Revolution or Business?

    On Tuesday I was blessed to hear one of my favorite preacher and teachers, Rob Bell.  It was at a gathering of preachers, and Bell catered his message specifically to us.  Though there were many “takeaways” in his sharing, there was one phrase that dug deep into the hearts and souls of every pastor there.
    He was talking about the struggles and difficulties of the pastorate.  Naming the societal pressures that are unique to the vocation and revealing the issues of the 21st Century Church, he said, “Western church pastors are exhausted.  There are thousands of assumptions and expectations placed upon us, which is hard enough, but we signed up for a revolution only to find ourselves serving a spiritual business.”  It was that last line that got me.
    No one dared look around at each other, lest we acknowledge the deep and disturbing truth of that statement, for indeed, what is revealed in the Gospels and what is found in our roots as the People of God is a call to change the world – a revolution.  However, it is easy for the demands to work on us in such a way, that we’re just running a spiritual business.  The expectations and assumptions placed upon us by the world and the Church point toward such things, mainly because the world and much of the Church really doesn’t expect or want a revolution, because that would require risk, change, and maybe even death, or at least death of ourselves.
    In October 2001, just one month after the 9/11 attacks, I attended a Conference, and the speaker made this analogy.  Though Al-Qaida was wrongly focused and antithetical to Christ, the disciples and the early Church had some things in common with Al-Qaida – they were organized as small groups whose mission is to infiltrate the world with their ideals and their God, and they were willing to die for their faith.
    When was it that the Church lost it’s understanding of Christ’s call to change the world?  What was the impetus for such an attitude?  Volumes have been written to answer these questions, and part of the answer is societal, some is the changing nature of church, but mostly it comes down to our human nature.  We like to control, and we resist risk.  And yet, when we examine Christ’s life, we realize that He gave up control to God, trusted in God’s ways, and He risked everything, because it was worth the risk.
    TS Eliot wrote, “What did the Kingdom cost?  It cost everything.”  I would add, “...and it still does.”  The only problem with this is that we live in a society that seeks, NOT to lose but to always seek gain.  We have this desire inside us to seek for self, rather than ask God, “what do you need me to do for you today?”  We constantly adjust our lives and living, so that we won’t have to risk but instead can approach life on our terms.

    If we were to turn to the Bible, we’d see that this kind of living is the opposite of what God’s people have done.  Abraham was called to follow God, and he left everything and followed, even into a land that was foreign and dangerous.  And yet God needed that small band of folks to reveal God to those around them.
    Or what about Moses, who was raised in the royal court.  He had all the power in the world and could do anything, but God called him to follow.  Moses did, and he led the people out of Egypt into the promised land, so the oppressed would be freed and shine for all nations.
    What of the disciples, who after just a short time of training with Jesus were sent out into the countryside to heal and preach.  They were ordered not to take anything with them, but to trust and follow.  They did, and many discovered the Joy of Christ’s love.
    Then there was Paul, who actually did a 180.  He was a revolutionary zealot for the Pharisees, killing those who followed Jesus’ way, and yet when God got ahold of him, he stepped on the path of faith and never looked back.  He started a revolution that still affects us today.

    As I reflect on these stories I see a common thread, and that is that these leaders and people looked first to God, and as they did, God took care of everything else.  God changed the hearts and actions of those who opposed them.  God led them to places of protection.  God made a way where there seemed to be no way...and THEY trusted God.    Seems to me that that same common thread is often missing in the Church.  We get so caught up in the ways things have always been done or what societal understandings of the role of church should be, that we neglect to connect with the very One who is the center of it all.  When this happens, we forget that we were called to be revolutionaries, and instead we just live in our spiritual houses, placing barriers up, and looking around with blinders on.
    I wonder what would happen if we did see ourselves in such light?  Maybe we’d begin to see the Kingdom of God break through in some of the least expected places?  Maybe we’d discover who God really is and who God needs us to be?  Maybe we’d get out of our own way from hindering the Spirit’s work in the world, and be invited to let go of control, let God have the reins, and experience what the Church and world can, and is intended to, be.

What role is God calling you to play in God’s revolutionary Kingdom?  Can you let go of convention, tradition, or even ‘the Church’ as you know it, in order to reveal God’s Kingdom?