Social rules can't lead people to Christ

“Most Christians don’t act like Christians.”  That sounds like an oxymoron right?  Unfortunately most people would agree with that statement.  This week in Bible we watched a movie called Lord Save Me from Your Followers.  It was a very interesting movie.  Basically this man dressed up in a white suit with all sorts of “chirstiny” bumper stickers on.  He walked around the country and tried to start conversations with people.

                My first reaction to this was, well, actually I was a little too blown away to have a reaction.  All I could focus on was the fact that this man was breaking pretty much every social rule that I had ever thought of.  He was talking to random strangers about topics that could potentially start a fight, he was interrupting people’s conversations to ask them to look at his clothes and… it was working.

                Rules are rules for a reason.  Rules are designed to help and protect you.  They have a purpose.  All of the rules in the Bible are designed to help lead people closer to Christ by leading them away from temptation.  This is what caused me to wonder why a man who was breaking all of these social rules could lead people to Christ.  And that is when the most brilliant and obvious idea hit me.  He wasn’t breaking the Bibles rules he was breaking the social norm rules.

                Jesus didn’t follow the social rules either.  He ate with tax collectors (aka traitors) and he was friends with women of ill repute.  Jesus loved these people; he would go up to them and talk to them.  It didn’t matter what they had done (and believe me he knew what they had done) he loved them anyway.

                So if Jesus broke the social rules why was I so shocked that this man would do what he did?  The answer is unfortunately that I had started to believe the world’s version of right and wrong instead of God’s.

                The man in the white suit was really very inspiring.  He went to Gay Pride week and set up a confession both- sort of.  You see it was a confession both but he confessed and everyone else listened.  This had such an impact.  People who had always hated Christians said I forgive you.  This man inspired people who were hated by Christians to act more Christ like than the Christians did.  Does that last sentence sound messed up?  It should because it is.

                Christians have somehow gotten it into their heads that it if you want to minister to people you must first condemn them and then make sure that you only speak to them about things that are socially appropriate.  How did we get this?

                The man on this movie wasn’t perfect.  There was some theology that I didn’t agree with, but ultimately he had a really good point.  Christ didn’t reach out to people by condemning them.  He reached out by loving and serving them.  To serve someone you are put in a lower position than them and that can be very uncomfortable.  But that is the point.  To serve someone means you get out of your comfort zone and get into theirs.  And if that means talking about things in a way that you normally wouldn’t, go for it.

                The point of this blog isn’t to say that Christians aren’t prefect, because we know that.  The point of this blog is to remind Christians that we are called to bring others to Christ.  And we can only do that through love and service, not condemnation and social rules.