A Jesus Way: You Will Fail.

I’d like to end my thoughts on following a Jesus way with this:

You will fail.

You may try hard to deconstruct your tangled view of following Jesus from its web of politics, economics, legalism and personal baggage.  You will fail.

You may try hard to set a rhythm of life that facilitates a more Christ-like way.  You will fail.

You may dedicate yourself to living every moment for others, to glorifying God with every word and deed.  You may live out his teachings – feed the poor, love your neighbor, turn the other cheek – but it doesn’t matter.  You will fail.

This is the beautiful truth that separates following Christ from all philosophies and religions.  If you espouse a philosophy, whether the teachings of Socrates, Lao Tzu, DIY Punk Rock-ness, or Oprah Winfrey, it is up to you to do your best to succeed.  When you fail, you will be seen as a traitor to the cause.  If you practice a religion, your imminent failure means you’ll be trapped in the Karmic cycle or in danger of the fires of hell.

Basing your life on a Jesus way is the best way to live.  You should do your best to follow it.  But you won’t.   Churches should be groups of people that practice this way together.  But the Churches will fail.

And that’s ok.

It was the plan all along.

This earth is not eternal.  It will be replaced with a perfect one.  It will have the population and complexity of a city, yet the beauty, simplicity and presence of God that was in that first garden.  God will be with us in a whole new way, and he will wipe away our tears.  That is the Kingdom Come we pray for.

A Jesus Way is a reflection of that new earth on the present one. A pale, cloudy and broken reflection.  But the world to come is so far beyond today’s in its perfection that even our failed attempts to live it out bring peace and beauty to the world we live in.

So here’s the surprising truth we find at the end of it all: Failing at living a Jesus way is truly an incomparably beautiful way to live.

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A Jesus Way: Jesus Wants to Kill You

A Good Friday note as we approach the end of this discussion.

If you really look at the way Jesus is going, you might not want to join him. Along the way, here’s a short list of things you’ll have to do:

1. Be nice to people that try to hurt you.
2. Don’t worry about making money.
3. Give all your stuff away.  All of it.
4. Invite homeless people to your parties.
5. When someone forces a task upon you, you should do your best work.
6. Forgive people, no matter what they did to you.

These are really bad ideas that will leave you vulnerable and impoverished. No one would want to live a life like this.

Here’s the nasty truth about following a Jesus way: If you do it, it means that your life is over. Everything you want, love and dream is contingent upon how it fits into the Jesus way.  Everything considered you must die.

Jesus life led to his crucifixion.  He told his followers they would have do the same.  After his ascension, Jesus first followers asked the Apostles how to respond to Jesus.  Their answer: Immersion.

Paul, an early follower of Jesus, explained that when we are immersed we join Jesus in his death. The entrance ritual into the Jesus way is a disturbing reenactment of a drowning. Disturbing, right?

The good news is, that’s not the end of things.  Paul says if we die with him, we will also live with him.  This means a Jesus way on this earth, and the promise of a resurrected body and an incomparable world to come.  Death, and it’s little brothers like disease, famine, natural disasters, failed relationships, war, genocide, and tax season, are powerless over us.

We’ve already died, and have nothing to fear.

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A Jesus Way: Putting It All Together

Perhaps a Jesus way has less to do with politics, belief structures and institutions, and more to do with the rhythms and rules of our daily lives.

How we live has very little do with what we claim our beliefs are.  It is grounded in rhythms and practices we live out each day.  Unintentionally, our rhythms and rules become focused on solving immediate problems like hunger or lust or sleepiness, and our life goals become completely self centered.

If I were truly living a Jesus way, I think my rhythms and rules would look something like this:

Rhythm

• Daily:  Spend time with Jesus everyday. When possible, this includes reading the Bible, especially the gospels, praying and journaling. Get a good nights sleep.
• Weekly: Hang out with my church and small group.  Serve someone poorer than me.  Seek wisdom from someone wiser than me. Spend time with my neighbors.
• Monthly: Get away to somewhere quiet. Reflect on what is taking my time, money, and energy.
• Yearly: Seek a way to glorify God in the unavoidable cultural rhythms, such as school year, football season, tax day and SXSW.  Incorporate this with highlights from the liturgical year and personal holidays.

