In verse 8 Jesus instructs the Twelve to “take nothing for their journey except a staff – no bread, no bag, no money in their belts – but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics.”  Why would Jesus want them to take nothing with them?  For the specific purpose of requiring the Twelve to not simply serve and care for others through the proclamation of the truth, but to also be served by those they were entreating, to require care and service as well as offering it.

Daniel Niles, a theologian from Sri Lanka, in his book This Jesus…Whereof We Are Witnesses, discusses how the church often times, even in the midst of its service and witness to the world, can damage its potential influence and effectiveness by creating a sense of superiority over others.  Niles posits:

“One of the features of the life of the Christian community in the lands of Asia is the number of institutions of service which belong to this community.  We run schools, hospitals, orphanages, agricultural farms, etc.  But, what we do not adequately realize is that these institutions are not only avenues of Christian service but are also sources of secular strength.  Because of them, we can offer patronage, control employment, and sometimes make money. The result is that the rest of the community learn to look on the Church with jealousy, sometimes with fear, and sometimes even with suspicion…The only way to build love between two people or two groups of people is to be related to each other as to stand in need of each other.  The Christian community must serve.  It must also be in a position where it needs to be served…Let me say it as an aside, that, in my view one of the biggest problems to be solved in the years that lie ahead is how, Inter-Church Aid can be given and received without destroying that weakness of the churches in which lies their inherent strength…The glory of the Lion is the glory of the Lamb.”

Niles is here writing with a broad, corporate perspective on the cumulative effect of the church’s service to the broader unbelieving community through various institutions.  Nevertheless, the same principle can be established, I believe, regarding individual local churches as well as individual believers.  Maybe, without realizing it, by showing no weakness or lacking of our own, we inadvertently create a relational dynamic in which we sit in a position of power and superiority that can potentially create an attitude of jealousy and hostility from those who are not a part of the community of faith.  That we inadvertently display an arrogance that turns the world off to our message before we even have the opportunity to offer it.

Kenneth Bailey in his book Jesus through Middle Eastern Eyes observes that the very life and incarnation of Jesus demonstrates this principle of mutual service and care:

“A babe in a manger is an ultimate example of one who comes in need of those to whom he or she comes…Jesus understands profoundly the need to be a receiver.  His initial contact with Peter (Luke 5:1-3) was to request his help.  There was a crowd on the seashore and Jesus needed a boat for a pulpit.  Peter’s boat and his skills in controlling it were required.  Jesus needed Peter and asked for his help – the rest is history.  Jesus was ready to serve, and His self-emptying was so total that He needed to be served.”

Like the rest of us, God in the flesh was hungry, thirsty, tired, weary, and needed to learn and grow.  Bailey explains that an emphasis on the strength of the giver along with the weakness of the receiver will tend to produce pride in the giver and humiliation in the receiver.

In Mark 6: 7-13 Jesus is teaching the Twelve to go in need of the people to whom they are going.  They will depend on them for shelter, food, and possibly even additional clothing needs.  In so doing they will establish a dynamic of mutual need and equality with their fellow man.  One can see humility in such a perspective (and strategy).

Maybe one of the reasons we see little evangelistic fruit in our communities of faith is a lack of understanding of the principle Jesus is establishing in Mark 6, a principle that he demonstrated with His own life.  Certainly the church must understand its role as light in a dark world, as those who bring sight to the spiritually blind, those who offer, through the gospel, life for those who are spiritually dead.  We see and know the truth in a way that the unbelieving world does not.  But this is a result of grace, not any kind of physical, emotional, intellectual, or spiritual superiority.  Maybe we have demonstrated an arrogance and air of superiority to the world we didn’t intend, but is understandable in light of a passage like Mark 6.  Maybe a greater demonstration of weakness and mutual service to one another is in order if we are to be faithful to go out into the world as Jesus intends us to.

Most of our church paradigms have a place for these two dimensions of discipleship. But the third dimension or dynamic, the one that not only finds itself the most neglected, but is unlikely to really ever cross the mind of most Christians at all, is that of personal discipleship of another believer.  We may get the first two, but the thought of personal responsibility for the spiritual life and development of another Christian is something that may never even cross the radar screen for an overwhelming majority of American believers.  I think all three dynamics are essential to healthy discipleship within a church and in the life of individual believers.

