No. Being a Christian does not matter. At least for the 80 to 90% of Australians who in the past 40 years who have walked away from various Christian Churches. There are an assorted reasons why “the church no longer mattersâ€, but at its core, is the loss of faith in Jesus Christ. Our culture today places importance on continually being happy, on constant entertainment and on earning money. Did Jesus say “Blessed are the happy†.No. Rather, he taught blessed are the poorâ€, “Blessed are those who mourn†and “Blessed are the persecutedâ€. Constant happiness, entertainment or earning money fit into the culture of the ego and places the individual in the driver’s seat. Being a Christian does not cut it.
But if you flip the question around into my parent’s generation “being a Christian does matter†otherwise you are going to hell. This is a very black and white view which paints reality into winners and losers. There is an element of fear that causes the person to choose the doorway to salvation in a certain mould conditional on your application, belief system or fixed practise. This conservative or fundamentalist world view provides a total position of control. Of power. Of certainty and tries to label reality. But this position still loses a degree of who God really is.
But what happens if both positions are wrong?
What happens if the answer cannot be definitively seen or given?
The nature of God is the infinite. God is ultimately beyond human comprehension. When we try and place God in our convenient box we lose a sense of the mystery of who God is. As the Creed says “God is seen and unseenâ€. There is the element of “the hidden and unknownâ€. As soon as we acknowledge that we do not have all the answers, we move to a dimension beyond oneself. We cannot think our way into Heaven. We cannot perform a fixed kind of magic for a solution. We come to a new way of being. For Christians love is the doorway. When we experience or encounter this love we begin to encounter who truly God is.
Does being a Christian matter?
This is the wrong question. The question rather is “Do you love God?â€â€¦.This question Jesus asks Peter three times after Peter has denied Jesus three times. The Shema Prayer, the prayer Jewish people say three times a day says “you are to love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your mightâ€. When Jesus is asked the question what is the great commandment. He answers with Love. Love is the only way. If we love,…. all of reality changes because we begin to see, both really and deeply how reality is connected. Hidden and Unknown. Seen and Unseen. With love.
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