Committed faith
29/06/14 07:08
I suppose that every generation has its complaints about how life goes and how other people behave. One of the things that I often hear when people are grumbling is a sort of general complaint about the lack of commitment to religion, specifically Christianity in our time. There is a kind of myth that there was a time in the history of the United States when a larger percentage of the people were more active in church life and the country had a greater majority of the population that was Christian.
There certainly have been areas of the country and moments in our history when there were large numbers of deeply committed Christians gathered in the same vicinity. The Massachusetts Bay Colony, for example, was founded by a group of people who wanted to live out their particular the of Protestant Christianity with great intention. They had little tolerance for those whose faith was different from their own. They shared a vision of the establishment of a new place where there was not distinction between religion and government and they applied the same principles to the organization of their religious life as they did to the organization of their political life. Those who had different views (and even those who read different translations of the Bible) were encouraged to leave the colony and find a home elsewhere.
The pollsters tell us that the general trend in the United States is toward more religious diversity and also towards an increasing number of people who claim no religious affiliation.
But I suspect that in reality deeply committed Christians have never really been the majority, even when the title “Christian” was claimed by the majority. Our faith, at its deepest, seems to have often been the perspective of a minority.
Of course, at its founding, Christianity was a minority religion. Jesus spent most of his ministry with small groups of people. There are stories of large crowds - at one point over 5,000 - but the majority of the stories of Jesus ministry are about the things he did with a small band of disciples, reaching out to individuals with a healing touch. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, his disciples were a distinct religious minority. They constituted a small sect in the midst of a minority religion. As Christianity began to spread through the missions of Paul and others, the churches founded tended to be small. Christians met in homes and other places. In many locations, Christianity was banned and those who practiced the faith were persecuted. In the midst of these harsh conditions, individual Christians lived their faith with purpose and meaning. It was not necessary for them to become among the majority for them to practice their faith. It seems that in every generation, from the very beginning, small numbers of people were willing to devote their entire lives to the practice of Christianity and sharing it with others.
In the time of Constantine, when Christianity became not only an approved religion in the Roman empire, but the preferred religious practice, the faith made some significant compromises as it became mainstream. Whereas early Christians were deeply committed to economic justice and principles of fair distribution of material resources, this aspect of Jesus teaching was downplayed ad Christianity became the religion of rich and powerful people who often were less than fair or kind in their dealings with those of lower economic status. Despite the teachings of the Apostolic Church about having no distinctions of class of culture - no Jew nor Greek, no slave nor free - the church maintained some very rigid distinctions as it became mainstream.
Throughout its history the church has struggled with maintaining its historic roots and commitments. It seems that every time the church becomes mainstream it makes compromises about the faith. The version of Christianity that has the most appeal to the masses is one of lower commitment, less sacrifice, and less radical change than was practiced by the saints and martyrs of old.
There are aspects of Christianity that are counter-cultural. At some point every person who practices the faith has to make decisions about how serious he or she is about the practice and how deep a commitment will be made. Those who choose a total commitment, with no thought of personal gain, living only for others, choosing poverty and deep discipline are few and far between - even when Christianity is a mainstream religion.
It has never been easy to be a deeply committed Christian. Our time is not somehow more difficult to choose that path than other moments of history. The social and governmental pressures that make a life of faith difficult are not somehow more intense today than they have been in other times. After all, we are not living under Roman persecution. This is not the time bloody crusades or forced conversions. There are fewer pressures on those who choose to live lives of committed faithfulness in this generation than has been the case in many other times. And our country is not a place of deep religious persecution. Those who choose to live lives of faith are able to do so openly in our society. They might not blend in well with the mainstream, but they are not forced by governmental authorities to practice other faiths or to engage in practices that are antithetical to their core convictions.
There has always been a cost to deeply committed faith and that cost continues in our time. Our church’s statement of faith speaks of “the costs and joys of discipleship.” We often don’t emphasize the costs when we are inviting new members to become a part of our community. We sometimes are reluctant to teach that the deeper the commitment, the higher the cost and also the deeper the joys that one finds. We are timid about asking people to invest deeply in their faith whether we are talking about asking for financial contributions or commitments of time.
