Proud to Be A Christian?
I have a friend named Jenn. I am tempted to be proud to be called one her best friends. Jenn is cool. She is very funny, she is well-known, and she is beloved by anyone privileged enough to know her well. But I cannot be proud to be associated with Jenn. I’ve done nothing to deserve her friendship. She loves me and graces me with her life, and I am blessed and grateful. But not proud. Is this questionable to you? I cannot change my opinion on this subject, because inasmuch as I may be proud to be associated with one cool person, can I equally make an argument to be ashamed that I am not associated with another person whom I find cool but who has no desire to be my friend? If you are a good friend of mine, you would protest now: Catherine, you cannot get down on yourself because somebody does not want to be your friend! You cannot base your identity, good or bad, on those who love you. You are who you are because of Christ in you, only! So I pose this question: How is it that we may be proud that we are Christians? How is it that I may be proud to be associated with the name of Christ when I have done nothing to deserve it, and in fact have done everything in my nature to oppose this name, without His grace? How can I be proud when even Christ Himself was not proud to be God? "For He considered equality with God something not to be grasped....." I am grateful, ridiculously joyful, eternally wondrous, but not proud. I bear His name with joy and courage, I hope, given by Himself, but not pride. So am I just picking on words? When we, as one body in Christ, my church specifically, declare in a standing ovation and to thunderous applause that we are proud to be Christians, proud to be on the side fighting the war “literally good against evil," do we REALLY mean that we are proud? Yeah, I think we do. At the very least, it is not a spirit of humility. And I am so grieved. I cannot understand how a group of individuals whom I KNOW love Christ and are devoted to knowing Him can define the relationship between US and THEM as GOOD versus EVIL. I was evil only yesterday, before my identity was changed and I became the righteousness of God. And now I have a vision, similar to Paul’s dream of the man from Madagascar. My vision is of millions of people whose skin color is different than mine, who dress differently than I do, and whose culture I can never begin to understand, standing thronged together, with eyes pleading that I come share love and the grief of sin and the joy of Christ instead of distant pride that I am separated from their evil existence. I love my church. I love the people in my church and am humbled by a multitude of their lives. But I am desperately desperately sad that we are so quick to stand and cheer our allegiance to what we claim to be right instead of fall to our knees sobbing in mediation for those whose lives are separated from ours by a huge chasm of seas. I need prayer if you are reading this. I cannot stand in the pulpit and plead with my church with my tears, and I will not write an outraged letter to my pastor. So what is my voice? This grief in my soul is only possible by God’s whispering, and I know it is for a purpose. Should I join my church’s mission board, made up of only 65 years and older saints? Maybe. I don’t know. The last thing I want to do is turn this into a sneaky personal campaign to put missions on the map at my church. Should I pray hard for the body to be directed with a heart of Christ? Most definitely. Prayer is definitely in order. God of mercy, guard me from the weariness of cynicism and give me wisdom and let Christ revolutionize my body's hearts.
posted by Catherine at Wednesday, January 04, 2006
13 Comments:
amen.
3:06 AM
very well put. been pondering the words "proud to be a Christian" for some time now and you eloquently put my thoughts into words. =)
4:00 PM
I think you should join the church's mission board. Working with 65 and older saints sounds like an amazing opportunity. They have experienced a lot more than us younger people- including more years of God's grace and wisdom.
Thanks for the post, it's always good to know what other people are thinking about issues like this one. I have a different view, but that's okay. I am so proud to be a Christian- proud and humbled at the same time. I just want to take a minute to say that it is very hard to be a Christian in this world. The persecution that I have faced- even this week at work- can be so overwhelming.
I have worked at a very dark place where a lot of these church members work now. They have had a hard week in God's army. During the week, I feel like a soldier in Christ's army who is all alone with no one to understand why I am the way I am. On Sunday morning, one of the best things is standing next to another soldier who has experienced the grace of Jesus and is just as weary as I am. There is strength in numbers and God's army needs to grow, so when the soldiers cheer to rally for their week ahead, I will be proud to call myself a Christian.
There are two parts to salvation- Christ's grace and my acceptance of it. I will be proud of the one tiny thing I did in the grand scheme of salvation- I said yes to the narrow road. I said I will follow and that's it. I will not claim to be responsible for any other part of it, but I will always be proud to call myself a Christian. Most importantly, I will be proud to even be associated with the King of Kings.
There are also things that I do to accept that grace on a daily basis. God wants me to grow in Him, but I must go to church and get involved and spend time with Him and share about Him with others to do it. In life, there's always God's grace and the steps we take to walk in it and accept it.
Cat, truly, thanks for your thoughts. It really made me think about a lot.
