Kibbles and Bits #20
New International Version
“Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.” – I John 3:18
I’m full of it. “Full of what?” you might ask. Full of the stuff that has brought disgrace to the reputation of God over the last couple millenniums. Full of religious gibberish. I can be a bag of hot air filled with endless, empty words. Talk is cheap and I can be the biggest cheapskate on the block. I can speak with convincing conviction about complete nonsense. I can come across believable when I’m struggling to believe what I’m saying. I’m full of it, from head to toe. I can wag my tongue until in cramps.
It’s almost as if God is saying, “Shut up would ya’! Enough already with the religious rhetoric, you’re making me sick.” I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to give the world any more cause to hate Christians. We are communication Casanova’s tickling ears until they’re cherry red. We have radio stations, television networks, and bookstores. Coffee shops, concerts and conferences. We have more words plastered on t-shirts, billboards and websites than are found in the Bible. The world could give a rat’s rump about our next New York Times bestseller. They could care less about our broadcasts or podcasts. They are looking for a move, not a mouth. They’re getting ear fatigue. I don’t blame them.
They want to see some action. They want to see the hungry fed and the naked clothed. They want to see our hands dirty and our eyes bloodshot. They are dying to know whether we mean what we say when we preach about having a burden for the world. Though they’ve heard enough, they haven’t seen enough. As it says in the Gettysburg address, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” No wonder so much evaporates into thin air around the church. There’s little memory of that which costs no more than words.
It seems to me that an apology is in order from the church to the world. A personal confession of sorts asking forgiveness for the verbal abuse we’ve dished out over the years. The draft might go a little something like this, “It seems contradictory that we are using words to apologize for words, but a letter is long overdue cataloging our disgraceful conduct as a band of people claiming to represent God. For a people so avid about following the “Word made flesh”, we have done a wonderful job of turning him back into words. You must know that it was never supposed to be this way. We were supposed to carry on the legacy of living out our values instead of crafting them into clever acrostics and cheesy marquee signs. We know better than to rely on words to convey the deepest mystery of the gospel. We have traded incarnation for information and you are paying the price for our deliberate disregard of Jesus teaching to love with action and truth. We have not visited the sick, taken in the stranger, fed the hungry, hugged the unlovely, adopted the orphan or provided for the poor. We cannot blame anyone but ourselves for this gross disfigurement of God’s face in this world. For all the damage we have caused with our empty words and lofty sermons, we humbly seek your forgiveness. Though this simple letter could never make up for the carnage we have caused, I hope that it at least demonstrates our deepest sorrow for not loving you enough to act on our beliefs. I hope that I can give you more than my word when I say that we will do our best to show our love with our life from this day forward. Again, I am sorry for the hurt we have caused since the departure of Jesus. He is not to blame for the mess we’ve made.”
So much more could have been said, but I guess that would be too easy. The best apology we could make would be to start taking action. God, don’t let me find satisfaction in giving picturesque descriptions…move me into need and help me meet it.
“Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue, but with actions and in truth.” – I John 3:18
I’m full of it. “Full of what?” you might ask. Full of the stuff that has brought disgrace to the reputation of God over the last couple millenniums. Full of religious gibberish. I can be a bag of hot air filled with endless, empty words. Talk is cheap and I can be the biggest cheapskate on the block. I can speak with convincing conviction about complete nonsense. I can come across believable when I’m struggling to believe what I’m saying. I’m full of it, from head to toe. I can wag my tongue until in cramps.
It’s almost as if God is saying, “Shut up would ya’! Enough already with the religious rhetoric, you’re making me sick.” I don’t want to do this anymore. I don’t want to give the world any more cause to hate Christians. We are communication Casanova’s tickling ears until they’re cherry red. We have radio stations, television networks, and bookstores. Coffee shops, concerts and conferences. We have more words plastered on t-shirts, billboards and websites than are found in the Bible. The world could give a rat’s rump about our next New York Times bestseller. They could care less about our broadcasts or podcasts. They are looking for a move, not a mouth. They’re getting ear fatigue. I don’t blame them.
They want to see some action. They want to see the hungry fed and the naked clothed. They want to see our hands dirty and our eyes bloodshot. They are dying to know whether we mean what we say when we preach about having a burden for the world. Though they’ve heard enough, they haven’t seen enough. As it says in the Gettysburg address, “The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.” No wonder so much evaporates into thin air around the church. There’s little memory of that which costs no more than words.
It seems to me that an apology is in order from the church to the world. A personal confession of sorts asking forgiveness for the verbal abuse we’ve dished out over the years. The draft might go a little something like this, “It seems contradictory that we are using words to apologize for words, but a letter is long overdue cataloging our disgraceful conduct as a band of people claiming to represent God. For a people so avid about following the “Word made flesh”, we have done a wonderful job of turning him back into words. You must know that it was never supposed to be this way. We were supposed to carry on the legacy of living out our values instead of crafting them into clever acrostics and cheesy marquee signs. We know better than to rely on words to convey the deepest mystery of the gospel. We have traded incarnation for information and you are paying the price for our deliberate disregard of Jesus teaching to love with action and truth. We have not visited the sick, taken in the stranger, fed the hungry, hugged the unlovely, adopted the orphan or provided for the poor. We cannot blame anyone but ourselves for this gross disfigurement of God’s face in this world. For all the damage we have caused with our empty words and lofty sermons, we humbly seek your forgiveness. Though this simple letter could never make up for the carnage we have caused, I hope that it at least demonstrates our deepest sorrow for not loving you enough to act on our beliefs. I hope that I can give you more than my word when I say that we will do our best to show our love with our life from this day forward. Again, I am sorry for the hurt we have caused since the departure of Jesus. He is not to blame for the mess we’ve made.”
So much more could have been said, but I guess that would be too easy. The best apology we could make would be to start taking action. God, don’t let me find satisfaction in giving picturesque descriptions…move me into need and help me meet it.
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