Lunch
They will know we are Christians
by who we have lunch with
We are Christians, and what Christianity is to us depends on whether we follow Jesus or Paul. Jesus is the One who wanders through village after village of life on his way to cruel torment and death, healing this one and feeding that one and walking the extra mile with the struggling one and giving his other coat to the one who doesn’t have a coat, and teaching that the one commandment that matters is agape’ which is lovingkindness, and showing that love is not a feeling but how we treat other people. For this first kind of Christian, Christianity is WWJD-ing and D-ing it regardless, as J Did. We read about him in the gospels.
The other kind of Christianity has come to be about saving oneself into everlasting life. This appeals to human nature by playing on our fear of death. It’s less about looking after others than about being “as sure for heaven as if you were already there.” This is an outgrowth of Paul, a Jew who expected the imminent apocalyptic end of the world when Jesus would come again to overturn world order and establish God’s dominion on earth. To Paul, for one to be included in this joyful new creation one must be under the umbrella of the one true God of Israel, the faith of Jesus Christ. Selflessly, Paul travelled around telling pagans about Jesus, persuading them to accept Paul’s message and be baptized to wash away their old life. Paul wanted everyone to be included.
We probably can’t go too far with WWJD. But we pervert Christianity if we misunderstand Paul, who is not about saving yourself but about converting from the way of self to the Way of Jesus Christ. This morning’s email brought a couple of links to folks who have it right.
TW+