The season of Lent is almost upon us and will officially begin tomorrow, on Ash Wednesday. “Remember that you are dust and to dust you shall return,” is the phrase that will be used countless times as ashes are place on the penitents’ foreheads. The forty days are a time of self-reflection, prayer, the study of God’s word and coming to terms with how much we get wrong.
Increasingly I have come to terms with where much of what passes for Christianity in our country is missing the mark. Recently a preacher reminded me that nowhere in the Bible is there found a “sinner’s prayer.” That is not only true but most Christians I know would not know that. Christian piety for many is simply getting one’s self right with God so that one can go to heaven. How one lives one’s life is not a as significant as getting the salvation box checked. The implication of such theology is profound.
NT Wright, the great Anglican Biblical scholar, points out that the vocation of a Christian is NOT to be morally superior than others. When that is the object of a Christian life, then it is easy to sit on the sidelines and point out the moral inadequacies of others. Our task isn’t to do “better than others” and thereby earning one’s away into heaven. Carried to a logical end, this attitude leads to a disengagement with the world. Haven’t you seen this in the way that Global Climate change has been summarily dismissed by many evangelicals? Haven’t you seen this in the way that some evangelical Christians claim to be “pro-life” but rail against any social program that would protect the health of children or provide a way out of the systemic cycle of poverty? Pro-life, in my opinion, is both against abortion but also in favor of supporting the most innocent and vulnerable after they arrive from the womb. The logical inconsistency of many makes me scratch my head.
Instead, the vocation of a Christian is to be an “image bearer of Christ” in the world (whatever community in which you are a part). Matthew 25:31ff makes it clear that Jesus demands that we engage with the physical needs of our world. When we do, we have ministered to him. When we don’t we have refused to minister to him. To be the image bearer of Christ in the world is to take Jesus heart, concern and grief over the suffering all around us, into the very core of such suffering.
I am not sure I always got this. It’s too demanding. But it’s very biblical. The other day I watched a new series on Netflix hosted by David Letterman. The series is called “My Next Guest,” and I watched and listened to Letterman interview George Clooney. Clooney and his wife Amal have been actively involved in humanitarian concerns, even though they don’t need to. Their involvement is more that photo ops and they, whether or not they know it, are living into the vocation where all Christians are called. But I suspect many “evangelical” (I put the word in quotes because there is nothing evangelical about it) Christians would reject them as Hollywood liberals with some sort of secular agenda. For me, I found myself praying for forgiveness that I haven’t engaged the world as I have been called.
So this Ash Wednesday, I will make my confession that I am “dust and to dust I shall return.” But I will also pray that I have been deaf to my call to enter into the suffering of this world as Jesus has called me. It’s challenging but if we listen carefully and pray the solemn collects thoughtfully, we have no other option.