A week or so back at the start of one of our Lenten articles my dear friend and colleague, Frank, announced that he is a hypocrite. Right now I’d like to put the record straight and affirm that Frank is not only a hypocrite but a compromised and flawed individual who frequently fails to live out the commands given to us by Jesus. There again so am I and so are 99.9% of all those who call themselves Christian.
The most frequent and valid criticism of Christians is that we are no different to non Christians – we’re just as greedy and materialistic, possibly more likely to be judgmental, intolerant and unloving. Our churches which should be hospitals for the needy in body and soul are too often exclusive clubs where we visit our safe, conservative God on Sundays – like an elderly relative in a home – and try not to let him impinge on the rest of our week.
We are aware of the teachings of Jesus but we ignore the more challenging, uncomfortable ones, taking our Christianity to the point where it begins to cut into our comfortable lifestyle but no further. We paddle around in the shallows of faith and never dare to go into the deep water – where out of our depth, at the mercy of the currents, we would have to rely completely on God.
So is Christianity impossible? Yes it’s impossible for weak, self-centered, fallible human beings to match up to example of Jesus. A few people come close. At a conference a couple of years back I met Shane Claibourne – author of Irresistible Revolution and Jesus for President. Shane would be one of the most Christ like people I’ve ever met, intelligent, funny, gentle, loving, courageous and somewhat outrageous. He’s part of an urban community called the Simple Way located in the heart of a Philadelphia slum.
At the same conference I met Jackie Pullinger, an amazing lady who’s worked in the worst slums of Hong Kong for over 40 years. Jackie’s like a mixture of mother Teresa and actress Judi Dench at her most fierce… not someone I would want to cross but so filled with faith that the miraculous is part of her everyday life.
There are certainly saints around, living out their faith to an alarming degree. Of course they’re not perfect people either but they are taking the demands of Jesus seriously.
Most of us aren’t saints – we don’t even come close. Luckily we’re not required to be perfect, we’re just expected to try and I guess Lent is about trying a bit harder.
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