How to implement such a strategy in a local church that has absolutely no feel for this is, to be perfectly honest, something I not only wrestle with regularly but also have yet to feel like I’ve figured out (not that these things are formulaic and one day you just get it completely, there’s always a learning and growth process to it).  Nevertheless, I feel confident that the pursuit of it is critical and has enormous benefits for local churches.  I offer a few here:

One, we have got do something about the exalted status of local church staff and the byproduct of the idea of professional Christians who do everything for the church.  Unfortunately church leaders and pastor’s feed this, whether they realize it or not.  I’m sure there are a great many pastors that long for the day when their churches embrace their own responsibility for the work of their church, nevertheless, their structure works against them, and furthermore, I’m not convinced we entirely dislike being the guy people always turn and look to either if we are honest.  We neglect many of the gifts and offices that are meant to function in the church, expecting the guy that’s being paid to do whatever needs to be done when he really can’t be all the things the church needs in the first place.  We expect pastors to reach people, save people, and grow people with their sermons and any necessary Bible studies or counseling sessions.  To think this will work is to look far to narrowly at the spiritual need and investment everyone of us actually needs.  Now, I know that’s probably a little simplistic, but I’m convinced that’s essentially what happens in many churches.  By leading believers to understand their own responsibility to invest in the life of other believers (or unbelievers) I believe we can begin to challenge the notion of the professional Christian and begin to accomplish far more in our churches.  The work that God’s intends for His church to accomplish simply cannot be done by a few men (unless of course they leverage their leadership to do what I am proposing in this blog, by leading in a way that leads their church to be a disciple-making church).

Two, personal discipleship by believers of other believers is critical to their own spiritual maturity.  I believe that God calls every Christian, as a disciple themselves, to make disciples, per Matthew 28:19-20.  He commands all Christians to teach others everything Christ has commanded.  So in one sense, faithfulness to Christ’s command here is an act of obedience that plays a role in a Christian’s spiritual maturity.  But, I’m also convinced now that a Christian simply cannot know God and flourish spiritually in their life apart from the responsibility to teach others.  Most have probably seen the data that says we remember 90 percent of what we teach as opposed to 10 and 20 percent of what we hear and see respectively.  Jesus commands all of those who follow him to teach others.  This doesn’t mean they have to preach sermons to the congregation or lead small groups, but it does mean they have to teach a few in their lives about what it is to follow Jesus and how to do that more and more in their lives.  When Christians become teachers themselves they are forced to learn, but also to understand what they learn well enough to help someone else understand it.  Christians do this all the time outside of the church, training and teaching new employees, teaching their children how to do work around the house, etc…, all of us teach in life, most just don’t think we have to do it in church.  I would not know God and His Word as I do if I would have not been forced to be a teacher over the last 14 years of my life.  God has used my involvement in teaching believers and discipling individual Christians to take me to a place in my own journey with Jesus that I wouldn’t be at otherwise.  Our churches are full of immature believers not simply because of a lack of obedience (will get to that in a minute) and faithfulness to others, but also because maturity needs discipleship, as much for the teacher as for the student.

Three, discipleship is critical to doing community together.  Community is a pretty popular word nowadays and many herald it in their church.  Some are probably doing it well.  But I’m convinced that many of our churches don’t really do healthy biblical community.  For most, Christian community really isn’t very Christian at all.  I believe that for the vast majority of American Christians community serves a primarily relational function, fulfilling a psychological need for belonging, as opposed to a spiritual function, learning to live life together committed to prayer for one another, fighting sin, proclaiming the gospel, and learning the Bible from one another.  The problem is that real life together and the spiritual impact it should have on our lives and those we are with requires a few things, one of which is time.  My brother Jared and I were discussing this last week.  He made what I thought was an insightful observation into the fact that really to learn to do discipleship, and the kind of life together that it requires, really means teaching our people a completely new way to live their whole lives, because most of us simply live isolated lives throughout the week and spend time together for an hour or so a couple times a week at church.  It requires far more time and investment to make a disciple.  Community is essential to healthy Christian lives and churches and I believe a greater commitment to personal discipleship is a central answer to doing community more effectively.

