Posted by : Shawn in (Bible, Church)
Jesus or Jiminy?
My wife and I still receive newsletters and sermons in the mail from churches that we have previously served or attended. In yesterday’s mail was a sermon from the church Carrie attended in college. The sermon was a part of a series entitled “Sermons for a Church with a Conscience.” The sermon was a fairly good one, I guess. It wasn’t the type that really connects to me, full of many quotes and statistics, but the church is in a university setting and that type of sermon seems to work for that crowd.
What stuck in my brain, like gum to the bottom your foot when you step on a freshly discarded piece while walking barefoot on a warm summer day, was that they were promoting themselves as “a church with a conscience.” This is pretty much what I was reacting against in this post. Instead of a church with a conscience, I’d rather be part of a church with a Lord.
I’m not trying to say that the church in question doesn’t believe in Jesus as Lord. But they are sending the message that we need to appeal to our conscience to make right decisions rather than to God through the Bible, prayer or other intentional faith-based spiritual discernment. As Christians when we are faced with a tough decision we shouldn’t simply or primarily look inside ourselves and listen to our conscience. Our conscience is not God. Our conscience hasn’t been transformed into the Magic 8-Ball of God’s voice inside of us. Can God speak to us in that manner? Of course! But I’m pretty uncomfortable saying that my consience accurately reflects God’s will on a regular basis. It’s great to think that I’m so holy, learned, and redeemed that my sinful, selfish nature hasn’t infiltrated my conscious, but it just ain’t true.
Before you think I’ve jumped off the total depravity deep end, I do believe that God created us good and that sin can’t overpower God’s good creation completely. But I’ve known myself pretty well for the last 36 years, and sin has done a number on me. And as for the other six billion of you on this planet - you’re pretty fracked up too.
Christianity is a relationship with God. Not a set of beliefs or teachings we can internalize to become uber-Christians, that automatically do God’s will. A conscious is good thing to listen to, but a Christ is a whole lot better.
