Of late, I've been thinking a bit about "the church" and "Christianity". I am convinced that Christianity, by and large, is just another "religion". Sadly, she fits in quite nicely with her sisters Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, and Islam. At first I thought my thoughts were somewhat heretical, but the more thoughts I have the less heretical they seem to be. Christianity has always had an insatiable desire for death.
None of this should come as much of a surprise to us, after all, we desire death as well. The very things that will lead us to destruction are often the very things we CRAVE. Men crave manliness and think they will find it in another "her". Women desire to be desired and prostitute themselves all over the internet. Shall I quote Scripture for you to prove my point? Just go read Romans 7 or Psalm 119 if you need to be convinced.
We love what kills us: sin. Now, agreed, we have a love/hate relationship with it, but to say we love it is not too much of a stretch. Even if we don't really love sin, there are times, when we are indulged in our sin that we absolutely appear to love it. A clever theologian might argue that we don't love sin but we love the repentance that sin brings. And to this one, I might tip my hat for he is well on his way to being a great leader of the church. But enough about us...
What does the church love and crave that will always bring her death?
Legitimacy.
The church loves legitimacy and it is the poison that will kill her every time. We seek legitimacy in our grand buildings, in the number of people in attendance, in the money we have in the bank, in the size of our budget, in how "different" we are from "the world", in our political influence, in the socio-economic status of our "members"...in many, many, many different ways. We want one thing: legitimacy. We want our place at the table regardless of whose feast it might be.
It is the one thing Jesus never had.
He was an illegitimate child raised in an illegitimate city who became an illegitimate Rabbi with illegitimate disciples who died an illegitimate death. If ever there was a Savior for the illegitimate, it is Jesus. Of course, I believe he said as much. Oddly enough, he never was much of a Savior to the legitimate. And so, I wonder if he is a Savior to us.
Christianity is not the religion of Jesus. And, of course, the uneasy feeling one gets by using the words "religion" and "Jesus" in the same sentence proves my point. I don't care how loudly she shouts his name and parades him around on a cross...she is not his child. She is the child of Constantine perhaps, but not Jesus.Christianity. the illegitimate child of Christ and Constantine, is a legitimate religion...the poison has been drunk.
