Being Good at Being Good is Bad.
If I hear one more Christian say, “Well, a real Christian would…” or “But, you’re a pastor!” I’ll puke. They just don’t get it. All they understand are rules and the harsh nature of their pretend god. While, of course, there are truths that must be understood about the Christian faith, and things that are pleasing and displeasing to God, this goes far beyond that basic truth into the land of religious sightlessness.
It would be funny if it weren’t so sad that many people concentrate more on the social faux pas of a Christian man than they do the Gospel that he preaches. For instance, Tony Campolo said that when he speaks at various locations he will sometimes say, “Millions of people are dying each year and going to hell, and you don’t give a shit. What’s even more of a shame,” he continues, “is that many of you care more about the fact that I just said that word than you do that millions of people are going to go to Hell for eternity.”
People are always saying that I’ve got to live up to some standard because I’m a pastor. Bull. I’ve got to live up to a Standard because I’m a follower of Jesus. But, guess what? So do you. But, hold on, it isn’t the standard that you might be thinking of. It isn’t cussin’ drinkin’ and chewin’. That’s the silliest, most superficial, childish standard I’ve ever heard of (This will cause a fatal error in many of your systems, but some of the most profitable, spiritual conversations I’ve had with people have been over a beer—no religious games, just reality.) No, the standard is something much more serious: it is a standard of love.
I suck. I’m quite honest with myself and you guys about that. Like Paul, I do lots of junk that I don’t want to do, and what I want to do, I don’t do. That in no way excuses the myriad of sins I commit regularly, but it’s the truth. I’m morally reprehensible. I sicken myself sometimes with how much I let myself get away with. But, that’s the thing, isn’t it? That’s the problem—a wicked fixation with me. I get so worried about me and my sin that I forget you, and your pain and your precious soul, and this strange Galilean man who hung on a cross.
You may be reading this, thinking, “There he goes again, on another rant about something pointless.” You may think that it’s better to err on the side of “goodness,” and let your own perfection shine like the sun, but there is a consequence to that way of thinking, a very devastating consequence from our pride, and don’t be mistaken, it is pride that drives that overstressed focus on our sin. It is pride that creates these stereotypes that a “Real Christian” must live up to.
I was watching, Inside the Actor’s Studio with Natalie Portman recently. The host, James Lipton, toward the end of the show, always asks the same series of questions. One of those concerns what you would like God to say to you if heaven exists and you arrive there upon your death. The actress answered and then commented, “The only thing I can say about heaven is that I don’t know whether it exists or not. And I think it’s a bad concept to have, because … you wanna do good things to get into heaven, and everything becomes a selfish act. And I hate that, and I think that it creates bad patterns in your mind. And I like doing things not as a means to get into heaven, but for the sake of doing [them].”
That’s what our culture thinks “getting to heaven” consists of: being good. Where do you think they got that idea? Is it perhaps from our preoccupation with becoming perfect? Is it maybe due to our neurosis of majoring in the minors, making mountains out of mole hills or whatever other appropriate cliché you can think of to insert here?
Do you see that if it’s not by God’s grace, then it becomes about our goodness and whether we cuss or wear our hair a certain length or not? Maybe, just maybe, if we’d stop worrying so much about the petty things that don’t amount to anything worthwhile, and start focusing on that whole love concept Jesus talked about… maybe we could change the world. I’m just saying.
7:20:48 PM 
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