Marketing Jesus in Ukraine
Sep 30th, 2009 by John
Peter had to meet Cornelius. Not just so Cornelius could hear the message of salvation in Jesus, but so Peter could be liberated from the enculturation of his faith (Acts 10). Cornelius receives Peter with expectant joy. Peter arrives with spiritual trepidation.
I like being in Ukraine because I am immersed for a time in a different culture. This experience in Ukraine makes me sensitive to the culture of another new country called “the kingdom of God.” The kingdom of God is not a country with borders, but it is a new culture nonetheless. Just as in Ukraine you don’t prop your feet up on a chair, you stand when you pray, you don’t put your hands behind your back as if “at ease” in an Orthodox church, so in the kingdom of God you learn new ways of life.
The USAmerican tragedy is that we have made Christianity a teaching, a doctrinal set of biblically-based precepts. Jesus purposely did not choose scribes and Pharisees because for those people, the faith was text, accurately understood text. A way of life was conscripted by religious, meticulous regulations. You lived by a ritual check list, not by a compelling, consuming vision. Jesus chose people living real lives in their real culture with its real potentials and problems. Jesus’ invitation into the kingdom of God and his recruitment of the disciples aimed at infecting this planet with a new way of life. He wasn’t big on the latest edition of the New International Torah (The NIT as in nit-picky). “Come, follow me and I will train you in kingdom customs, kingdom language, kingdom values and kingdom vision.” He did not hand them a study guide with Bible verses and with fill-in-the-blank statements. Nor did he produce and market “The Fisherman’s Bible” for Andrew and Peter, James and John. He gave them his life, his ways, his heart.
We need to admit it and then repent: we are welded to the American way of life. We are so saturated with it that we truly don’t relate to those to whom the Bible is addressed and for whom the kingdom of God has come. Jesus is a nice piece of spiritual furniture in our spacious, comsumerist souls and we point him out as an convenient and pretty ornament once in a while. Should he firmly declare, “Drop everything and follow Me!” we more likely than not would respond, “You’ve got to be kidding me.” Christ is our spiritual knick-knack. He is the embroidery on the wall of our soul, the butler to our religious needs. Lord? He is Lord. I don’t think so.
We can take religion seriously and argue until we’re blue in the face about Bible versions, theological constructs, and forms of church. In Ukraine, Jesus is taken seriously. What Jesus says seems to ring deeply true here. Ukraine Christians are not perfect by any stretch, nor are the churches here making headlines. Yet, there is a committed passion for Jesus Christ in the hearts of my Ukrainian friends that both rebukes and recruits me.
I am sick that so much in the American church is idolized here. Whole groups are trying to market Jesus in Ukraine. God save Ukraine from the commercialized Christ.
Popularity: 2% [?]
God save us all from the commercialized Christ.
John,
I truly liked this post, but especially your thoughts:
The USAmerican tragedy is that we have made Christianity a teaching, a doctrinal set of biblically-based precepts. Jesus purposely did not choose scribes and Pharisees because for those people, the faith was text, accurately understood text. A way of life was conscripted by religious, meticulous regulations. You lived by a ritual check list, not by a compelling, consuming vision.
Somehow I think we’ve reduced the Kingdom of God here and now to some sort of quasi-legalism, instead of just looking to Christ and living out and working out our own salvation–as Paul puts it. What is it about man that we need rules, laws, doctrines, etc instead of just accepting the glorious and abundant Grace of God and living out our lives as blessed witnesses to our Lord?
Thanks again for the post.
FYI–do Ukrainians still feel subjugated by Russians?
Mich,
Thanks for the affirming comments. The Ukrainians do recognize the threat posed by the Russians, but I don’t think they feel subjugated. Ukrainians view Russians as a country of doofuses and kind of make fun of them. The sad thing about UKraine is the rampant corruption in almost all places of power.
So true. Sometimes I think that “corporate church organizations” (meaning the beauacratic, top down, business based model) isn’t generally receptive to those who are actually transformed by Jesus because they threaten ecumenical order. In general, churchs are groups of people and people feel more comfortable with group think. We are less vulnerable if we “hide” behnd the group. We seek comfort and security more than the freedom God offers us. Because of this weakness in our character we distort Jesus’s message out of fear of exposing ourselves. The one place where I see hope are the youth based “prayer houses”.