salvationism

I can't remember what book it was: some Christian best-seller the class had decided to study: and I admit I was a reluctant participant. I prefer a Sunday School class that studies the Bible, but try not to be unpleasant about it.

But God hit me when I read the first sentence: "It's not all about you." I don't remember the title of the book, its author, or anything else the book said. But that sentence was exactly what God wanted me to hear: it remains written on my heart.

The lesson I took from that is that it's all about God. Christianity that's about me is no Christianity at all.

One place I notice it sharply is in our Sunday hymns. So many of the Nineteenth Century hymns are about my need, my joy at finding God, my struggles with faith, my trials in this world. Wallowing in my own sentimental self-centeredness I find contrary to the spirit of WORSHIP. When God's merely an adjunct of my emotional life, it's really all about me.

I grew up in a church that emphasized above all else salvationism...that the first priority of Christianity is our "personal relationship with Jesus Christ." We sang the dreadful same Nineteenth Century hymns every week, and there was an altar-call after every sermon. Its centerpiece was that one-time experience of going forward, then being baptized. The pressure to "be saved" was relentless, so I gave in.

After that, living the Christian life was primarily being in the pews for all the following weekly sermons on the need to be saved. Now that I was, it seemed Christianity had nothing further worth hearing: I abandoned (what I thought was) Christianity to try some things that were more interesting.

God was gracious to call me back, and showed me Christianity is vastly MORE than "being saved." Nobody starts this (I'd have to call it) adventure with Him unless they take the first step...but it is a first step, only a beginning. My experience is that we can't go any farther (and I'd question whether even that first step is meaningful) in the mindset that "it's all about me."

Salvationism can very much tend to that thinking. I'm especially suspicious when "being saved" is the first priority of a church, because that's not God's first priority. His purpose in all creation is that He rule, and that He be glorified. He's gracious to make those who love Him part of His rule and glory: to make us even HEIRS with His Own Son. We miss it all...God, His purpose, His rule, His grace, His glory...if we continue in the thinking that "it's all about me."

Let us repent not just our sins, but our self-centeredness. Let us cast that idol out of the temple and destroy it completely, "that the King of Glory may come in." (Psalms 24:7)

Root Causes

It always takes me a while to work through problems, to their root. This one has taken even longer than usual; but I may have reached some kind of "ultimate cause" for the Church' waywardness. Perhaps our foolish assumptions have made us prey to deceivers.

Politicians are not our friends. Their purpose is not the Church' purpose, and their methods are not our methods. Their criteria is not our criteria, and their kingdom is not God's Kingdom. If politicians pretend to to be on our "side," it is to use us to their purposes.

This is the way of politicians in every age, in every nation. This is most dangerously true of politicians who profess to be one of us, and style themselves the "party of God." Let the American Church therefore be wise, and beware. Let the American Church follow her Head more closely, and shun the deceivers.

No Celebration

On this day 150 years ago, the Civil War began when secessionists fired on a U.S. Army fort. When it was over, 25% of southern men were dead, southern farms, mansions, and major cities were burned to the ground, and the south's economy was wrecked.

The Union lost more dead than the south: the wounded, maimed, orphaned and widowed on both sides probably totalled in the millions. The war changed America in profound ways, and repercussions of the human costs continue to this day in many of our family stories.

It would be blindly foolish to "celebrate" the day: but history's value is that we remember, and learn from past mistakes. Today I remember that the violent spirit of rebellion, of divisiveness, partisanship, and faction is still among us: that "those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God" (Galatians 5:21): and that the consequences of operating in that spirit are disastrous even in this world.

A Test

God's tests are always a chance: rather, a mandate: to test ourselves...whosoever will. His test this week is even clearer than usual in letting us...even more, Him...see where our hearts are.

The tea-partiers held a demonstration against Congress, for more budget-cuts.

Jim Wallis and others are praying and fasting that Congress' budget-cuts would protect the poor, rather than military expenditures and corporations' tax-breaks (such as those the New York Times just reported let GE pay no taxes on $5.1 billion profits last year).

I doubt the contrast could be more sharply-drawn, or the decision clearer, as to which is God's purpose, and God's way of working His will. But even being able to see the test is God's grace.

God's grace too that we can make that choice.