REAL Christianity is hard ball

As I said in my last blog post, one of the good things about being retired is being able to listen to other peoples' sermons, especially the good ones (sermons that is)! This morning the vicar was preaching on Galatians 5.13-26 and like any good preacher, his sermon drew me back to reflect upon my own spiritual journey. Lately I've been thinking, as many times in the past, that Christianity is TOO hard. I'll have to say what I mean by that.

In this reading St. Paul talks about the 'fruit of the Spirit' as opposed to the 'desires of the flesh'. The popular view is that the 'desires of the flesh' is what the Church waves its finger at saying 'no, no, no - naughty'; and the 'fruit of the Spirit' is what being 'good' is all about and what the Church pats you on the back for showing. But we all know that being 'good' is not all that easy and indulging in the 'desires of the flesh' is much more pleasurable. Or so it seems, if we don't think too much about the consequences. The 'fruit of the Spirit' demands hard work, but we can fall into the 'desires of the flesh' much more easily and comfortably. So the latter tends to win us over most of the time. St. Paul knew about this and wrote about his own struggle with it. And every Christian who's more than Christian in name only knows all about their own personal struggle. But the thing is, Christianity is not at all about trying to be 'good' rather than 'bad'.

I can't recall from the gospels, Jesus ever telling anybody that they had to be 'good'. He definitely said 'be perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect'. Which is something rather different. So the sooner we ditch the idea of Christianity involving being good or bad, the better. We've got to have a much more informed and mature idea of what Jesus was calling us to be and become.

The Temptation of Christ

Jesus put everything in terms of the Kingdom of God, one of the essential threads of which is about fulfilling and creative, life giving and enhancing, relationships with others, self and God. Read the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5 to 7) and you'll soon get the idea. Jesus sent the Holy Spirit from God the Father to help us in this endeavour. We believe He was the best example of this endeavour. He lived it out in His humanity through the Holy Spirit that came on Him at His baptism. And the same is true for all who have been baptised in His name, even those we would label as the 'bad' ones. All this was tested out for Jesus during the time, immediately after His baptism, that he spent in the wilderness being tempted by the devil. The 'devil' was constantly 'saying' to Him then, "'fruit of the Spirit' or 'desires of the flesh', you choose". That's not how the Temptation narrative reads but it's essentially what it's about. The 'fruit of the Spirit, as St. Paul put it is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self control, i.e. all that makes for fulfilling, creative, life giving and enhancing relationships. And we know the way Jesus went.

Christian discipleship, being a follower of Christ is about becoming like Christ himself. That is, choosing and following that fulfilling, creative, life giving and life enhancing way rather than choosing the 'desires of the flesh' which essentially only serves the ego, the self. It's total self concern and self absorption, to the exclusion of everything and everybody else. But, and this is a big BUT, even with the help of the Holy Spirit, following that way that bears the fruit of the spirit is very difficult indeed. The hardship begins the moment we make the choice because it demands a change in us. And sometimes it feels TOO hard. In making the change we experience loss, and grief, sometimes in the extreme. And it's this that's laid me low so many times, asking myself how I can carry on or making me feel not worthy to be called 'Christian'.

But this morning, the truth of it was laid out in front of me in the text the vicar was preaching on. St. Paul says in verse 24 'And those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.' And in the very next verse he reminds us, literally, that it's not a competition! St. Paul was so perceptive. Choosing the life giving way over the sterile, self absorbed and in some cases death dealing way is, St. Paul says, a kind of crucifixion. And what comes after crucifixion? Resurrection. To give up a death dealing way for a life giving way must lead, in the end to joy. And the Psalmist has God saying somewhere I recall, 'enter into the joy of the Lord.' And I remember then that it's a process, sometimes a very long, even life long process to be journeyed through at your own pace, dealing always with the sense of grief and loss but with the hope and realization and experience from time to time of the promised joy.

So the true Christian way isn't at all a 'soft' way. It's not about some easy syrupy 'goodness' as it's so often portrayed by those who really don't know. True Christianity is real hard ball. It's not at all for the feint hearted. Maybe that's why there's so few, trying to be a faithful few.