Alive

What’s with all the zombie stuff lately?

Everywhere you look – television shows, movies, video games – there are zombies. What’s going on?

Here’s what I am thinking. Roughly, zombies are half-dead, half-alive people (back from the dead) whose motivation is to create more zombies. At the same time they seem driven by a force they don’t understand. Their threat and strength is that that feel no pain, are numb, and have little self-awareness. Their rise in visibility has to do with our living in a time that seems like it would be easier if we were numb to life and world events; it might seem easier to just shuffle half-alive and half-awake through our days; sometimes it’s a reality given pressure and fatigue. To feel joy and pain takes being aware and alive. It also seems like we are living in a time when it would be easier to just mindlessly go along with a lot of stuff rather than be independent and stand up – authentically alive. I think Hollywood and others may be saying that many people in our society and times have become, in a manner of speaking, zombies.  

It’s not just in “society” that we find zombie-like existence. We also see it in Christians and churches. Numb to the Holy Spirit, apathetic, strangely driven by things other than God, joyless, perceived as just trying to “feast” on others rather than serving them, same routine over and over – sounds zombie-ish, right?

As you might imagine, it’s not what Jesus intended for Christians and churches…

There is a vivid explanation of how to be alive in Christ and how to break through being religious zombies in the Gospel of Mark 8:31-39. It starts with Jesus asking about who people think he is. Later, Peter confesses that Jesus is the Messiah – he believes! Then Jesus explains how he’s the kind of messiah that will suffer, die and be raised again. Peter says no way – that’s not the kind of messiah he (and the others) were interested in. Jesus says, “Get behind me Satan!” Then Jesus talks about how following him means denying ourselves, carrying our crosses, that to truly live we must lose ourselves in him and how we can gain all sorts of material things but lose our souls. He adds that if we hide our faith in him from others, he will be ashamed of us before God. 

We find four important points about an alive spiritual life in this passage. Let’s take a look:

First, being alive spiritually means knowing and worshiping God for who he is (as revealed in the Bible); not what we want or make him to be. You see this with Peter when he confronts Jesus, he is basically saying that he wants Jesus to be the kind of savior he wants him to be; Jesus rebukes him strongly. But sometimes we do this purposefully and sometimes we do this unwittingly. God is God – we can’t make him do and be what we want – after all he created us. An idol is something we make and worship, and I think that we are often worshiping our own version of God. God wants a real relationship with us through his son – worshiping what we want God to be is not real relationship. When we want and seek to make God and church and other Christians to be what we want them to be – that is unhealthy, not life-giving, idolatrous, and zombie-ish. It also makes it very easy to “sleepwalk” through our spiritual lives – when we are worshiping and praying to our image of God rather than being open and alive to the Spirit. 

Second, this passage reveals that believing and following are connected but very different. Of course, we have to believe in Christ before we know and are enabled by the Holy Spirit to follow. In this passage, Peter is a believer – perhaps the first believer when he says that Jesus is the Messiah. But, seemingly within minutes he is not following. Jesus then explains what following is – (based on believing) denying one’s self, losing our lives for his sake, setting our minds on heavenly things not earthly things. This is not easy. I’ve found that moving from believer to follower is very challenging – but it’s where we are all called to go. As Dietrich Bonhoeffer said, “When Christ calls a person, he bids he or she, come and die.” Meaning, when we die to ourselves, we become alive in Christ, thus truly alive. Today, Christianity and churches are filled with believers (a good start) but meaning it’s pretty easy to attend a church and recite creeds and say some amens and sing some hymns; but when it comes to losing our lives for the Gospel, it’s not happening very much. This is a zombie-ish quality. It’s often called the Holy Huddle. It’s as if you were watching a football game and your team came out on the field high-fived each other, got in a huddle talked for a while and then headed for the locker room. When we go from believer to follower – our responsiveness to the Holy Spirit grows (as our fears of same decreases), our compassion for others increases, our desire for “on earth as it is in heaven” grows, serving is joyful rather than like a chore. If we want to be alive, we have to move and grow from believers to followers. 