Please don't write a letter. There is no other profession that is more difficult than the ministry. Ministers bear the burdens of the saints, they are the imperfect teachers of the perfect scriptures, and most importantly, in their daily occupation as messengers of the gospel, eternity is always at stake.
7:03 AM
Matthew is correcting me, and he's right. I'm proud that God chose me to accept Him. I'm proud that by His grace, he not only saved me but made me accept Him. It's grace that is through faith that only comes because of grace. I'm also proud to be married to Matt.
7:36 AM
Cat,
Was this during the message on Sunday, or another part of the service? I want to hear what was said. If it was during the message, I think I can listen online. Thanks.
7:43 AM
Christie, don't worry, the line about writing a letter to the pastor was said only to emphasize that I WOULDN'T do such a thing. Sorry for the misunderstanding and thanks for your thoughts. I still cannot agree to say that I am proud that God chose to save me. Whether you believe in the "elect" or not (not really sure how someone wouldn't, to be honest), how can accepting a gift given DESPITE everything you have done to NOT deserve it bring you any measure of pride? Here's the thing; I didn't post this blog to harp on the word "proud" although it is the central theme, I suppose. My point with the word is that if you could have felt the spirit of our church that day, it WAS a spirit of pride in the sense that WE who are of God are superior to THEY who are evil and without light. Is it true that we are blessed? Yes. Is it true that God has seen fit thus far to reveal Himself to us and bring us to salvation and they are still in the dark? Yes! This is truth and truth is beautiful and shows the way! But what I am grieving over is the large emphasis on pride over love. Pride may have a place, I don't know. But love, oh LOVE, it has such a greater greater place. In complete humility Christ's love nailed Him for my desperation. In complete authority and power, love resurrected Him and exercised His authority over evil. But pride and superiority over people? Never. I just don't ever see it. And I think that the pride our church exhibits blinds us to the greater power of love and hope and pleading for salvation for those yet unreached. Show me where Christ ever emphasized the importance of politics or show me where He repeatedly labeled anyone evil except religious hypocrites and then I'll see the importance of declaring such things from a pulpit to rouse people's emotions and feel like they are part of something "right." I need my church, and I agree, Christie, that it is so necessary and refreshing to join with those who struggle as a soldier during the week just like I do. We are Christ's. Isn't that enough? Gray areas are gray and often untouched scripturally, so don't use a personal opinion on them declared with emotional gusto to bring a church to its feet.
9:00 AM
Catherine,
I still want to know if it was during the actual "sermon" or not, so that when the audio file is posted on the church website, I can hear exactly the words and in what context it was said.
Also, I think you should be careful - you said you don't want to write a letter. But you're posting rather strongly in a public forum that may or may not be read by our pastor. So, all these people can read what amounts to a relatively serious questioning of his motives, but he may or may not see it.
You can remove posts if you change your mind (your choice, though).
1:28 PM
Okay, let me try to clarify one more time. This has NOTHING to do with our pastor! He wasn't even there! What I am referring to (and the point was not the place OR the message but the church's heart) is a traveling gospel trio that came in. Apparently in my trying to emphasize that I love my pastoral leadership and would do nothing that would appear like a personal attack, I am confusing you. If you want, I'll tell you the specifics of the performance, but I just left it out publicly because I didn't want to muddle the point of my conversation. I'm very aware of the fact that this a public blog; there is absolutely no personal insinuation here on my part and if anyone takes anything to heart on a one-on-one level then they are simply misleading themself. Sorry for the continued confusion, I can see where I wasn't clear enough. Please don't take the message as the point. My response was to the reaction. I simply explained the circumstances to give understanding to the reaction. Anyhow. If it's that confusing to you please don't feel the need to respond, I don't want to frustrate you, but I'm pretty sure I've fully explained it as well as I'm able.
4:44 PM
Wow - yeah, the whole time when you said "from the pulpit" I thought you meant during Troy's preaching. Thanks for the clarification.