Practices

• Know people: Before you can love people, you must know them. Intentionally focus on creating relationships with family, mentors, old friends, Church, literal neighbors and individual poor people.
• Share: Set specific amounts of time, energy and money that you dedicate to others.
• Proximity: Stay close to home. Think of the time and relational depth you would get from shopping, eating, office-ing, and worshiping with those near your home.
• Stay Healthy: Recognizing bodily health is a gift from God to be used to serve him, exercise regularly and be conscious of your eating and sleeping habits.
• Fast: Temporarily sacrifice things in order to bring focus and clarity on your Jesus way.
• Be Honest: Seek counselors, mentors, friends and books that will help you take a regular personal and moral inventory.
• Sex: Approaching the opposite sex by first respecting the image of God in all people, and second, the mystery of Christ and the Church found in marriage.
• Challenge: Trying something new and see what God can teach you.
• Create: Write a blog or a book. Plant a garden. Paint a picture. Just spend some time creating instead of consuming.
• Bless: Do something thankless for someone else that no one can know about. Then praise God for it.

What have I left out?  What would you add?

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A Jesus Way: I Can’t Do This On My Own

The answer is: No.

We don’t need the Church.

Not if it’s  a religious institution that relies on politics and armies to enforce it’s rule.  Not if it’s full of legalistic hypocrites.  Not if  it’s a Civil Rights group too focused on societal ills to address personal morality.

If that’s the church, count me out.

But here’s the thing: despite my American individualistic upbringing and anti-institution punk rockness, I can’t get away from the reality that I can’t do this on my own.

However, in reading the words of Jesus, and the responses of those who knew him best, I can’t avoid two interpersonal truths.

1.  Being like Jesus is only seen in how I treat other people.  Jesus said that we should (a) love God, and (b) love people.  In other words, the best, clearest way to love God is to love people.  Therefore, in trying to follow a Jesus way, I’m going to have pour my life into others.

2.  Pouring yourself into others tears down interpersonal boundaries. When Jesus’ s friends and followers gathered together on Pentecost, crazy things started happening.  Through the power of the Holy Spirit, linguistic barriers were suddenly erased.  Then they started sharing all their stuff.  Then they started eating with people of different races and classes.  For the people that knew him best, following Jesus meant opening your home, your possessions and your daily life to others.

I have experienced community like this a few times in my life.  There have been people that opened their homes to me.  People that I spent time with every day of the week, whether or not I was fun to be around.  Meals eaten in the homes of families from another race. People who, unbidden, have given me cash so I could pay a bill.

There is no good reason to do this, to care about someone outside your clan, or give away your hard earned cash.  But it’s what Jesus did.

What I do know is I can’t do it on my own.  If this is what Church is, count me in.

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A Jesus Way: Do We Still Need Church?

Is there any good reason for the Church to still be around?

Churches have been responsible for everything from the crusades to slavery to bombing abortion clinics and spreading hatred toward homosexuals.  It’s starting to catch up with them.

In the 60s and 70s, the idea of being “spiritual, but not religious” began to find traction in the U.S.  Take Karma from the Hindus, mix it with pagan pantheism, and add a loving God loosely based on the monotheistic religions.  Mix it all up, privately affirm it so it makes you feel good. Keep it to yourself.

This isn’t really that different from the growing number (some say in the 80% range) of people in their 20s and 30s who no longer go to church, may even believe in God and think Jesus died for them, but see no need to be a part of a church.  Ask them why, they’ll make some blanket statement about “Church is full of hypocrites,” or “I don’t believe in organized religion.”

Which isn’t really different from the Christian who shows up for Church on Sunday, and spends the week quiet about their faith and joining in the godless revelry of their peers.

The growing trend is toward disorganized religion-private assertions of individual belief, having little to no affect on one’s life or community. This is for good reason, because Churches often are legalistic, full of hypocrites and make no difference in the world.

So do we still need Church? These posts, after all, are encouraging a Jesus way of life.  How does a religious institution fit?

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