Ponderings of a Philalethist

I heard in college that Jesus comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comfortable.  I liked the way the quote rolled off my mind as I chewed on it.  I focused largely on the first part.  I knew that Jesus was the answer for every major question, whatever that meant, and that ultimately when Jesus was saying, as is printed on the Statue of Liberty, “Give me your tired, your poor huddled masses…” he was saying that he would put to rest the minds of the disturbed.  As the True Healer.  As the Great Counselor.

What I didn’t realize so much is the second part.  The disturbing of the comfortable.  It wasn’t until recently did I see that I had never thought about that.  I have been pretty comfortable most of my life.  For the most part I have also refused to allow Christ into my comfort zone.  That is to say, I would always invite Him into my discomfort, praying either to remove me from it, or to ease my mind, which I realize in essence, was yet another prayer to remove my discomfort from me, which is just another selfish prayer, just sounding more spiritual.

So in refusing to allow Christ into my comfort zone, I am now seeing that I don’t want Him there because largely, I know He’s going to destroy it.  Even further, Christ doesn’t really dwell in areas of comfort, at least in the areas that most of us know as comfort.  These areas, for most of us, and for me especially, are areas that we have set up for ourselves, where we look to our own strengths and independence, ignoring, and eventually forgetting our need for Him. 

So we dwell, or hide, there, and grow proud of our “systems”, and thank God for providing, when largely, we are thanking Him for our own insulation, not Him protecting us. 

And protecting us from what really?  Most of us live such easy lives, there is really nothing going on here to protect us from.  Oh sure, you could have been hit in traffic, or God spared you from the drive-by across town, or we are all healthy again, meaning that we are enjoying another month without a cold.  God forbid we have a real illness to be taken through, like leukemia, or heart disease.  We live in America people!  The land of the whiny, and home of the spoiled.  But at least we have our rights to do so, right? 

And we begin to wither.

Dying from a heart disease of a different kind.  We are disconnected.  And we lie to ourselves, listing the ways we help people along the way, justifying ourselves.  Instead of allowing Christ to justify us.

 And who are we helping?  Are we helping others feel good about themselves in their prosperity?  Sure we all excell at our jobs and that has meaning in helping “others” even if we don’t ever see them face-to-face, doesn’t it?  If someone is throwing their own pity party, we jump to support them, of course, because they are our friends, right? 

I would also submit that we do because it’s easy.  They are clean.  They are “educated”.  They are “professionals”.  They, for the most part, are also spoiled. 

I know people that are restless because they haven’t fulfilled the American Dream.  There is a pressure, and a ridiculous measure of success, in finishing a college degree and owning your own home, even growing a family.  One could argue that Jesus did finish his own version of a college degree by undergoing all his test in the wilderness.  But don’t you think what he didhas a little more value than getting an English degree or a degree in Criminal Justice? 

Even so, Jesus was homeless.  He was raised, and then he left home to be… homeless.  He even said himself, “The Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”  And he laid his head where ever he went, but a home?  Jesus had none. 

Jesus never married, and had a family.  He said that we are all his family.  We are all his mother and his brother.  Those who believe in Him and take Him at His Word. 

He planted seeds, recklessly loving everyone around Him,  and didn’t even stick around to see who Simon Peter became.  Because He saw Simon as Peter before Peter did.  Christ knew who Peter would become, because He knew that Peter cared deep down about the important things.

And we are so focused on what we are doing -  maybe that’s where the pity party came from in the first place.  Because some of us know we aren’t doing anything at all.  This dream of obtaining, this dream of owning, is really no dream at all. 

It is a dream of slaves.

Soren Kierkegaard once said, “The matter is quite simple.  The Bible is very easy to understand.  But we christians are a munch of scheming swindlers.  We pretend to be unable to understand it because we know very well that the minute we understand, we are obligated to act accordingly.  Take any words in the New Testament and forget everything except pledging yourself to act accordingly  My God, you will say, if I did that, my whole will be ruined.  How would I ever get on in the world?  Herein lies the real place of Christian scholarship.  Christian scholarship is the Church’s prodigious invention to defend itself against the Bible, to ensure that we can continue to be good christians without the Bible coming too close.  Oh, priceless scholarship, what would we do without you?  Dreadful it is to fall into the hands of the living God.  Yes, it is even dreadful to be alone with the New Testament.”

Relax – if that’s what you must do to read this. 

These barbs I am wielding are directed at myself. 

But if you are bothered by this, you might wonder why. 

As well if you are not bothered by this. 

Wonder the same.