And four, discipleship seems to me to be absolutely essential to obedience in the Christian life.  Obedience is really more caught than taught.  Certainly we have to learn how it is that God calls us to live as His children, so there is a teaching dimension to obedience, but example and modeling are critical to a Christian’s obedience.  Discipleship pushes Christians to walk through life together and model for other Christians how to live in obedience to Christ’s commands.  I think we learn obedience in a far more effective way in personal discipleship relationships than in worship services or even small groups.  If we really want to recommit ourselves to a healthy biblical concern for obeying all that Jesus commanded, personal discipleship will be necessary to do so.

There’s a glaring hole in the way we do church in America.  Even our seminary trained and educated probably couldn’t identify a handful of individuals whose lives have been deeply impacted by the personal investment they made into their lives.  We do lots of things in church, some of it good, some of it worthless, but personal discipleship is rarely one of them.  We sacrifice much, I believe, because of it.

I have spent time reading through the book of Acts recently and had the privilege of preaching through a couple of chapters in Acts at a church this summer.  It’s a unique and energizing book.   Furthermore, Acts is in many ways the Holy Spirit’s book.  I envision what happens in Acts as Jesus tagging out of the ring and letting the Spirit in.  It’s essentially His introduction to the Church, seeing who He is and what His role in God’s redemptive plan is.  And what we see is this absolute explosion of His power and presence out into the world, invading enemy territory, gathering and reclaiming what is the Son’s, a redeemed humanity bought and paid for through His sacrificial death.  Along with this we also see that the life and work of the Church is vicariously tied to the life and work of the Holy Spirit.

What worries me as I think about my own life, the ministry entrusted to me at USAO, and many of our churches, is that we don’t think spiritually about church very much.  This may sound strange, but let me explain.  We’re overly pragmatic, concerned primarily with programs and personnel and facilities and relationships, etc…, and if we get these things right, then the church will grow and things will be great.  Well, it’s true the church or ministry may grow, but that doesn’t necessarily mean the Holy Spirit has anything to do with it.  Behind much of this is a “genie in a bottle” approach to God, doing whatever we think works and people want, and then we just expect the Holy Spirit to be there and to jump on board with it.  Ask the Israelites how that worked out with the Ark of the Covenant.  Just wheel the thing out in front of the army and we’ll win the battle!  Wrong.  God doesn’t like people trying to manipulate Him.

Now, it’s not that I think pragmatic, practical concerns are bad or wrong necessarily, nor do I believe that the Holy Spirit doesn’t work through human means ( means like prayer, holiness, suffering, etc… primarily, not necessarily cultural relevance and the like), I think He does, but an awareness of the Holy Spirit’s presence and His impact seems distant from our collective consciousness, and not our primary hope and trust for the accomplishment of the work of the kingdom.   When’s the last time we walked into and then out of church, concerned solely with whether the Holy Spirit was there and whether we could sense and know His presence was among us?  Concerned with whether He accomplished an inward heart transforming work rather than us simply accomplishing a man-made, therapeutic, feeling based work?  When’s the last time we worried that God might not be in on what we were doing?  I don’t think we think spiritually about church the way we should, concerned about spiritual realities rather than physical, concerned about the Spirit’s labor rather than ours.  And I see this because I am a product of this kind of church culture as much as most anybody else.

Jesus exclaims to the church at Laodicea in Revelation 3, that He’s at the door knocking.  This is not a call to salvation, this is a rebuke for doing church while He’s outside of the meeting!  Moreover, we’ve stretched the “where two or more are gathered” line beyond its original context, which is one dealing specifically with church discipline and confronting a brother.  Just because we showed up doesn’t mean He’s necessarily there doing His work.

