Monday, December 6, 2010

We've missed the point

The Jolokia Pepper, also known as the "Ghost Pepper". This pepper is registered in the Guinness book of World Records as the hottest pepper in the world. I am currently eating a bowl of soup with two drops of this deviously hot sauce in it and my mouth is virtually numb... That's right, after a wonderful vacation with my family I have obtained a hot-sauce lovers dream. And while sitting here, sweat running down my brow choking in those delicious spicy fumes a thought occurred to me... and that thought sounded something like this in my head- 'There is only a small percentage of the population that would ever even want to eat this, in fact many would consider it a form of punishment or torture...' then the next thought hit me hard and fast 'alot of people look at Christianity like this hot-sauce'. That is they see it as a sort of religious flavor that only certain people who have the right kind of taste buds will enjoy. And the worst of it is we add to this perception through denominationalism and division within our own numbers. The world comes to us saying "I think I like spicy food" and we play right in to the paradigm of categorization by saying "great now which denomination better suits your taste buds because their are over 18,000 different kinds of hot-sauce for you to choose from!" In 1 Corinthians Paul says that we are to be united in mind, and thought. Then later in 1 Corinthians 2:16 we are told that we have the mind of Christ. So then if we are united in the mind of Christ, then our thoughts will naturally flow out of that. So lets stop the arguing! Baptists say believe in your heart while Church of Christ says be fully dunked in the water- is their scriptural support for both? Yes! Then stop arguing over one or the other and do both. Is it not possible to be fully emerged and believe in your heart? Catholics pursue tradition and remembrance while Protestants pursue a certain worshipful freedom aspect, are both good things? Yes! So do both. Is it not possible to honor tradition and remembrance while maintaining Christian freedom? God's sovereignty vs. man's free will- are their verses that support both in the bible? Yes! Then why are we arguing. Because we can't wrap our minds around a God who can do both? And I know many of you are thinking to yourselves "Well he's missing the point" or "He just doesn't get it". But hear me out- God doesn't say things in the Bible for us to pick which one's we're going to take a side on, or which flavor hot sauce we want to become. The truth is that ALL of what God says is true, and our side picking is meaningless- the truth is that by classifying ourselves and polarizing ourselves based on different truths of God over and against other truths of God we have created a hypocrisy out of the inbreaking kingdom of God. We have stopped building on the Cornerstone of the good news of Jesus Christ and made other things (most of them good in themselves) the point and the foundations of our Churches and our faith. If I'm wrong then look around... What are denominations for? Why do Church splits happen? Not because people took a stand on Jesus but because people polarize the truths of God into opposites when in reality they should always be married and inseparable. Following Jesus is not a flavor or religion it is the only great truth on this earth. And followers of Jesus can no more be seperated into flavors than a physical body can be separated into parts and still think itself alive.