the New Testament, and ask if we really believe them. Jesus gives us instructions on how He would like His followers to live. In Matthew 5:13-14 Jesus states, “You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden.” Both of these metaphors are offensive, not defensive, and assume that followers of Christ will be involved and enmeshed in their world. For those times when we are in a fearful spot we have these words, “be content with what you have, because God has said, ‘Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you”. (Heb. 13:5) Imagine, any place we go, any life we touch, God goes with us. So we need to be confident and go. If we are to go out into the world and make an impact, how are we to go about it? Our challenge and our task is to love. 1 John 4:18 states, “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear.”

   I realize in hindsight that my metal castle was just a toy. It was to be used when I was young and immature. Perhaps the model of the church as a defensive fort should be viewed the same way. Let’s go and get out from behind these walls. Christ does His best work out there.