Christ says he will build His church, and this shouldn’t surprise us since I’ve yet to meet any human who has the ability to supernaturally transform a human heart and make spiritually dead people come alive.  Christ accomplishes this work through the sending of the Holy Spirit to come down into our midst and do this very thing according to His will and purpose and through His own appointed means.  There are a lot of things we can do as human beings even within the walls of the church: we can create community, we can develop relationships, we can fill up people’s lives with events and activities, we can create exciting and energizing atmospheres, and we can even pull on emotional heart strings and provoke responses from people.  And we can do all of this from human ingenuity and hard work.  But we don’t have to have the Holy Spirit to get that stuff done, just capable human leaders usually.  And that doesn’t necessarily mean they are spiritual leaders.  And that doesn’t necessarily mean the Holy Spirit is accomplishing a spiritual work in the lives of the people there.  I don’t think we think dependently on the Holy Spirit to work spiritually the way that the New Testament, and specifically the book of Acts, displays for us in the early church.  If we did we would pray more than we do.  Our leaders would pray more than they do.  We’d care about holiness and purity more than we do.  We’d trust truth and distinctiveness more than we do, rather than cultural relevance and a culturally palatable message.  We’d be different in many ways than we are.

I don’t believe issues like these are strictly black and white, that we either are completely doing them or completely not doing them.  There are certainly shades of gray here for us to be mindful of.  Nevertheless, trust in man, means, and methods (to quote my father) is one of the challenges of our context.  It’s more measurable and quite frankly, easier ( a lot easier than things like suffering and holiness).  We must search our hearts and discern what we have trusted in when it comes to the work of the kingdom.  God, help us to think spiritually more than we do.

1.  ”To Change the World” by James Davison Hunter

2.  ”Jesus and the Land” by Gary Burge

3.  ”The Third Choice” by Mark Durie

4.  ”Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand

5.  ”God’s Glory in Salvation through Judgment” by James Hamilton

6.  ”The Island at the Center of the World” by Russell Shorto

7.  ”The Glory of the Atonement” edited by Charles Hill and Frank James

8.  ”Kingdom Without Borders” by Miriam Adeney

9.  ”Why We Love the Church” by Kevin DeYoung and Ted Kluck

10.  And if I get to it, “The Meaning of the Pentateuch” by John Sailhammer

Normally there’d be a biography or two mixed in there, but I read several this past spring and so I will sit that aside for the summer.  And just because I will read it does not necessarily mean I agree with it.  If you have other good suggestions that might be worth reading, throw them up here as a comment.  That’s what reading lists are for!

Read something this summer.

The lives of those Johnson examines are simply ravaged by dysfunctionality, immorality, and egocentrism.  Addictive lifestyles, sexual promiscuity that would make most sailors blush, greed, conflict with family, friends, and peers, anger, wastefulness of money leading to massive debt, and a general disinterest in the lives of anyone but themselves, were characteristic of each and every individual.  People proposing to know what was best for humanity, for the common man, knew nothing of the common man’s life and showed almost no real concern for actual people.

The classification of intellectuals as a category of people really didn’t come about until the expansion of enlightenment thought.  Since the Enlightenment exalted reason as the path to truth and ultimately to a better world, those who displayed the ability to reason on a superior level became the natural guides, the priests if you will, for mankind on the journey toward that future.  Reason was to serve the betterment and the benefit of humanity.  Johnson assumes that if one is to believe it be so, it would also seem consistent for the lives of those endowed with great rational intellect to reflect a life of superior quality and benefit.  Simply put, if reason is the answer to a better life for mankind, it should also be the answer for a better life for the intellectuals who, at least supposedly, are already enlightened by such reason.

And yet, as Johnson displays, this certainly doesn’t appear to be the case.  If everyone lived the lives that they did the world would be a greater disaster than it may already appear to be.  What is even more unfortunate is that their moral and political philosophies (primarily shaped by their own shortcomings and personal issues and concerns), were in large part, devastating for the rest of humanity as reflected in the 20th century.

Johnson concludes that he would rather trust twelve average people off the street on moral and political philosophy than twelve intellectuals.  What they would propose would probably be better for mankind than the narrow-minded absurdities propounded by leading intellectuals.  Whether one agrees with his conclusion or not, he makes what I believe to be a valid and important observation about the usefulness of that which has been taught by the intellegentsia, the high priests of reason, over the last two to three hundred years.  If their own lives cannot reflect the benefit of their philosophies, why should they carry weight with the rest of us?

