DOWN DEEP, THEY DON’T WANT YOU TO CHANGE

The brother was obviously upset. “Pastor, I’m not trying to be a crybaby, but it’s getting almost unbearable. My coworkers, including my boss, are giving me a horrible time for my being a Christian. They mock me as being a ‘holier-than-thou’ for not laughing at their jokes, make fun of me for reading my Bible during breaks, bombard me with comments about all Christians being hypocrites, wreck my workplace when I leave….” I tried to encourage this brother with, “Well, at least they aren’t throwing you to the lions in the Coliseum, burning you at the stake, exiling you to Patmos.” No, I didn’t say that. With whatever else I said trying to encourage him, I did say this, “Brother, here’s the irony: If you were to change, give up your faith and become like them, they would be highly disappointed. Down deep, they really don’t want you to change.” I went on to explain that despite all their harassment, they could see the difference between his life and theirs. Theirs, despite all their hoopla and bravado, was a life of disappointment, failure, hopelessness, meaninglessness, etc. Seeing his life, they could see that, just perhaps, there was something that could give them hope of help, purpose, and meaning. No, those hecklers at his workplace really don’t want him to change and would be greatly disappointed if he did. They were glad for the difference, however convicting of their own lives it might be. I knew I was right when I recently listened to a debate between a Christian and an atheist. What a shock I got. The moderator, knowing the atheist had once been a Christian in the Church, asked the atheist something like, “I can see you greatly disagree with the Church. What about the Church would you like to see it change?” The atheist, Douglas Murray, replied (I paraphrase from memory), “I don’t want it to change. Even though I’m now outside the church, I’m an atheist, it deeply upsets and bothers me that the Church is changing and becoming something other than the Church. It particularly bothers me that the Church no longer preaches the Gospel about humanity’s problem being sin and there being salvation only through Jesus Christ.” He was bothered by the Church’s becoming, in so many places, engaged as an agent of political activism and/or social justice—although he is an advocate for social justice. Whatever reasons he holds or shares for this sentiment, the reality he saw is this: When the Church becomes chiefly about political activism and social justice (as contemporarily defined), it will pollute, dilute, and ultimately jettison the truth of the Gospel. It becomes just another social club, social justice proponent, or political activist group. Jesus left His disciples with two mandates: A Commission to fulfill and a Compassion to demonstrate. The Commission, “go into all the world and preach the Gospel.” The Compassion, “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these (the naked, the hungry, the imprisoned), ye have done it unto me.” The Commission is a command. The Compassion is a commendation (or, if not done, a condemnation). The Church should be responsively compassionate to the needs of those in society--but, not to the neglect of sharing the Gospel. And the Church should actively preach the Gospel, but not to the ignoring of the real-life needs of suffering people. Too many churches today have stopped preaching the Gospel in order to be relevant to and engaged with contemporary society by espousing, endorsing, and engaging in social justice causes. Others have lost their distinct identity as Gospel proclaimers by merging with and becoming political activists. Their jingoism is anything but evangelism. Down deep, I think there are many in the unbelieving masses who are disappointed by this. They may not have realized it, codified it with thought, articulated it, or conceded it, but they sense that, if the Church changes and no longer shares the Gospel, there is no help, hope, or meaning for anyone, themselves included. If the Church is just like them, the Church and, by association, God, has nothing to offer. The Church may protest that it does preach the Gospel. But, when it is rabidly shouting loyalty of a political candidate, championing him with unbridled enthusiasm across the public forums and in the streets, society does not hear the measured, muted, unenthusiastic whisperings about Jesus from its pulpits within its sanctuary’s walls. When the Church is marching locked-stepped with stomping feet and exuberant shouts with proponents of social change, the lost world cannot hear the Church’s tiptoeing into its gathering place for benign, whispered worship. Basically, I had told the harried Christian that he should take the verbal attacks at his workplace as a compliment. Down deep his coworkers were glad he was different. His difference spoke of hope. Conversely, when society, political party, praises the Church for being so engaged, so relevant, so supportive of its causes, that’s not a compliment. That is a condemnation. If honest, down deep, the unbelieving don’t want a Church just like them. There’s no hope in that. Any harassment over your faith, if it is indeed that, is a great compliment. It says the Gospel is getting through. That’s something they really don’t want you to change. --Pastor Clifford Hurst