Third, in order for our spiritual lives to be alive – the cross has to be central. Jesus says it in two ways – he says that we have to deny ourselves and carry our cross but he also explains that following him will cost us. That is one of the key messages of the cross – our sin cost God his only son. Therefore, if we are going to follow him, it has to cost us too. With many Christians and churches today, there is a safe, numbed, zombie-ish approach to following Christ – in that there is very little talk about the cost. It’s a lot of happy, prosperity and dream fulfillment messaging – everyone’s ok. Some churches might as well have a smiley face where the cross is. Now, is God good? Of course. Does God promise to provide all that  we need? Absolutely. But all of this is found as we lose ourselves in Christ. And yes there is a cost to that. If we are not losing friends, money, jobs, our old ways as well as our love for the things of this world, and more, we are not following and the cross is not central. Remember, when we are truly alive and not zombies – we are going to feel – the joy and the pain and cost. When the cross is prominent in our lives – so is truth (the cross cuts through denial, delusions and lies), so is grace for ourselves and others, old things are dying and new things are coming alive. 

Fourth and finally, as you know, zombies kind of hang together. They need to. Everyone else gets creeped out by them, right? Jesus speaks to this in a couple of ways. He basically says in this passage that we need to more concerned about pleasing God than pleasing others. Religious zombies just want to make sure they are liked by other religious zombies, often without concern for what God might think of their words and actions. As you may already know, trying to please human beings and trying to keep that going is very fatiguing and rarely works – unless maybe if you “give” yourself completely to the group. But Jesus says to be truly be alive and to follow him along the path to truly living is to be primarily concerned about pleasing God first. There is a big difference between ministering and serving others, and catering to others. Pleasing God may mean that there will be less people (or zombies) pleased but you will feel more alive than ever before.  

Maybe you’re awakening to realize that you’ve been a religious zombie. Maybe you’re tired of a half-dead, half-alive spiritual life. Maybe you don’t want to be numb anymore. Maybe you’re just thirsting to be truly alive…

There is a way for all of these and more…

The voice that awakened Lazarus from his tomb, the voice that freed Mary from her the stupor of her grief, the voice that has called millions of people throughout history to leave themselves and death behind is calling to you and me still today. And this voice, the voice of Jesus is saying, “Come follow me, and in denying yourself and dying to yourself – you will live like you never have before. You will be more alive than ever before. Live abundantly in me!” 

Amen. 

Rev. Christopher B. Wolf

Isaiah 42:7

cbrianwolf@gmail.com

www.christopherbwolf.com

Christopher B. Wolf is pastor of First Reformed Church of Saddle Brook and is the author of Giving Faith a Second Chance: Restarts, Mulligans and Do-Overs (2007) and With You Every Step of the Way; and the host of Walk With Me, Wednesdays 8 pm on WYFN 94.9 FM-NY and on www.yfnradio.com.

“It is a matter of sharing and bearing the pain and puzzlement of the world so that the crucified love of God in Christ may be brought to bear healingly upon the world at exactly that point.

 N.T. Wright

Read Full Post »

Something’s Missing

I thought about it when I caught the final hour or so of the film, The Shawshank Redemption last week.

Red is in prison and meets Andy, who functions as a Christ figure. Red’s encounter with Andy is life-changing, life-saving really. Andy, who was wrongly convicted, escapes prison and tells Red that if and when he ever gets out, Andy will be waiting for him in Mexico – tells him where and also tells him where “treasure” will be buried (a play on Matthew 13:44, “the kingdom of heaven is like a treasure hidden in a field…”) in a field to get to Mexico. Like many prisoners, once released Red is in a fog. He talks about longing to be back in prison where he knew the routine, where he was comfortable, as strange as that sounds. He contemplates the choice of suicide like a fellow released inmate chose while living in the same apartment. But because of Red’s encounter with Andy, that idea of Mexico, the idea of a new life, wins in the end. Red chooses to risk and live – he breaks his parole, finds the “treasure” and gets on the bus for Mexico. The film closes with Red trudging, in his suit with pants rolled up, along the beach, toward a man restoring a boat. It’s Andy of course and even though it’s a wide angle shot, their joy and embrace is moving and visible – like that of a heavenly reunion. Visible, in the sense that you can see and know the joy, the relief, the liberation and the life in Red’s face and body. He is truly alive for the first time in his life.