I found myself greatly refreshed and energized by the powerful nature of the Christian gospel after reading Johnson’s book.  It reminded me that reason can’t make anyone more moral.  And it can’t because it can’t change the human heart.  Jesus continues to prove Himself a better judge of the human condition and predicament than any intellectual figure of the past three hundred years, or all of human history for that matter.  His call for rebirth and a transformed inner man continues to prove itself to be the necessary solution to this predicament.  The power and truthfulness of the gospel pierces through the darkness of worldly philosophies.

Finally, I am reminded of the importance of the transformed life for those of us that are followers of Jesus.  If the world cannot see the benefit of Jesus’ teaching in my own life then why should they embrace it either?  If Jesus is the source of abundant life, as He claimed, let us display to a searching world the pleasure and benefit of a Christ-enthralled, Christ exalting life.

What it is about is the seemingly transcendent theme of the battle between good and evil and the longing for what is right and good to triumph over that which is not.  I think any of us would admit that we ultimately want to see justice prevail over injustice, wrongs to be righted, and adversity overcome.  How do you think it would have gone over if Darth Vader had just watched the emperor kill Luke and then destroyed the Alliance’s military forces, including Han and Leia?  Or Superman being killed by Lex Luther?  Or the aliens wiping out humanity in Independence Day?  A little anti-climactic huh?  Our story-telling, or myth-making, is predominantly centered around the concept of good’s triumph over evil.  And I would contend that this is a distinctively Christian idea.

Other worldviews really cannot accommodate this concept.  Naturalism, the worldview of atheism (essentially), is about the strong and the weak, not good and evil.  If God does not exist, no transcendent standard exists, truth is socially constructed, and survival is the supreme virtue.  Eastern religions like Hinduism and the more western expression of it in New Age, religions that are essentially pantheistic (God is in everything), value balance.  Good and evil must ultimately balance each other out.  You think people would have been satisfied with seeing the Navi in Avatar wiped out for the sake of balance?  I doubt it.  Postmodernism and the supposed relativity that comes with it can’t really assert anything.  What’s good, what’s bad… who knows.  The community gets to figure it out, and it can change.  It is the Christian story that asserts the existence of a God who is good, who wars against evil, against an enemy, and will eventually prevail over that enemy and bring justice to bear. 

As those made in God’s image, living in a world alive with shadows of the gospel and the truth, our hearts still long, in some measure, for the triumph of goodness.  Not everyone may like the Christian meta-narrative, but there are elements to it that we just can’t get away from.  Even in Hollywood.

We obviously laugh about this a lot in our family.  I joke that it probably wasn’t until the 8^th or 9^th grade that I got on an airplane and didn’t expect it to be high jacked.  That’s what happens when people get on airplanes in the movies I grew up watching.  I would sit as an elementary school kid in the airport and profile, looking for the terrorists.  Such was my childhood! 

Looking back, now, years later, and as a father now myself, I am grateful for my father’s perspective on these things.  I think it was guided by wisdom and by spiritual perspective.  And as I’ve thought about it as a father myself, I want my boys to grow up watching Rambo and such movies as well.  And I want them to grow up watching them for two very particular reasons.

First, I want my boys to be brave.  Unfortunately we live in an overly feminized culture.  Not to get into a lengthy explanation of the feminist agenda in American culture (maybe some other time!), but it has essentially created a growing number of weak men.  I say this cautiously.  Being a man doesn’t mean you’ve got to be Arnold Shwarznegger or Sylvester Stallone.  But a strong, clear understanding of masculinity is something that has been lost in our culture as a result of how influential the feminist agenda has become.  And this has spiritual implications for those in the church.  For men, being a committed follower of Jesus will require courage on many levels.  For some it will mean going into Iran for the sake of the gospel.  This of course will prove to be dangerous.  For some it will mean learning not to quit just because they got knocked down or hurt.  For some it will mean doing what is unpopular when everyone around them isn’t.  And for others it will mean leading and taking initiative when no one else will. 

