Christian Zombies

A good sermon should not leave you the same as when you walked in the doors. It should rattle you a little bit, or inspire you, or encourage, teach you something new and hopefully challenge you. It should provoke some type of response. Hopefully there will be a slightly better version of you walking out the door. 

If you have attended church more than a few times, you know this can be a rare phenomena. 

Over the last few months we have been studying the Kingdom of God and what it asks and requires of us as believers.
This is dangerous stuff. This was a very controversial message when it was first delivered. It lead to the speaker's murder. And the murder of almost all of his followers. 

We have a little bit of a problem in our modern age. 

We can follow Christ and not have to give it or give up anything. 

We can walk out of church every week unchanged. Especially when 

we often gauge the sermon based on how entertained we were. 

The message of the Kingdom IS dangerous. It is culturally subversive. It does demand something of us. 

I have mentioned before how we often sing songs during worship we don't really mean at all. 

There was such a song this morning. 

"I want to sit at your feet

Drink from the cup in your hand

Lay back against you and breath

Feel your heart beat"

To be this close to the son of God... Again, the men who experienced this suffered violent, painful deaths. 

This message, this kingdom is...unsettling. 

It is 

DISRUPTIVE. 

This kingdom, this message, this God demands us to be who we really are. He can't connect, he won't connect with that which is false. He can't! To do so would be to endorse the false self you have built, it would encourage it's validity when it is destructive to you. He will accept you as you are but is always, always determined to help you become who you really are. 

The person HE created. 

You see, God created you. He thought of you. He decided you should exist. 

He will change you. He will strip down that which is false, loving you the entire time. 

He is a dangerous God to find. He will change you. Your way of living WILL be altered. It HAS to be. 

he wants to smash your spiritual malaise. Your tendency to keep going forward blindly, determined to live for the high moments, continually looking forward to the next bit of pleasure, time of relaxation or next success. 

Our culture loves the imagery of zombies. I think it's because we identify with them even as we are repulsed by them. We plod along, heedless of little else but fulfilling our desires. So intent on the next thing we have set our sights on we forget to enjoy or even notice the now.

Every once in awhile something rattles our cage, penetrates our spiritual stupor. A hunger is unearthed, awakened. It feels primal and dangerous. It feels like a destiny, a calling trying to make itself heard. A promise of that which is radical, the hint and promise of adventure. 

But most of us quickly tame it again, dismiss is, rationalize it and logic it away. 

While I was at the movies last night, watching "Saving Mr Banks" I had something similar happen to me. The movie was connecting to my brokenness in an unexpected way, tapping into it, threatening to unearth that which I have carefully buried and given a funeral. There is a nice structure housing my brokenness, honoring it even. But it is supposed to be past and dead. But this damn movie called to it. The brokenness wanted to resurrect, and I had to fight it to keep it in its tomb, lest my son and other movie goers see me crying at a Disney movie. We can't have that. 

The correlation is that God will not allow us to live as zombies. He requires us to be fully alive and to act and respond to life. 
We try to live as zombies to avoid our pain. Shuffling forward... step by step, often hating how we are living but not enough to change it. At the end of a year, reviewing it and realizing how little actually changed. years can turn into decades so quickly.
This isn't about regret and shame. 

It is about a call to change. And it has to start with you. And me. 

You CAN be the person who God wants you to be. 

Dangerous. A warrior. Impactful. 

Those deep longings of your heart that you have tied to your brokenness and therefore buried...

They were put there on purpose. I know it hurt when they weren't fulfilled. When they were called dreams and fairy tales. When you were shamed into taking them behind the shed and putting them down like Ol' Yeller. 

But the damn things won't die, will they? 

You have accepted a poor substitute and called it life. You have "made do". 

BUT IT ISN'T ENOUGH, IS IT????

Your heart demands more.

I get it. 

You are scared. 

Maybe skeptical. 

Yet you are still reading, aren't you???

You want it to be true...

What can you do??? 

Pray. Ask God to reveal your true self. Your original desires for life. 

Be ready. 

He just might answer. 

And when he does, (and it might take more than 5 minutes) write it down. Discuss it with a loved one. A trusted mentor. Take small steps of faith. Try something new. Yes, you will fail sometimes. 

But isn't it better than being a zombie? I could go on about how we try and make others into zombies, which is quite reminiscent of Jesus' talk with the Pharisees. (check out Matthew 23:15)

We have to stop being zombies. Living to avoid more pain. Living to maintain our "normal" and to keep the appearance of safety. 

The kingdom of God, our rabbi, our master requires it. 

It is a sad commentary on the state of the church when it requires a higher social cost to be a Star Trek fan than it does to be a Christian.