Ordinary Radicals

This week I began reading Shane Claiborne's book, "Irresistible Revolution." I went into the book expecting to like what I was about to read. Instead I found myself disliking nearly everything I read, yet was forced to recognize the undeniable truth borne upon the shoulders of Claiborne's thoughts and convictions. The truth hurt.

I think I now understand a little what the rich young man felt like after his brief conversation with Jesus and Jesus told him to get rid of his wealth and all that makes him comfortable in this world. Sadness.

Sadness, because in that brief conversation that young man's paradigm for a "good-life" was done in. Sadness, because my own paradigm for a good and comfortable life is done in too. Claiborne says that he believes God comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable. I think this is true, and I don't like it.

Someone once said, "The church is the only institution in the world that exists primarily for those not members of it." I showed this quote to some of the pastor's I taught while in the DR. Many embraced the quote immediately. To my surprise, however, more pastor's hated the quote. I don't think this is any different here in America. We like to make church a comfortable environment. A place with people like us, with worship for people like us and sermons directed at people like us. We like church to be like the way we like to read the Bible. We highlight the parts we like so that we can ignore the parts we don't like.

So here is my question and challenge for you. We all know our favorite verse in the Bible. What is your least favorite verse? Why?

For the sake of transparency I will share with you my least favorite verses. They are found in Ezekiel 33.1-9. In this passage God declares that we are watchmen placed in a world to warn it of its impending doom should they not turn to the Lord and repent. I dislike these verses because unless we do this, God places the destruction of the world that does not repent at our feet. If we do not go out of our way to warn the world of their doom, their doom becomes our fault. I hate this because it convicts me. I hate this because it means I must step out of my comfort and warn those who most of the time don't want to be warned anyway. I hate this because I'd rather mind my own business. I hate this because it means my faith requires something of me other than just saying I believe.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, a martyr killed by Nazi Germany, wrote about the cost of discipleship. Bonhoeffer claims that any true life of discipleship of Christ will come with its fair share of cost. Avoiding the cost of following Christ, Bonhoeffer says, is a way of cheapening what happened on Golgotha. Avoiding the cost of bearing the name Christian by seeking a more mainstream and comfortable life is a wordless communication to our God that His sacrifice was only good enough to warrant our academic belief or our sentimental connection to Him. But it was not enough to warrant an actual life change on our part. It was not worth an actual paradigm shift in how we life life or do church.

Jesus calls the rich young man to abandon all he has and he will inherit the Kingdom of God. This same is true for us (wow that was even hard for me to write!). In fact this same thing is true for our church here at 1st Visalia. We must abandon our ideas of church, abandon our hopes and dreams of church, give up our stranglehold on how we want church to look like, feel like, sound like, so that our church can participate in the Kingdom of God. What this means, what it looks like, I don't know. Maybe you all know better than I.