Stories throughout the Bible require great courage and bravery.  Noah.  Abraham.  Moses.  Joshua.  David.  Elijah.  Jeremiah.  Daniel.  The disciples.  Paul.  The list could go on and on.  The Bible is the story of people who were brave and defied the enemy.  Paul uses strong warrior language in 2 Timothy, as he admonishes Timothy to remain faithful to his calling.  Church history is the same.  One of my heroes is Athanasius, the great Alexandrian bishop of the fourth century.  Athanasius stood against the Aryans (those who rejected the deity of Christ, not Nazis!) in a time when it seemed there was no hope.  The phrase was coined at the time in Latin:  Athanasio contra mundum, “Athanasius against the world.”  Athanasius would spend most of his life in and out of exile, living in the wilderness and in hiding, only periodically returning to Alexandria to care for his people.  But, in the end, Aryanism would be defeated and the truth was protected.  This is courage.  There are untold numbers of stories of other Christians who did the same.

I want my boys to watch war movies because I believe it is one of the best ways to see and learn bravery and courage.  Now, I understand that there are other outlets to learn these things to some degree as well.  Bravery must be modeled to our boys in real life scenarios.  Other movies may display and teach bravery.  But there really is nowhere in the human experience where bravery and courage are more needed and more taught.  War movies are, in my opinion, a superior medium for displaying and hopefully teaching bravery and courage.

Second, I want my boys to learn that there are things that are more important than death.  Anyone that enters into a warzone knows that they may very well not make it out alive.  Most enter the military and go to war knowing exactly what it may require to win the war and protect their families and their nation.  Not everyone who met their end did so with dignity, but many did, knowing what was required of them when they put on the uniform.  Soldiers fight for their country, they put something above themselves, and they recognize that death is not the worst thing.  There are things worth dying for. 

This is the story of the Bible.  Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego did not fear Nebuchadnezzar or the fiery furnace in the book of Daniel, and they acknowledged that God may very well not save them; they entrusted themselves to both the power and wisdom of God, even if that meant their own death, which they were prepared for.  This is the story of the church.  Roman Christians would sing praises to God as they were torn limb from limb in the Coliseum before Roman crowds.  Christians would embrace death before they would deny their Lord.  The words of Paul in Philippians ring true:  to die is gain.  Death is not the worst thing.  There are certainly things worth dying for.  War movies and movies that display sacrificial death are shadows of the Christian gospel and the story of God’s people.  It is an excellent medium for seeing this principle portrayed. 

I want my boys to be men of courage and bravery.  I want them to believe that there are things that are worse than death, to know that there are things worth dying for.  In a culture where boys are not taught to be men (not that these messages are not for girls in some sense too, however, biblically, men take the leading role here) in ways the Bible admonishes them to be, we must recommit ourselves to biblical manhood, to courage, to leadership, and to sacrifice.  And I think they can learn these things from films like Rambo, amongst a host of others.  That is why I want my boys to watch Rambo.  For the glory of God and the advance of His kingdom.

The Christian community has typically responded to this claim with a resounding, “No you’re not.”  Biological or genetic dispositions, or “gay genes,” have never been found and so people cannot claim such a justification.  The human design for heterosexual relations is defended.  Nurture, rather than nature, is thus the ultimate cause for susceptibility to homosexual desire and behavior.  Or so the argument usually goes.   Not that this is a bad argument, nor without some merit.  What concerns me is the Christian’s fear of the “I was born this way” argument.  They should not be.  My answer to this line of argumentation is, quite frankly, “Maybe they were.”

Now, before I continue let me make a couple of qualifications.  First, I am not writing with a primary interest in the scientific dimension to this conversation.  There are very technical elements to what will be discussed as it relates to both the pure as well as social sciences.  These I do not dismiss, nor do I find that they have any conflict with what is presented here when examined within a biblical worldview.  My interest is simply in speaking to this question from a more theological perspective than scientific.  Hence, much that could be discussed will not.  Second, I am writing primarily with a Christian audience in mind.  My interest is in helping Christians understand how the Bible addresses these things.  Someone who is not a Christian will find less weight to my argument because they do not submit to biblical authority.  If someone who is not a Christian were to read this, which I welcome and invite (as well as their critique), my expectation is not that they would necessarily agree with me but that they would recognize that Christianity does have a clear response to such questions and challenges, an answer that is plainly consistent with their message, agree with it or not.  I would also hope and pray that they might recognize the hopefulness of the Christian message.  If someone does find themselves without hope, drowning in the ocean of their struggles and addictions, Jesus does have an answer for you.