Brothers and sisters, we are all prisoners. We are born imprisoned because our sinful natures. And throughout life, often we add layers to the walls of our prisons with our choices. Our only hope is that through an encounter or encounters with Christ – and when we respond and He saves us and liberates and we choose to make Him the Lord of our lives – the prison doors are open – we are forgiven and we are new creations. Sounds awesome, right?

So that anyone who is in Christ, knowing that he or she has been saved and rescued from eternal separation from God in hell as well as rescued from a life of emptiness, hopelessness and overwhelming misery, knowing all this – you would think the response would be an unceasing joyful party. But unfortunately, it’s not like that for many believers and many churches. Many believers and churches are spiritually asleep or falling asleep. Many believers and churches are hiding – afraid to live and afraid to die. And, many believers and churches have become so self-sufficient and self-righteous to remember that they are a saved, rescued people.

Something’s missing…

It’s as if, even though liberated and in Christ, many chose to just stay in their prison cell with the door wide open. Going back to The Shawshank Redemption – it would be like Red after getting out of prison, just stays in the apartment and while he never takes his life, never really lives his life either – never takes that risk and heads to Mexico.

Perhaps the only thing worse than people avoiding or choosing not to believe in Jesus, is all the people who believe and choose not to live in Him…

There’s this powerful story in the Bible that illustrates this. It’s found in Luke 7:36-50 and it’s the story of a woman who crashes a gathering of Jesus and religious people. Jesus is invited to dinner with some people who believe they don’t need Jesus and what he has to offer – they’ve “made” it on their own spiritually or so they think. This woman known as a “notorious” sinner comes in and makes a scene. While weeping, she washes Jesus’s feet with her tears, wiped his feet with her hair, kissed them and anointed them with perfume. Awkwardness aside, this is pure worship and adoration! But, as you might imagine, the Pharisees are offended – and question Jesus’s credibility as a prophet because he allows this “kind” of woman to touch him. Jesus then takes the opportunity to talk about forgiveness and how when people’s debts are cancelled they are thankful according to how much they are forgiven (or mindful of how forgiven they are). He explains that this woman is highly aware of how much she is forgiven and has responded accordingly; whereas the Pharisees offer Jesus no such response.  

Something’s missing…

The Pharisee response to Jesus of “so what; we’re good on our own” is unfortunately typical of a lot of believers today. Further and unfortunately, the Pharisee response to the woman of “what is she doing here” is a lot like the response of some believers when visitors dare to show up on a Sunday morning. And here’s why…

Old Testament scholar Walter Brueggemann talks about an overemphasis on “chosenness” – a kind of self-righteousness, self-sufficiency and pride that develops within God’s people that numbs and causes them to forget and neglect the power, sacrifice, grace and love of Christ that drew them into “chosenness” – salvation – via the cross and resurrection. Instead, with “chosenness” there is more of a focus on the exclusive social, religious and appearance aspects of spirituality and church rather than on salvation and missional characteristics; in other words more religion than Holy Spirit. With “chosenness” there is very little faith, little to no risk, and little passion; maintaining chosen status via pleasing people is the center rather than following and serving Jesus. “Chosenness” is like singing “Amazing grace, how sweet the sound…” and leaving off or ignoring, “that saved a wretch like me.” And this is exactly what is stifling the spiritual lives of many believers today and consequently causing churches to die. It is the arteriosclerosis, so to speak, of the Spirit in souls and churches.