The truth is that the deepest forms of our faith require deep commitment. You don’t achieve a Christian life without investing. That might not appeal to the mainstream, but it is a life worth sharing with others.
There certainly have been areas of the country and moments in our history when there were large numbers of deeply committed Christians gathered in the same vicinity. The Massachusetts Bay Colony, for example, was founded by a group of people who wanted to live out their particular the of Protestant Christianity with great intention. They had little tolerance for those whose faith was different from their own. They shared a vision of the establishment of a new place where there was not distinction between religion and government and they applied the same principles to the organization of their religious life as they did to the organization of their political life. Those who had different views (and even those who read different translations of the Bible) were encouraged to leave the colony and find a home elsewhere.
The pollsters tell us that the general trend in the United States is toward more religious diversity and also towards an increasing number of people who claim no religious affiliation.
But I suspect that in reality deeply committed Christians have never really been the majority, even when the title “Christian” was claimed by the majority. Our faith, at its deepest, seems to have often been the perspective of a minority.
Of course, at its founding, Christianity was a minority religion. Jesus spent most of his ministry with small groups of people. There are stories of large crowds - at one point over 5,000 - but the majority of the stories of Jesus ministry are about the things he did with a small band of disciples, reaching out to individuals with a healing touch. After Jesus’ death and resurrection, his disciples were a distinct religious minority. They constituted a small sect in the midst of a minority religion. As Christianity began to spread through the missions of Paul and others, the churches founded tended to be small. Christians met in homes and other places. In many locations, Christianity was banned and those who practiced the faith were persecuted. In the midst of these harsh conditions, individual Christians lived their faith with purpose and meaning. It was not necessary for them to become among the majority for them to practice their faith. It seems that in every generation, from the very beginning, small numbers of people were willing to devote their entire lives to the practice of Christianity and sharing it with others.
In the time of Constantine, when Christianity became not only an approved religion in the Roman empire, but the preferred religious practice, the faith made some significant compromises as it became mainstream. Whereas early Christians were deeply committed to economic justice and principles of fair distribution of material resources, this aspect of Jesus teaching was downplayed ad Christianity became the religion of rich and powerful people who often were less than fair or kind in their dealings with those of lower economic status. Despite the teachings of the Apostolic Church about having no distinctions of class of culture - no Jew nor Greek, no slave nor free - the church maintained some very rigid distinctions as it became mainstream.
Throughout its history the church has struggled with maintaining its historic roots and commitments. It seems that every time the church becomes mainstream it makes compromises about the faith. The version of Christianity that has the most appeal to the masses is one of lower commitment, less sacrifice, and less radical change than was practiced by the saints and martyrs of old.
There are aspects of Christianity that are counter-cultural. At some point every person who practices the faith has to make decisions about how serious he or she is about the practice and how deep a commitment will be made. Those who choose a total commitment, with no thought of personal gain, living only for others, choosing poverty and deep discipline are few and far between - even when Christianity is a mainstream religion.
It has never been easy to be a deeply committed Christian. Our time is not somehow more difficult to choose that path than other moments of history. The social and governmental pressures that make a life of faith difficult are not somehow more intense today than they have been in other times. After all, we are not living under Roman persecution. This is not the time bloody crusades or forced conversions. There are fewer pressures on those who choose to live lives of committed faithfulness in this generation than has been the case in many other times. And our country is not a place of deep religious persecution. Those who choose to live lives of faith are able to do so openly in our society. They might not blend in well with the mainstream, but they are not forced by governmental authorities to practice other faiths or to engage in practices that are antithetical to their core convictions.
There has always been a cost to deeply committed faith and that cost continues in our time. Our church’s statement of faith speaks of “the costs and joys of discipleship.” We often don’t emphasize the costs when we are inviting new members to become a part of our community. We sometimes are reluctant to teach that the deeper the commitment, the higher the cost and also the deeper the joys that one finds. We are timid about asking people to invest deeply in their faith whether we are talking about asking for financial contributions or commitments of time.
The truth is that the deepest forms of our faith require deep commitment. You don’t achieve a Christian life without investing. That might not appeal to the mainstream, but it is a life worth sharing with others.