“I have three things I’d like to say today. First, while you were sleeping last night, 30,000 kids died of starvation or diseases related to malnutrition. Second, most of you don’t give a shit. What’s worse is that you’re more upset with the fact that I said shit than the fact that 30,000 kids died last night.”
-Tony Campolo
Tony Campolo is a Christian pastor. If you’re a Christian, chances are you think there is something vile and unholy about his word choice in the above quote. It isn’t a very “Christian” thing to say. Good. Because there’s more to following Christ than word choice.
Following Christ is about doing what Christ says to do. It is about living as Christ would live and it is about taking your cues from Jesus, not your church, your pastor, your Bible study group, your political party or your sub-culture. It is about doing what Jesus loves and avoiding what Jesus hates.
Jesus loves when we feed the hungry. He loves when we give to the poor, give second chances and meet the felt needs of people who are suffering. He loves it when we meet the needs of the sick and when we make the elderly smile. He loves it when we forgive people we don’t understand. He loves it when we show love to one another, to the world and to our enemies.
Jesus hates whitewashed tombs. Jesus hates it when we appear righteous, when we say we follow Him and don’t live in a manner befitting of His name. What am I talking about?
We have Christian bookstores and Christian radio and Christian clothing and Christian music and Christian movies and Christian paintings. We speak a Christian language and over-use words like “blessed” and “saved” and we talk about “our walk with the Lord” and our “ prayer-life.” We believe firmly in our Christian causes. We pick up our picket signs and stand outside movie theaters, porn shops, theme parks and abortion clinics. We dress up in our finest linens and drive to mostly segregated churches in usually over-sized and over -priced cars. We wave our hands and sing our songs and compliment our pastors. We hit our knees and we say our prayers. We have all the outward appearances of righteousness. We do and say all the things we think “good Christians” should do and say.
But we lack the compassion and the desire to serve that actually makes someone a follower of Christ. We do not say “I love you” to the child in the ghetto. We do not scuff our knees helping widows with yard-work. We do not give people waiting for the bus a lift. We do not give clothes to children who wear rags. We do not take the time to get to know people who look and talk differently than we do. We do not care for pregnant women who have no way to take care of their babies. We do not help people who have sexual addictions. We do not show compassion for people who believe differently than we do. We do not communicate the love of an amazing and loving God in a way that even makes sense to a generation that doesn’t know what they need to be “saved” from and doesn’t know what in the blue hell we are talking about when we reference “our walk.” We do not include ourselves in the culture we are “called” to be “in” but not “of.” (In, by the way means “included” or “inside”) We don’t watch their movies, listen to their music, talk the way they talk or read the books they read.
Then, we sit around in our ivory towers and shake our heads because we can’t understand why people don’t want to come to church. Perhaps it is because Jesus has left the building. Maybe if we would spend as much time being Jesus to the world as we spend “doing church” we could make a real difference and actually draw people to the savior we think we’re serving.
I hope you saw yourself somewhere in this blog. I know I did.