Something’s missing…

In fact, a key path to personal spiritual renewal as well as church revitalization is a purposeful, sustained remembrance of how God has personally and uniquely sought us out, led us to confess and repent of our sins, and brought us to Himself through Christ. Remembering and valuing this over and above anything else – committees, traditions, activities, number of years at a church – all of which are good things – but these will ultimately not be the difference between living and dying, will not be the difference between faithfulness (what God desires) and being “good people” – but what will be the difference is remembering and utterly depending on God and His transforming grace thus naturally enabling a more alive relationship with God as individuals and as a people.

Like Red, like the woman in this passage, when we seek and work to grasp – how forgiven we are, how we don’t deserve God’s grace (but have it anyway), how broken and hopeless we are without Him, how we can be freed of the past and from our sins, what it cost to save us (Jesus bearing our sins at the cross), and from what we are saved; our responses over time will be increasing – joy, passion, gratitude, devotion, service, hope, strength and more. Oh what is possible when a group of people who are acutely mindful of their “savedness” (over their “chosenness”) and therefore alive and new in Christ, get together and praise God, love one another and go out and seek to share that love with everyone around them in their community and the world! And when their worship and fellowship and mission and serving and giving and their living throughout the week is more and more influenced and impacted first and foremost by their joy and gratitude from being saved by God – watch out!  

Is something missing in our spiritual lives or in our churches?

Amen.

 

Rev. Christopher B. Wolf

Isaiah 42:7

cbrianwolf@gmail.com

www.christopherbwolf.com

 

Christopher B. Wolf is the author of Giving Faith a Second Chance: Restarts, Mulligans and Do-Overs (2007) and the forthcoming, With You: Every Step of the Way (September, 2011).

“It is a matter of sharing and bearing the pain and puzzlement of the world so that the crucified love of God in Christ may be brought to bear healingly upon the world at exactly that point.” N.T. Wright

Read Full Post »

Resurrection

My favorite holiday??

 

Easter, of course!! Not because of the chocolate or Peeps; but because of the miracle of the resurrection.

 

The resurrection is the exclamation point of the Gospel. It is the proof of Jesus’ words, “with God, all things are possible.”

 

And in real life and real-time, it says that no matter how lost, no matter how defeated, no matter awful the circumstances, God’s power is greater than anything in our lives and in this world.

 

And it says that new life comes from death. That new beginnings come from endings. That redemption comes out of being lost. That sin and death do not have the last word.

 

And we know this, but sometimes we forget. Spring doesn’t come after summer, right? It comes after…winter, ugh, often after long drawn-out winters.

 

Sometimes we forget that new life, that resurrection and redemption come at a cost and do not emerge easily – it’s the opposite actually – they only emerge and break through impossible circumstances.

 

As I am writing this, blossoms, buds, sprouts, and shoots, botanical ambassadors of new life, are fighting through wind, snow, earth, rocks, and other things to emerge from the ravages of winter, from death. And somehow the breathtaking symphony of color and fragrance always wins. Spring happens no matter how bad the winter was.

You and I will never know what it takes for them to push through all of that to make it through to the other side.

 

But we do know this. That through Jesus suffering and dying on the cross and being dead and buried, new life, resurrection emerged into this world and into our lives through faith. It wasn’t a snap of the fingers, it wasn’t a magic trick, it wasn’t a formula, and it was anything but easy. But it happened…

 

We’re told that we are new creations in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17) and it’s true. But just like resurrection, that new creation happening in us through the power of the Holy Spirit does not happen overnight. It happens surely, purposefully. It happens even when it’s not very visible.

 

We have to remember…

 

We have to remember that when we are trying to restore marriages, when we are trying to overcome addictions, when we are trying to revitalize churches, when we are seeking to follow God more passionately, when we are trying to heal, seeking God’s forgiveness, when we are trying to start over in anything, we have to remember it is challenging, it can be overwhelming, the odds may be against us, it may seem impossible – BUT it’s possible…

 

Thanks to that Sunday morning long ago, when life came from death, light came from darkness, and He was alive!!!

 

 

Read Full Post »