3$ Worth of God

I saw this quote in a magazine recently:

"3$ Worth of God:

I would like to buy 3$ worth of God, please, not enough to explode my soul or disturb my sleep, but just enough to equal a cup of warm milk or a snooze in the sunshine. I don't want enough of him to make me love a black man or pick beets with a migrant. I want ecstasy, not transformation; I want warmth of the womb, not a new birth. I want a pound of the Eternal in a paper sack. I would like to buy $3 worth of God, please.

Wilbur Rees, Quoted in Leadership, Vol 4, No. 1"
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Yep. Don't disturb my life, God. Just keep me comfortable, and I'll pray for others that they, too, may be comfortable. But when I read the Gospels, I get a nagging feeling that Jesus' goal was not comfort.

In fact, he made people rather UNcomfortable. Which could be why he got killed.

I keep thinking of a variation on JFK's famous quote, saying, "Ask not what God can do for you, but what you can do for God." I mean, I know, I'm a pastor. I get tired of the downward trends of the mainline Christian church. I know we live in a culture that is flashy, fast, highly technological, sophisticated (in ways), etc., and the Church can't keep up. There is pressure to "get people in the door" by offering them something they'd want, as if the Church is just another stop in the WorldWide Mall. Christianity becomes another product we, people of the Church, must sell. After all, we want to be able to compete! We want to not look like fools (although Paul in the book of Corinthians pretty much assures us that that is EXACTLY what we will look like if we follow the Gospel of Jesus....)!

Someone once said recently that if Jesus saw all that was going on in his name (which he probably does, actually), he'd throw up.

I am a Christian, who happens, in this phase of my life, to be a pastor. I am a Christian first. A Christian human being. I'm still a part of the Church with all of its frustrations, bickering, money problems, scandal problems, credibility problems,... the list goes on-- because I am passionate about Jesus. And for some crazy reason, Jesus chose to use the Church as one of his vehicles to proclaim and share his Message. I think he's crazy, myself. But he didn't ask me. I think he was crazy to call an impulsive, gregarious, speak-before-he-thought fisherman like Peter to be one of his main assistants! Hello! When the going got tough, Peter bailed. Wimped out. He was always embarrassing himself. What was Jesus thinking?? Or James and John, who after witnessing all these incredible miracles and hearing the Message straight from the Messenger Himself, are concerned about their cabinet position in Jesus' new government. Or worse, yet, another version has their mother asking that they get the corner offices!!

Any of the disciples, really, don't offer much hope for leadership. Oh yeah, and Jesus calls a zealot, a tax collector, and honest, working blue collar fishermen to all work on the same team?? Was he a glutton for punishment? Or did he have a wicked sense of humor?? They all messed up. When the women told them that Jesus had risen from the dead, they're like, "yeah, right, their hormones must be acting up again."

So I guess Jesus has counted on the less than impressive since the beginning, and to me, that includes the Church throughout history: we've done some horrible things in the name of God, some of which we'd rather not talk about because it's too embarrassing. Yet, still, God wants US. God wants the Church to be vehicle of the Good News. No matter how bumbling, selfish and hormonal we get.

So I'm still here. Because I love Jesus. I wish I could tell you that you'll have everything you want if you follow him. You'll get rich (some preachers will tell you that), you'll find Mr. or Mrs. Right, you'll be concretely rewarded, and you'll get a Get Out of Hell Card Free. But the Christian life is not easy. First of all, we don't all agree. But if you look at the Orignial Twelve, well, they didn't agree either. Why do you think we have at least FOUR versions of the Gospel? And we know there are others that were lost or hidden centuries ago. Because none of us have the Whole Story. We all have bits and pieces of it, and together, it becomes more and more Whole.

Why am I a Christian when I could do something else and live more comfortably? I'm not a Christian to avoid an eternal hell-- if that were the case, I could do what I want and wait till the last minute and profess the faith. I am a Christian to help me through the hells of life on earth. I am a Christian because I feel passionately that God has a purpose for my life that goes beyond the fourscore and ten years I may live on this planet. That I am a part of something way bigger than language can encompass. I believe that God made me for the purpose of loving, giving, spreading the fragrance of God's grace and love through Jesus Christ into my corner of the world. I would do that if I was a pastor or not, it's just that God--rather aggressively, I might add-- called me to be a pastor for this time. But before I am a pastor, I am a child of God, struggling with everyone else to wrestle meaning and blessing out of the hands of God, to give me bread for the journey, that I may share with fellow travelers. And together, I hope, in our small time on this earth, I can add a little brightness to the Light that God has sent into the world. Light that will continue to grow long after I'm sitting at the Heavenly Banquet, but Light that has my own little bit of sparkle in it to carry on.

I need more than just 3$ worth of God. I need enough to sustain me every day, from here to eternity.