Christians Contra Mundum
Thus it was from the beginning and it is today. Yet the early Christians had one great advantage over us; then it was clear that the surrounding culture was groping in the darkness of paganism, and thus it was clear that the culture should have no hand in defining the role of God’s people in the world. But today we have grown accustomed to thinking of ourselves as a part of the “Christian West,” living in a “Christian nation.” That habit is hard to kick, for it has the narcotic effect of easing the painful reality of the stark contrast between twentieth-century American culture and the calling of Christ to His Church.
Yet we must kick that habit if by serving heaven we are to be any earthly good. Our challenge is clear: We must reject the illustions, seductions, and false alternatives of the current political sense and reassert the ageless truth that Christ is Lord of lords, and King of kings. With Athanasius, the great fourth-century champion of the faith, we must stand for Christ against the world. In the very moment of our clearest opposition to the world, we will find that as witnesses to the Truth and Life, we will have the inestimable privilege of helping to make His invisible kingdom visible in the world. For with Christ we will “preach good news to the poor, proclaim freedom for the prisoners, and recovery of sight for the blind, release the oppressed, and proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.”
The Humanist’s Prayer
Lyman Abbot once paraphrased the Lord’s prayer to reflect the philosophy of those without God. We might call it the Humanist’s Prayer:
Our brethren who art on earth, hallowed be our name. Our kingdom come, our will be done on earth, for there is no heaven. We must get this day our daily bread; we neither forgive nor are forgiven. We fear not temptation, for we deliver ourselves from evil. For ours is the kingdom and power, and there is no glory and no forever.
We Play the Game Unfairly
A Hasidic story tells of a little boy playing hide-and-seek with his friends. For some unknown reason, they stopped playing while he was hiding. He began to cry. His old grandfather came out of the house to see what was troubling him. After learning what had happened, the grandfather said, “Do not weep, my child, because the boys did not come to find you. Perhaps you can learn a lesson from this disappointment. All of life is like a game between God and us. Only it is God who is weeping, for we are not playing the game fairly. God is waiting to be found, but many have gone in search of other things.”
Plain Cross
A Denver woman told her pastor of a recent experience that she felt was indicative of the times in which we live. She was in a jewelry story looking for a necklace and said to the clerk, “I’d like a gold cross.” The man behind the counter looked over the stock in the display case and said, “Do you want a plain one, or one with a little man on it?”
Cooling Lothario’s Ardor
An attractive young woman whose career necessitated a good deal of traveling was asked if she was ever bothered by uninvited male attention. She answered, “Never, I just say five words and immediately I am left alone.” “What are the five words?” She said, “I simply ask, ‘Are you a born-again Christian?’”
No Strength to Rise
Like the eagle that sat down on the frozen ground to feed upon its prey, and when it would have arisen, found its great wings so frozen to the ice that it could never rise again, but perished beside its costly pleasure; like the ship that sailed so close to the current that it was not possible to stem the awful tide that drove it over the abyss—so Christian men and women are trifling with forbidden things until they have neither heart nor strength to rise to their heavenly calling.
Is The Church Important?
The Christian Communications Laboratory relates the story of a small Midwestern weekly paper which ran a story saying, “We are pleased to announce that the cyclone which blew away the Methodist church last Friday did no real damage to the town.” Kind of scary! Perhaps our failure today is not that we kill the King’s Son or practice violence and bloodshed so much as being irrelevant and without impact.
Cyprian’s Testimony
This is a cheerful world as I see it from my garden under the shadows of my vines. But if I were to ascend some high mountain and look out over the wide lands, you know very well what I should see: brigands on the highways, pirates on the sea, armies fighting, cities burning; in the amphitheaters man murdered to please applauding crowds; selfishness and cruelty and misery and despair under all roofs. It is a bad world, Donatus, an incredibly bad world. But I have discovered in the midst of it a quiet and holy people who have learned a great secret. They are despised and persecuted, but they care not. They are masters of their souls. They have overcome the world. These people, Donatus, are the Christians—and I am one of them. –Cyprian