Sanitized Religion

(Kathy, you'll recognize this...sorry!!) I recently read an article by David P. Gushee regarding the “requirements” for salvation, which was sent to me by a friend. The article appeared in a recent issue of Christianity Today. I am struck by the idea of Jesus himself teaching what one must do to inherit eternal life. I never really thought of that before, possibly because it has become so ingrained in my mind that salvation and all the attendant scriptures were in the Bible FOLLOWING Acts chapter 1, rather than in the gospels, which we conveniently dismiss by saying that the time of the gospels was under the old covenant.
Jesus, however, was not bound by the constraints of time in his thoughts and mind. He lived under the old covenant and kept the law in a three-dimensional world. But in his mind, he knew of the coming kingdom, the apostles, the church, and all that went with those things. I also think that Jesus knew that his words would be saved for all to read in the future. I can’t imagine that, knowing all of this, he would say something during his ministry that wouldn’t be beneficial for people of the new covenant age.
While I agree that we need to look at the rest of the New Testament and see how the church started and grew, and that we need to emulate the good things we find there, the gospel writings have to have relevance for us today in more areas than just lessons learned from parables. We have ignored the gospel writings in our teaching over the years, in part because we’ve elevated the writings of the apostles above the gospels, and in part because some of the teaching in the gospels is hard for us…too hard for us.

Love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength.
Love your neighbor as you love yourself.
Obey God in all that he says (moral commands).
Drop everything, leave it behind, and be a disciple of Jesus.

Just look at the above list. Aren’t those things much harder to do than the list of things below that I’ve gleaned from 30-some years in a Restoration church?

If you sing in church, sing acappella.
Take up a collection every Sunday.
Come to church every week.
Don’t speak in tongues or clap.

I fear we have sanitized and “dumbed down” Christianity and discipleship to the point that it bears little resemblance to the radical lifestyle Jesus called his disciples to back in the first century. Christianity isn’t something we do…it’s something we are. Discipleship doesn’t consist of doing this mission trip and making that donation…it consists of a 24-7 continual relationship with the one who called us.
What a change from the Christianity that we know. No wonder the world looks at most of Christendom and wonders why. No wonder the world continues to shrink down Jesus of Nazareth into someone who was maybe a good teacher, but that’s it. No wonder even Christians don’t have a clue what it means to be a disciple. No wonder Christianity has become impotent and irrelevant in many places. It's time for a change. It's time to fish or cut bait. It's time to get off the fence and repeat the message of Joshua, "Choose this day whom you will serve...but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."