The Practical Pursuit of the Wrong Things

“The building fund, pew fund, and organ fund lose their importance when you encounter hungry people daily. Those who have put in a year or more living with families in pain, people on the street, and victims of injustice, quickly lose respect for the church. Young adults are turning away from a modern church that they see as nothing more than hypocritical. Standards and rules without sacrifice and solidarity is hypocrisy. Christian rhetoric without tangible acts of love is hypocrisy. Churches on every corner with hurting people outside is hypocrisy. A large building with little connection to the streets is essentially empty” – Leroy Barber

What are the pursuits of the followers of Christ? Are we good? Do we strive to be without sin? Do we clamor for new people in our churches? Do we seek to be publicly earmarked by our disciplines? Have we constructed a mission statement for the local bodies of Christ which are contrary to kingdom of God? What do we hear about the community of faith in those around us? Christians are those who object to the world. We renounce the horrors of mankind; we protest the harmful results of abuse of others, the environment, and the leaders of the world, yet we do not bring action to support our words. What does the world say we seek as a collective for Christ? Does the world see the church as a place which gives hope to others? In a sea of implication, the concise response of Paul was, “The pursuit of Christ crucified.”

In the efforts to exert ourselves in within our world we experience a great deal of frustration and confusion in misaligning cultural pragmatics of societal purpose and a definition of principles as emulators of the Savior. He truly embraced those around him and gave them hope. We cannot recount a biblical account of people who threw the blanket judgment of hypocrisy on Christ. His actions were concurrent with his words. The peace and hope which he extended in stretching his hand to touch others was real to them. He may have spoken in parables, but the revelation of Christ was neither hyperbole nor just a quaint story to pass the time. He was real to those in his world. His mission was to touch humanity and change their life from rigid expectation appearing to be good, to the hope and acceptance of a loving Father who forgives man’s exclusionary sinful nature. Christ is the means of this change to hope. He is the way, the truth and the life, which no one comes to the Father except through Him. It is based in Him. When we base our responses to the world on Him, we access the real interaction of the power of hope and love which humanity responds to. As Christ showed, the response is pursuing Him. When we respond to the world in political, judgmental, conditional terms, we hide the message of Christ behind the message we wish to put forth on his behalf.

We are not here on earth to rival the crusades with a great commission of putting others asunder if they do not convert, for the sake of Christ. We are not the exhortational force of Godly living within the political systems of this world. We are not the great objectors to the errant arguments of psychological sensation. We do not stand on the street corners condemning man for their inborn fallen nature and the reciprocity of a life lived in that state. We are called to be as Christ would be to others. We are called to love. We are called to serve. We are called to put on the mind of Christ. We do not give hope, we show Christ and He gives hope. He gives peace which transcends understanding. His interaction with people changed them because they interacted with Him. This is why Paul questions if Christ is divided and follows it with if Paul died for your sins. The focus is Christ. The focus is not the denomination, the sect, the pastor, the ritual: The Father brought Christ to be the answer to humanity in need. The disciples did not preach their own saving grace, they spoke of Christ. The array of things we ascribe to Him sometimes does not point others, or ourselves, to Him. No one will come to know the Father, his love, forgiveness of sin, nor acceptance by a holy intimate Savior because of a building. The building does not know Christ, why would it reveal the mysteries of Him to those in need? Investing in people was the methodology of the Savior. Christ did not apologetically reason to others their need to experience Himself; He loved them as they were, amidst their flailing about to comprehend their existence. He did not come with a new casuistic law to bring reform to a people gone awry. He did not come to bring back the good old days of Eden, where a sinless man experienced the holy God. He came amidst turmoil, Roman rule, divided sects, hated Jews, cultural racism, and over-zealous religion which put others asunder who did not fit their mold, and He loved them. He had compassion for the people who were under these thumbscrews of society. He brought hope in Himself. He knelt and washed feet, he spoke of forgiveness, he brought healing to the suffering, and he gave his life for the hope of mankind’s restoration. It is the reconciliation of one to Christ which brings hope. As a community of believers, we should be a decisive force in showing the hope which Christ brought. The hope we know. The love we embrace; the forgiveness which brings purpose to our existence. That those who we interact with would understand the unconditional nature of love and hope which the Lord has given us and longs their intimate connection to is as well. Let us pursue Him and show his un-hypocritical grace to all. As an outpouring of what we know and emulate in Him, others will see us and have hope that the church is a place where they long to be a part of its reflective connection to the Savior of the world.