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The problem with macho Christianity


There's a difference between manly and macho. We're all for manly Christianity - the sort that makes men into real men. (The girls love that sort of Christianity too.) That's why don't have any airy fairy wooly wet vagueness at church. Jesus wouldn't have stood for that. We seek to have clear thinking action in response to the bible.


But there's a macho version around too. It thinks it's manly. But there's a subtle - though fundamental - difference. It's not new. We saw it in John 13v37 on Sunday in Peter. He says to Jesus, "I will lay down my life for you." Macho is about being the film hero. It's about being able to handle anything. It's the thought that 'I can do it, and no-one can tell me otherwise.'


Of course, there's a kind of good side to Peter's attitude. He's wants to give everything. He's all for Jesus, and he's determined to do the right thing, whatever the cost. But, as Jesus points out, there are two things to get right first; two opposites, things Peter needs to learn:


(1) Macho Christianity forgets that we need Jesus to serve us.

It's the lesson Peter should have learnt when Jesus washed his feet. Sure, we don't want men to behave like children - except in this one respect: we need help from Jesus. There's a time to stop fighting, and trust Jesus. That's what Jesus says in 14v1: "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me."


(2) Macho Christianity forgets how weak we actually are.

Jesus replies to Peter, "Will you really lay down your life for me? Before dawn, you'll disown me three times." It always strikes me with macho old men - they still talk strong, but they're weak. It's not fitting! And morally, we're all pathetic. The best intentions are not realised. We can't live up to serving Jesus any more than Peter could. But by his grace.


Jesus is not looking for men who will save his name - as if he depends on us to fight for him. He's looking for men who trust him to save them. Are we manly enough to face reality and do that?

A life wasted


This is a way that leads to stagnation - unrealized potential, unfilled longings. It leads to a sense that I'm not living my life; the one I was supposed to live. It leads to boredom, to what Gregg Levoy calls the common cold of the soul.
To sinful patterns of behaviour that never get confronted and changed,
Abilities and gifts that never get cultivated and deployed -
Until weeks become months
And months turn into years,
And one day you're looking back on a life of
Deep intimate gut-wrenchingly honest conversations that you never had;
Great bold prayers you never prayed,
Exhilarating risks you never took,
Sacrificial gifts you never offered
Lives you never touched,
And you're sitting in a recliner with a shriveled soul,
And forgotten dreams,
And you realize there was a world of desperate need,
And a great God calling you to be part of something bigger than yourself -
You see the person you could have become but did not;
You never followed your calling...
(John Ortberg: "If you want to walk on water, you've got to get out of the boat" p34-35)

Service ... with a smile

"The man who loves his life will lose it,
while the man who hates his life in this world
will keep it for eternal life." (John 12:25)


The 'paradox of happiness' says that those who seek it don't find it, whilst some who seek other things do find it. True! But here, Jesus speaks of the greatest paradox of them all: the paradox of life. Love your life, live for yourself, serve yourself, and you'll lose out on life. But hate your life, treat your own interests as nothing as you serve Jesus and others, and you find real, everlasting life.

We saw in John 12 on Sunday, that was Jesus' pattern. He gave up his life so that others might live. But the chapter is full of examples, positive and negative: people either living for themselves or living for Jesus. The best was Lazarus' sister Mary, who extravagantly poured perfume on Jesus as an expression of utter devotion to him.

If we know Jesus as the life-giver, the one who raises the dead to life (John 11), then our response is rightly to abandon ourselves to serving him. Kill ambitions for our own glory, or comfort, or ease - before they kill us! Live to serve Jesus, whatever the cost - because that's where true life is found.

Order - not disorder - in God and the church

A quote from D Broughton Knox (The Everlasting God, p69-72) on something we touched on a few weeks ago. I know it takes a while to get your head round it. But in a world that hates the idea of authority it's a good reminder.
"There is order in the Trinity: Father, Son, Spirit. This order does not imply inferiority but is an order among equals... From the doctrine of the Trinity we learn that there is order in ultimate reality. God is a God of order. This suggests that there is also order in created life. If the order of relationships in created life is confused, the relationships will be jarred... Order does not imply subservience or inequality... The Father is greater than the Son, but not as we evaluate greatness, for according to the real values of God the servant is the greatest; subordination is not an indication of inequality but of order. There cannot be subservience where there is complete love, complete other-person-centredness. In the Trinity although there is order there is no dominance on the one hand or subservience on the other, but only a relationship of love.

"... It is especially important that the congregation, which is the outward and visible sign of Christ's church and of the heavenly life, should reflect the principle of equality and order, which is basic to reality itself, so that the rest of society may learn from the way it sees Christians ordering their lives."

The hard work of relaxing

.
"A stitch in time saves nine."
"Make hay while the sun shines."
"He who gathers crops in summer is a wise son,
but he who sleeps during harvest is a disgraceful son."
(Proverbs 10:5)


In the bible's story of creation, the seventh day never ends. It's the day when God rested from all his work. Rest is a good thing, something to look forward to and enjoy. But in order to get it and enjoy it rightly, work must be done first. There are no short cuts here; there's a time to work, and a time to rest. If you rest during the work time, you pay for it later. That's a fact of life we'd do well to keep reminding ourselves of.

It's seen in all aspects of life. A slow start in the morning can mean a late night of working. Failing to pay off the bills and debts leads to more serious problems to come. Even in family life: put in the hard work of training a baby saves a huge uphill struggle in future months; teach a toddler discipline, and the later childhood years become a greater joy by far. Life functions well when we work hard at the time to work. Rest comes when the job is done at the right time.

That is the pattern of life as God has made it. It is true in an ultimate sense too. The bible story unfolds to reveal the 'seventh day' as the ultimate rest - when God's people will enjoy being with him in the perfect new creation for ever. What joy! What rest! But now is the time to work. As Christians, we have been given the task by Jesus to 'Go and make disciples'. He never promised us an easy time now; in fact he told us to 'take up our cross daily' and follow him. Trials will come for our growth and discipline.

So let us not grow weary in our work now. Keep our eyes fixed on the rest to come, which we will enjoy for all eternity. But in the meantime, the 'crops need gathering', and the 'harvest needs bringing in.'