Christ For Sale

"These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." -- Matthew 15-8

Recently while mining through the junk and waste matter of the institutional church, I found that not all that glitters is gold. I took stock and store of the sum total of my faith. It consisted mostly of rock music, hyped up seminars, the latest breakthrough spiritual book that every Christian must have or be left behind, "christian" haunted houses, stage plays, rallies for youth on too much sugar, vacation Bible schools themed with the entertainment level at an all time high.

What I didn't find was a real, solid, unshakable faith. My faith consisted of bumpersticker slogans, religious cliches, one liners, and stylish T-shirts which "communicate the gospel" to the lost. As if non Christians care what I wear on my T-shirt.

I have been on a quest over the last couple of months for true, authentic, real, working Christianity. I found that my task was much harder than I anticipated. I have seen or heard from every walk of the Christian religion, from obscure cults, to large mainstream cults, to every major denomination you can think of. What I found was a maelstrom of theological ideas scattered around in an incoherent fashion parroted by the faithful follower without a thought.

I remember when I was in school, that is staunch Christian schools, I wasn't allowed to listen to rock music. Then I discovered the world of "Christian rock" and I thought I was being spiritual. As long as it was about Jesus, I justified listening to it and enjoying it, still I felt like I was doing something bad.

Then the "Christian rock" scene skyrocketed and millions of youth were shown that it was cool to be a Christian. Jesus was down with the times, he toted an electric guitar and played grunge music. Don't get me wrong, I still listen to Christian bands for sheer entertainment, but I leave it there. But now we have a rock band playing stylish, "relevant to today's culture" music in just about every mainstream church service.

I got candy for memorizing Bible verses. I went to special-effects laden seminars for youth, complete with pyrotechnics. I went to rock concerts full of Jesus-hype, complete with the cheer-leading section of all of the Jesus fanatics. I actually pumped my fist in the air cheering along the band that sang proudly that they were Jesus freaks.

Now I am 32 years old. Looking back on it, taking stock and store of my faith, NONE of that mattered. None of that had any impact on my faith whatsoever. In fact, there was a time when I began to hate those things as I went into what many Christians would call rebellion.

Lately I was thinking about Jesus and His first disciples so many years ago. Peter and Paul didn't have an electric guitar or pyrotechnic special effects. They didn't have a band playing emotional music. They didn't even have very long sermons at all. They were about five or ten minutes long.

Paul states in graphic detail, in the book of 1 Corinthians that he was rejected much. He was poor, homeless, starving. People slammed the door in his face. He was a laughing stock in the civilized world. He tells us of his inability to speak well. He was not a man of persuasive words. With Paul, there was no hype. There was no creative ways for outreach. There were no gimmicks.

The apostles simply had a life-changing message. The early Christians had their fervent, vibrant love for each other. They performed miracles which deeply touched other people's lives out of this love. That was it. I wonder, did we lose the ability for miracles because we no longer need them? Did we think we found something better to reach people with technology and stage productions?

I am reminded of a sermon by a dear pastor friend of mine called "Life on an ass." He punctures this hype with a safety pin and we watch it deflate. The Christian life isn't glamorous. It isn't a rock star life. It isn't hype. It isn't special effects. It isn't a pep rally. It isn't creative gimmicks for "outreach." It isn't entertainment.

The Christian life is dirty, unattractive, earthy, gritty and outright tiring. The Christian life has brought people's lives to an abrupt end, or in prison. The Christian life has brought people into poverty.

I think some of Jesus' most powerful messages were anti-hype. He actually tried to discourage people from following Him. He told them that they would have to leave everything, sell everything, become poor and homeless just like He was. He warned them that the cost of following Him was far greater than some were willing or able to pay. He turned many applicants away.

This is far different from the gimmicky begging and pleading of today's pop-Christian culture, trying to persuade people to fill a seat in the pews on Sundays. Or the far reaching attempts for entertainment all in the name of "outreach". I have heard the excuses. "We have to meet the young people where they are with the times and the culture."

I have found that more and more, kids are not buying it and neither is Jesus. Most kids have become quite shrewd and aren't easily bought with these things. In fact, this kind of thing causes distrust of Christians and preachers and actually drives them away. Why? Because people want real, they yearn for it. They are tired of being lied to. they are tired of the theatrics and the stage props. The only people that really buy into this stuff are people who have been churched all of their lives. Outsiders laugh.

But the authentic Christian life is quite different in contrast. This is the life that speaks to the heart. It feeds the soul, not the lust for sensationalism and feeling good. It addresses real life, not stage theatrics.

I am reminded of a vision I had on my awakening to raw life and real Christianity. I was in a village that looked too perfect. I felt I had been there all of my life. I believed it to be real but found out that it was all cardboard stage props as one might find on a Hollywood movie set.

This stage-prop village is what is being sold as Christianity, mass produced and manufactured efficiently off of the assembly lines, sold to the masses. A personal, superficial and unbelievable Jesus. We sell a King Jesus that rides in on a horse worthy of a King. But Jesus Himself would insist on riding a dirty donkey. He flew in the face of the people's desire for pomp and hype then and He does now.

But that kind of Jesus doesn't sell. No one wants to ride a donkey. We like our horse drawn carriages of comfort and hype, feeling good about ourselves after being well-entertained. I truly believe that Jesus spoke of these kinds of people when he said "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me."