First, there are certainly other examples of lifestyles that the Christian would understand to be “sinful” that appear to have biological links.  Take alcoholism/drunkenness for example.  The Bible clearly condemns drunkenness and the debauchery that accompanies it as acts of the sinful nature.  People who practice such lifestyles, we are told, will not inherit the kingdom of God.  And yet, technological advances have allowed us to see that chemicals within the human brain can have a direct influence on an individual’s chances of becoming an alcoholic or abuser of alcohol.  Even links to ethnicity have been discovered.  Native Americans are two to three times more likely to become abusers of alcohol than Anglo Americans.  Currently no credible research has produced a link biologically to the homosexual lifestyle.  Nevertheless, if one were to be discovered, it would obviously not be the first time that a lifestyle that Christians maintain to be “sinful” was found to be so.  The Christian response to a lifestyle such as homosexuality must be able to hold up against the “Nature” argument as well as “nurture.”  It has to with other lifestyles.

Second, we find that the Christian doctrine of sin and fallenness does not conflict with this at all.  The Bible teaches that all human beings are born with a sinful nature.  They do not simply grow into sinners, they are born as sinners.  There is nothing in the Bible that conflicts with the absolute severity of sin’s impact on humanity, even to a genetic or biological level.  The Bible makes it clear that sin has ravaged us.  If we are indeed born this way, why would there not be evidence of this?

Third, the Christian message powerfully responds to what one is to do about this deeply engrained sinful nature.  For those of us inclined to particular sinful lifestyles, homosexuality the example that has been primarily examined here in this discussion, the question of why or how change is supposed to happen is certainly at the forefront.  How is one supposed to be something other than who they are?    How can God expect something different from them when this is who they are?  What do you do when you are born this way?  Jesus’ answer is clear, direct, and unique:  you have to be born again.  The Christian message, the good news, is that God radically, supernaturally, miraculously transforms us.  The whole point of the gospel is that he changes you.  This is how you become something you are not:  through the radical transformation and rebirth that God brings through faith in Jesus.  The gospel is not hampered by the claim that you are born that way.  The gospel seems to assume that anyways!  That’s why Jesus tells Nicodemus in John 3 that he has to be born again.  Moreover, once that rebirth has occurred in the life of a person, God provides a community of other Christians to encourage and challenge them to live out the new life they have found.  One would expect to grow in this new life just as one would grow physically from birth.  The temptations may never disappear but a Christian now has the power through the Holy Spirit to live this new life as one who has been recreated spiritually.

To summarize:  sin has without question wreaked havoc on the human person, even on a biological/genetic level at times.  The Christian doctrine of sin, however, finds no conflict with this, informing us of our depravity even from birth; nor does the Christian gospel, revealing the opportunity for rebirth, miraculously and supernaturally.  Therefore, to the claim that we are born that way, we must agree that we most certainly are.   Fortunately for us, God’s work is a work of rebirth.

What is striking is that Jesus most often encounters people, like the above, in the midst of the routine busyness of their lives.  The stories are fascinating in my opinion.  The gospels speak of Peter, James and John, dropping their nets and following Jesus.  The picture is one of Jesus coming to them in the middle of a work day and their immediate response to Jesus’ call.  They drop the nets and go.  Mark speaks of Matthew, “sitting at the tax office” when Jesus approaches Him and commands him to follow.  The woman at the well is collecting water for the day.  They’re not necessarily looking for Him (though Peter, James and John have met Jesus and spent at least some time with Him at this point).  They are not at a point in their life where they’ve sort of “made space” for Jesus.  And there are no baby steps being offered by Jesus to them.

Jesus shows up and confronts them in the midst of their preoccupied lives with a new direction for their lives.  A completely new direction.   A call that, if properly understood, is really inconvenient and disruptive.  It’s the kind of call that’s really going to mess their lives all up. 

When I was a couple years old, my father, at that time a successful trial lawyer, heard God call Him to give it all up and go be a missionary.  Why would a successful lawyer just quit and go make nothing as a missionary in another country?  This is certainly not an isolated story.  There are many like it.  Jesus has always been doing this kind of thing. 