3:50 AM
Proud to be a Christian? If by proud, we mean unashamed; then I would answer maybe. If be proud we mean a self-righteous idea or mentality that sets me apart from everyone else and puts me on a higher level...an arrogance..., then i would pray that would never be part of my life. I am proud...unashamed to be redeemed, to be saved, to have been bought by God...to be His. But there are times that I am not proud (unashamed) to be labelled and identified with the modern Christian movement...to be identified with those who I believe bring an unthinking, undiscerning, and arrogant attitude to the name of Christ. We should be very clear that America is not God's nation. The U.S.A. is not Christ's ambassador to the world...the church is. Why have we allowed that idea to become confused and clouded in our church. God has set up the governments and leaders...He controls them and He will dispose of them when He chooses. The war in Iraq (which I believe was referred to as good vs evil on Sunday) is not an issue of good verse evil. THis is not a religious war...this is not a war of the church or of Jesus Christ...it is a war of the United States government (along with a few others); and we as a church should not adopt this war as our own (although it is ours as Americans). To be honest I am for the war in Iraq. I am glad that the government went in and removed their government. But I do not think that the church should take ownership or credit in this. How are we as American believers to take the gospel to that part of the world if we continue to claim this war as our own? To claim this war as good vs evil sound very similar to the Crusades and Muslim jihad...which was religious agenda and fervor forced upon others by the sword. That is not the way of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. The church does not spread through physical warfare, but by the movement of God in the hearts of men. So am I proud and unashamed to be a Christian? I am unashamed to belong to Christ, but I would rather not be identified with those who use the name of Christianity apart from Who it truly represents.
7:32 AM
Wow. You guys go from 0 to 60, like, right now!
Cat, when I heard him say that I KNEW it would bug you. (By the way, I did not stand up, either).
Fayez, I think you come much closer to the reality of what was meant - being proud of being a Christian should mean that I am unashamed and don't care what anybody else thinks or believes. I would question the salvation of anyone who claimed the other kind of pride - sounds like works to me! The only way I can ever imagine saying such words would be if someone was severely taunting me for being a Christian; you know questioning my judgement or intelligence.
Cat, the short story is that I agree with your underlying issue: our church does the standing 'O' for things like that (he was actually introducing a patriotic song and recognized veterans, etc. - "Proud to Be an American"), but it is really hard to get people to step up when it comes to actually impacting our community. (That may be an over-statement ... I hope it is, and I expect it to get better).
I am pretty convinced that the pastor is going to change the focus, starting tomorrow, actually!
Fayez, I agree with your comments about the Iraq war. It is not and should not be a 'Christian' war (but unfortunately, probably is perceived as such by many Middle-East Muslims and a lot of the rest of the world).
Just remember that some visiting guy coming in and saying such stuff is not the same thing as our church body having such a corporate belief. You DID NOT hear the pastor say such a thing, and I don't believe you ever will, at least not this one! I guarantee you that there are MANY members (if not most) who would agree with you guys, including me.
And Cat, I AM proud of your heart and passion for Christ and the world ... not because I take credit for it, but because I am associated with you and get to call you daughter.
-DEC-
10:45 AM
Thanks, Fayez. I feel like you exactly summed up what I was trying to say, but somehow it was clearer and better (and apparently, my dad thinks so too... :) jk dad). Thank you too, Dad. At risk of sounding hypocritcal, I too am ridiculously proud to be your daughter and Matthew's sister, etc., if we defining proud as "grateful to be associated with", which I know that we are. And I was so blessed at the services yesterday. And by the way, Christie, I told Matthew but I don't think I told you yet, thank you so much for the Audrey Hepburn collection, I loved it! (I was the envy of all the roommates.... excluding Byron.)
2:16 AM
Catherina My friend, I am not proud but grateful to be your friend. I want to tell you what a great post this is first off. Then I wish I could contribute something from the overwhelming amount of feelings and thoughts this discussion stirrs in me.
There are thoughts about: the weight and meaning of words, my legitimate lack of trust for some of the subliminal poisons that I have heard taught, and my tendency to be cynical rather than critical with my thinking.
Above all these things swirling around in my head I want to voice my own grief for all the words that I say in a day without thought. I know that I can not talk without sinning. It seems that I can only see this in hindsight. I never know when something stupid is going to exit my mouth. This never makes it ok to press on communicating with no message that has weight or worth.
I just want to acknowledge my own frailty before I dive into criticise someone else. I must lower myself as the dust that anyone would hear what I want to say.
I will never be proud to be a christian. Honored, unashamed, but not proud.
There is a difference and It does matter. "Just Symantics" doesnt cut it anymore. I am so tired of listening to things that sound so different than the God that I know and Love, the God of the Bible...the Kingdom that He describes the relationship that it describes, and then taking it on myself to twist and shape what someone else is saying so that it fits my worldview. So many times I see myself with my own hesitations about something that is being said and I just try to make it so that I misunderstand it so I don't really have to disagree.
If anything this is a reminder that words are not fluffy things. They have meaning... they influence and shape the way we think and see God.
I wish our church could read your post. I would hope for teachable hearts and a willingness to look at the conclusions to all of the things that they clap for. I think some would be suprised to know how much words matter to our generation. Some might even be shocked that we care. You are a part of the Body of Christ and there should always be hope for change.
Thanks for making me think about it Cathrinena my Friend.
7:03 PM
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