Here i am

It's all about me

It's all about me

Oh yeah, me, myself and I

It's all about me

It's all about me (You know it's all about me)

It's all about me me me me me

Everybody knows that it's all about me

Chelsea Staub

“We keep on being told that religion, whatever its imperfections, at least instills morality. On every side, there is conclusive evidence that the contrary is the case and that faith causes people to be more mean, more selfish, and perhaps above all, more stupid.”

 Christopher Hitchens

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Power, Love

Dominion, Service

Blessing, Curse

Self Centered, Other Centered

I have been obsessed with dichotomies lately

And as I have watched the Evangelical church in America

And read religious meme after religious meme

And listened to the patter of talking points

That emerge thoughtlessly from the mouths of so many Christians

I have become convince that for many of us

Faith is all about self

My self

Me, myself, and I

When people talk about faith

We hear about being saved, rescued from the clutches of a retributive God

We hear about how wonderful it is when a person dies “in the faith”

Because they will “go to heaven”

And how sad it is when a person did not “know the Lord’

Because they will be in torment for all eternity

Faith is fire insurance

It is that simple

Turn or Burn

When I read the memes it is all about how

As a person of faith

God is on “my side”

Blessing me.  Giving me goodies

Making my life rich and wonderful

(all, perhaps, because I have somehow earned it by joining the club)

But I know if I’m honest it doesn’t work like that

Read Job, or the Psalms

Read the words of Jesus, who insists that the rain falls on the just and the unjust

I am surrounded by self centered faith

Where I am part of the inner circle

I am blessed

I am rescued

I am better

I am righteous

And perhaps there are elements of truth in all of that

Perhaps

But it seems to me that something is missing

What is missing is God

What is missing is service

What is missing is the radical demands of the Gospel

Which call us to divest rather than invest

Give rather than accumulate

Love rather than hate

Be vulnerable rather than defensive

Humble rather than arrogant

Servants rather than rulers

If my faith centers around me

I think I have missed the point

I think faith should center on God

On loving God

Connecting to God

Being loved by God

Being transformed by God

Or at least “re-created’ in to what I was designed to be

Faith should center on responding to the divine presence with in me

And that should move my focus

Outside my self

To others

Particularly to those other

Who are most vulnerable

My faith should not make me smug

Or arrogant

Or entitled and privileged

It should not give me permission to control

Or coerce

It should make me giving

And forgiving

Compassionate

Humble

It should make me a servant

I always think of Jesus who

but emptied himself,     taking the form of a slave, (Phil. 2:7)

What a contrast to Joel Osteen, and Kenneth Copeland

It is scary different

Here is my challenge to myself

To pay attention to how often

I invoke faith, on my own behalf

How often I talk about faith in terms of what God is doing

(or in terms of what I hope God will do)

For me

Me, me, me

And then to seek

To simply turn to God

And say, as so many saints and sinners have said in the past

Here I am

“I am no longer my own, but thine.

Put me to what thou wilt, rank me with whom thou wilt.

Put me to doing, put me to suffering.

Let me be employed by thee or laid aside for thee,

exalted for thee or brought low for thee.

Let me be full, let me be empty.

Let me have all things, let me have nothing.

I freely and heartily yield all things

to thy pleasure and disposal.

And now, O glorious and blessed God,

Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,

thou art mine, and I am thine. So be it.

And the covenant which I have made on earth,

let it be ratified in heaven. Amen.” (Weslyan  Covenant Prayer)