Some Christian writers have recently observed that our post Christian culture has moved beyond Christianity while still “feasting on its fruits”. The theologian Tom Holland in his 542 page tome “Dominion” (yes, it’s worth the read!) makes a pretty much irrefutable case for the fact that Jesus and Christianity have vastly improved our world over the past 2000 years. (We can argue about the Crusades and the Inquisition at another time). To bolster this opinion, all we have to do is think for a moment about such things as hospitals, women’s rights, orphanages, and a host of other compassion-based changes. Toleration is Jesus’ idea. It certainly has no roots in the Greco- Roman pagan world. It’s glaringly obvious that the Gospel of Christ began to turn the world right side up. Yes, evil is real and horrific. Christ must reign, until all things are put under His feet. We the Church are His Body, by the way, so we are involved in this cosmic process. The Kingdom of God is indeed coming.
A learned Catholic priest, Fr. Dwight Longnecker, notes that materialism rules our culture. And this is not just about shopping sprees. It’s more about embracing the idea that the physical is all there is. We live, we die. If God is not there, all we are is dust in the wind. “If that’s all there is,” as Patti Page sang so wistfully, let’s just go have a good time while we can. We can see how deeply this idea informs the way that the average person lives out life, maybe never considering the question, “Is there something more, something transcendent? Was I born for more than this? Why do I feel this emptiness, this unfulfilled longing?”
Oh, how humans long for the transcendent, and here is where Jesus’ Church comes in. We have the answer. But are we living in its fullness? One writer claims that Christianity has been reduced to “moralistic therapeutic deism”, gutted of its power. It’s easy enough to comfort ourselves with our faith while laying aside its practical implications. Where is Jesus calling His Church , in our day? How might He desire to bring life to our broken world through us?
I was struck by a Facebook post by a dear friend of mine, whose mother found herself pregnant and alone at the age of 20. Her boyfriend insisted that she get rid of the baby, but she refused, and he walked out. God-sent adoptive parents took this baby girl in and loved her. She is now a beautiful wife and mother of five grown children, one of whom is adopted. My friend’s point? Stop arguing. Stop proving your point. Get out there and do something. Find your calling and jump in. The world can argue morality and theology with us until the proverbial cows come home. But…what if the Church were to move, as never before, into a demonstration of the compassionate power of Christ, under the anointing and guidance of the Holy Spirit?
It’s very difficult to argue with the goodness of God.