Living Courageously in the World

Living Courageously in the World

On a January night in 1536 Jeronimus Kȁls and two of his friends were arrested in a pub for refusing to take part in a drinking game.  Their refusal raised the suspicion that they might be anabaptists, the radical wing of the Reformation.  They were arrested and put into prison.  They spent the next three months under withering interrogation and repeated torture to the end that they might recant of their anabaptist views.  Although they were kept in separate cells they sang Christian songs to encourage one another throughout the ordeal.   Eventually, Jeronimus and his two friends were burned at the stake in Vienna on Good Friday in 1536.  The song they sang when they were executed still survives in a now ancient Hutterite songbook.  Despite arrests and thousands of executions during that period, the movement was strong because of their devotion to Christ, their singular moral convictions and their commitment to singing.

We live in a time when the great mantra of evangelical embodiment is to “blend in” not to “stand out.” We live in a time when we are told in a thousand ways to join the drinking songs of this age so we can seamlessly relate to the world.  But, we stand at a cultural inflection point when a whole new generation of Christians must re-learn the rhythms of our public witness such that we are known for our unshakeable moral convictions, our devotion to Christ above all else, particularly the reigning political and social alignments, and our willingness to stand out as the people of light in an increasingly dark and post-Christian society.

The challenges we face today cannot be met by a business-as-usual approach.  This challenge cannot be met by a pastor-as-comfortable-career-option approach.  This challenge cannot be met by a “climb the denominational ladder” strategy.  Those days are over as we face a culture openly hostile to the Christian faith.  We must not lose our courage in this hour. We must keep proclaiming the good news of the gospel through word and deed, even though the world is topsy-turvy, calling evil good and good evil.  Wesley once said, “Vice does not lose its character by becoming fashionable.”   If you maintain your missional footing, and stay Spirit-filled, embodying shockingly distinctive moral character, and loving Christ first, then he will teach you how love this world in a way that it has never been loved.   We will win the world not through an exercise of power, but through humility, patience and love, even as we are derided and accosted for our faith in the gospel.  We must known for unshaking moral clarity, holiness of life and deep devotion to Christ.

Only a church who has learned how to live faithfully in the midst of a post-Christian world can say with the Apostle Paul, “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;  ⁹ persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 

¹⁰We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body.

Brothers and sisters, the night is far spent, the day is at hand when all things will be revealed and God will set all things right.  In the meantime, God is at work in your lives and in this world, so let’s roll up our sleeves, go out into the world, and get on with the hard work of being, as Paul says, “blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a warped and crooked generation among you who stand like stars in the sky.”  Let’s don’t join the drinking games of this world, but, instead, let’s learn to sing the deeper and more compelling songs of the New Creation.

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