Trying to Give Myself Motivation

I have been working on a book that is a synthesis of blogs, articles, and stories of our local community and other friends. The problem, of course, is that the hardest part about writing a book is finishing it...and I've been trying to finish it for about a year. So I wanted to post a portion of the introduction here and to hopefully have the people who still read my blog from time to time hold me accountable to finish. The book's tentative title is "What is Church? A Story of the Church in Transition." Here's the excerpt:

We Are Misfits

American culture has a love/hate relationship with misfits. We enjoy watching amateur singers on television make fools of themselves. We cheer when the unexpected college basketball team reaches the Final Four. We make celebrities out of the “little guys” who make us laugh, win the lottery, or beat the odds in some other way. But we find it difficult to imagine that we might be misfits ourselves. After all, misfits do not often become heroes, and they typically do not remain heroes for long.

This book is written for a certain kind of misfit, many of whom are just recognizing that not fitting in is more normal than they thought. They belong to a group of human beings who have a long history of not being able to square with the status quo. In fact, the Founder of their movement seemed to relish the fact that most of the words that came out of his mouth did not make much sense to the general population. Yet somehow, in spite of the mystery and unpopularity of his words, there have been groups of people ever since who have put his words into practice, into life.

Christianity is fundamentally a religion to be lived. This does not make it unique in the world of religions, but it does challenge a growing segment of religious culture in America that desires deeper “spirituality”. Christians seem to have a knack for putting flesh and blood on their faith, for good or ill. This is in part because of their stubborn belief that Jesus was a flesh and blood human being, commonly known as incarnation. Jesus was born, lived, and died on the same earth on which we still plant farms, build cities, and raise children. His world carried with it the same elements of humanity we try to manage in our world. He lived as most of the population of our world lives today – poor. Jesus had none of the privileges of wealth or birth right, so he spent an inordinate amount of time surviving. Within that context of anonymous survival, his ministry began. Soon he had gathered around himself a small group of “survivors”, men and women who had a variety of motives for being with him. Regardless, their common bond was that Jesus was someone they could follow. They were tired of the false piety and political maneuvering of the people who claimed to be their leaders. Most of them were trying to live righteously, or were at least trying to imagine themselves as something other than a sinner. These survivors needed someone they could get their hands on and hear his voice. When Jesus came along and said “Follow me”, they did not think, “Here is my next spiritual guru!” No, they followed him, and left nothing behind.

Christians have historically given this idea of lived religion a name - discipleship. In our culture, a disciple is someone who has studied under a famous researcher or professor, or an athlete who has mastered their sport under the tutelage of a hall-of-fame coach. But a disciple could also be someone who has read every book by a motivational speaker and attends all of her conferences. That reading and listening implies dedication, but not necessarily discipleship. To be a disciple of Jesus is a very serious thing if you read the gospels. He, in fact, seemed less concerned with his disciples actually understanding what he said and did. Rather, he wanted them to be attentive to how he said and did things, to learn his rhythm, his moves. Jesus knew he was modeling life, not just teaching ideas about God, so the real challenge for his disciples went far beyond buying into his particular interpretation of scripture or commentary on the future of the Jewish people. The challenge, his narrow-path, was if they would leave “home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the gospel.” The seriousness of his call to discipleship cannot be understated.

The god of individualism in our culture makes it difficult for us to conceive what it might look like to actually follow a physical Jesus. If he showed up at your doorstep or at your office and said, “Follow me,” with no qualification, he would probably get the same response we give most door to door salespeople. As Americans, we will protect our autonomy – with violence if necessary – even though we may freely give our allegiance to God, country, and other causes. However, Jesus did not ask his followers for their allegiance or their vote. His call went right to the heart of the matter. Who is your god? Who gets the final word in the way you live your life? “Follow me” punctures all that we manufacture as spirituality or religion like a child’s balloon. We stand there, our nets in hand, at the tax-collecting table, at the grocery store, in our cars, at our jobs, with our families, in our neighborhoods…and he waits for us to decide.