Two things really seem worthy of our consideration here.  One, Jesus doesn’t come to us when we are necessarily looking for Him.  He shows up in the midst of our busyness and routine.  He shows up in the middle of life happening.  If we are really honest there really isn’t a convenient time for Jesus to show up and tell us what He wants us to do.  Because life is busy and full of much responsibility, much to do.  And yet Jesus knows exactly what’s going on in our lives when He starts to call on us. 

Two, Jesus intends to disrupt your life.  He intends to mess up your plans.  He intends to make you ask, “Are you crazy?”  He knows exactly what he is doing when he tells successful bankers to quit and start an orphanage in Central America.  When he tells doctors to quit their practice and take his family to the Middle East to serve the Muslim people.  When he tells athletes to become pastors.  When he tells businessmen to liquidate their assets and establish a ministry to feed the hungry in the Sudan.  That’s going to mess life as we know it up.  Exactly.

And praise God He is gracious enough to call us to do it.  Go ask Matthew one day in heaven whether he wishes he had stayed in that tax collector booth the day Jesus walked into town.

Don’t be surprised when he shows up at your doorstep.  Don’t expect to ready for Him.  You’ll probably be busy working or studying.  Life might just be starting to work itself out in your favor.  And don’t expect what he asks to be convenient or to fit into what you’ve already got going.  It’s going to throw a wrench in things.  And a glorious wrench it will prove to be if you have the courage to say yes.

I remember thinking about Pinocchio recently and the story of Pleasure Island.  This time it struck me as a pretty accurate parable for the day and age that we live in today here in America.  Like Pinocchio and the other boys wandering the streets, we are innocently offered the opportunity to indulge in some of the more pleasurable things that people enjoy.  And in America, there is no shortage of salesmen seeking to convince us that what they have to offer us will make life really satisfying.  America is a fun place to live, make no mistake.  Sports, movies, I-pods, facebook, etc…., Every week many anticipate the newest blockbuster film, gadget, or toy.  We love to be entertained, and in America, most of us have the money to indulge.

The vast majority of us probably don’t even think about this at all.  We are too drunk on our own pleasure to take note.  Unfortunately, most of us also have no idea what all of this may very well be doing to us, and what it will ultimately lead us to, captivity and destruction.  Left vulnerable and unaware in our own excessive indulgence, we are slowly and subtly herded into slavery.  We are entertained unto our very destruction.  Too distracted by our own pursuit of worldly pleasure, captivated by the trivial and inconsequential, we walk away from Jesus.  Listen, whether people like it or not, college football and national championships are trivial when seen within the broader scope of what the Bible tells us really matters.  Fashion and clothing, I-pods, I-pads, 3-D flat-screen TV’s, the new Twilight movie (don’t get me started on that one)  and all of the other things we spend much of our time thinking about and plotting to possess, have zero eternal value.  And yet they dominate our lives too often don’t they?  Meanwhile seeking the kingdom of God, death to self in pursuit of Christ and the advance of His kingdom, gets cursory attention in our lives.

Here me clearly, I don’t think this means we can’t own an I-pod or go to movies or root for our favorite sports team.  I do all these things (though I certainly am in need of the kind of evaluation I am speaking of here as much as the next guy).  What we must concern ourselves with however, is the cumulative effect of all that is thrust before us to win our time, energy, and satisfaction.  And tragically, what most of us probably have to come to grips with, once we see our lives through the right lens, a biblical lens, is that we have turned away from God for more trivial pleasures.

This is gross sin.  It mocks God.  It dishonors His name and His worth.  We must recognize it for the shameful thing that it is.  And so we are transformed into donkeys of our own in a way.  Though we may not realize it, we are displayed from an eternal perspective, to be the fools we have lived as.  One day however, it will be very evident.  And then it will be too late.

It’s easy to be mesmerized by the glitz and glamour, the entertaining power of our culture.  The devil is a great salesman.  Tragically many of us, even some of us sitting in church every Sunday (who may very well be thinking about the football game we can’t wait to get home to watch if the preacher would just hurry up and finish), will be deceived into jumping on the wagon headed for Pleasure Island.  If only we realized what we were really doing.

Let us not be deceived brothers and sisters.  For the sake of our own souls.  For the sake of the glory of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ.