That was the response that Sufjan Stevens gave in a recent interview when asked if he found that the calling to spread the good news sat awkwardly with his profile.
And while I'm sure you could totally argue points and possible theology errors behind this or just whatever, I don't really care. I can though simply say that I really like his answer. In its very simplest form, its absolutely true. It has to be, or a lot of us are liars.
Cause heres the thing that used to always leave me confused. Back in the day when I went to a church where if you looked good you were good. No questions asked. Dont cuss, drink, or watch bad movies. Listen to K-love, or Air-1 if you're younger, dont dress crazy and you're golden. So basically from the outside looking in, its just behavior modification 101. Do this, dont do this. And so for a while I had all these questions about where the gospel could fit into the lives of people who were already doing those things but without church. Cause from everything I had seen, crackheads and prostitutes needed Jesus, but middle class suburban mom's who brought snack to their kids' soccer games and had the perfect husband didn't really need Jesus at all, in fact it would look straight up silly for someone to try and tell them *their* life needed help. The way that evangelism was modeled to me was basically you find someone who's life is just a total mess. Like on the verge of destruction. And thats not hard to do. Not in this world. Then you tell them about Jesus and you present him in such a way that it sounds like if they would just believe what you were saying then their wreck of a life would get fixed and wala! Conversion. Go pick up your free ice cream cone for you and one for your new friend... not to mention your rewards in heaven....
But if you found someone who's life was not a wreck. Someone who had a great life and who actually seemed to be doing a heck of a lot better than you were, then..... awkward..... sorry, my gospel is not big enough to cover all of that awkwardity.
So those questions started out small and then pretty soon I was asking myself, if the gospel really was just a way to fix up everyones' life so they can look pretty. Because if thats all it is, then at some point there are going to be people that just don't need it. And I knew that couldn't be right, so it had to be something else. It had to be big enough to touch everything, everyone, everywhere. It had to be just as necessary to the super friendly old man who went to church regularly, gave money to orphans and never stopped smiling, as it was to the drug dealing prostitute with two starving kids at home. Because if it wasn't then it was useless.
Fast forward a few years to when I realized that the gospel is Jesus. Its a person not a formula. Jesus is the answer. Hhmm. Churchy.
The gospel is not five steps to material success and overall well-being. No thats the Oprah show and most of barnes and noble. The gospel is as Sufjan said, a relinquishing of self to Christ. Its freedom. Its not are you good or bad, lets figure it out so we can diagnose you. But rather its, here is God. You get God. God who loved you so he became a man so that he could climb into our lives and then die a sickening death on a blood-splattered cross to offer us something so much better than material success or overall well-being. He did it so he could become the curse for us and instead offer us himself. God, the God who created you and everything else, came down to offer us himself. And thats enough because once thats what we're after, then our lives make sense and they take on eternal value. We're all created to worship. Regardless of what you believe, you can agree on that. Humans love to worship stuff. Sports, people, cars, clothes, each other. Its in our DNA. Its just worshipping the wrong stuff that we're prone to and thats what leads us to sadness, disappointment, loss, rejection, betrayal and fear. But in Christ we're free from every bad thing, and freed up to have joy in every good thing. Because when we worship the God we were created to worship, then we can never be hurt, rejected or betrayed. Which is why the Christian who is about to have their head chopped off for the sake of Christ can have joy, because you can't stop a Christian, even if you kill him. Because they will get God. And he is enough.
But if you found someone who's life was not a wreck. Someone who had a great life and who actually seemed to be doing a heck of a lot better than you were, then..... awkward..... sorry, my gospel is not big enough to cover all of that awkwardity.
So those questions started out small and then pretty soon I was asking myself, if the gospel really was just a way to fix up everyones' life so they can look pretty. Because if thats all it is, then at some point there are going to be people that just don't need it. And I knew that couldn't be right, so it had to be something else. It had to be big enough to touch everything, everyone, everywhere. It had to be just as necessary to the super friendly old man who went to church regularly, gave money to orphans and never stopped smiling, as it was to the drug dealing prostitute with two starving kids at home. Because if it wasn't then it was useless.
Fast forward a few years to when I realized that the gospel is Jesus. Its a person not a formula. Jesus is the answer. Hhmm. Churchy.
The gospel is not five steps to material success and overall well-being. No thats the Oprah show and most of barnes and noble. The gospel is as Sufjan said, a relinquishing of self to Christ. Its freedom. Its not are you good or bad, lets figure it out so we can diagnose you. But rather its, here is God. You get God. God who loved you so he became a man so that he could climb into our lives and then die a sickening death on a blood-splattered cross to offer us something so much better than material success or overall well-being. He did it so he could become the curse for us and instead offer us himself. God, the God who created you and everything else, came down to offer us himself. And thats enough because once thats what we're after, then our lives make sense and they take on eternal value. We're all created to worship. Regardless of what you believe, you can agree on that. Humans love to worship stuff. Sports, people, cars, clothes, each other. Its in our DNA. Its just worshipping the wrong stuff that we're prone to and thats what leads us to sadness, disappointment, loss, rejection, betrayal and fear. But in Christ we're free from every bad thing, and freed up to have joy in every good thing. Because when we worship the God we were created to worship, then we can never be hurt, rejected or betrayed. Which is why the Christian who is about to have their head chopped off for the sake of Christ can have joy, because you can't stop a Christian, even if you kill him. Because they will get God. And he is enough.
Awesome!
ReplyDelete@steve, just curious, how did you find me?
ReplyDelete