One of the things I learned in school that was not true is: Sticks and stones may break my bones but words will never hurt me. Whoever said that was crazy! I got called some names not too long ago and I gotta tell you it hurt. The only term I cared for and that was after I Googled it and thought about it was the word progressive. Can you believe someone actually called this stick in the mud, doesn’t know how to have fun, uptight, conservative, so far to the right he has come back up on the left, old, tired, too often, too cynical pastor a progressive?
Af ter I def ined it I decided to claim it. Progressive means continuous, developing, increasing or growing. I hope that’s me. In my business we call it transformation - it’s God’s way of saying we change. John the Baptist put it like this, “Less of me and more of Him (John 3:30).”
I love the person who called me a progressive a lot and surely they know that I am not the noun form of the word which means liberal. And yet if we follow Jesus, we should be liberal. The Bible says, “freely we receive, freely we give” (Matthew 10:8). We have been given love, freedom, forgiveness, mercy and grace therefore, we should freely give those same things to others liberally. Okay, so I’m spiritually liberal and I can live with that.
My point is if I am not a progressive, I will get left behind. Some say the church is getting left behind. I wonder if we have forgotten that the Good News of Jesus Christ is still Good News and that God is still our friend and not our enemy. I like the version of Jesus who tips over tables and makes whips and lets people know who is boss (John 2:15) but I’m beginning to like the smiling servant version of Jesus too who washes feet and loves people who don’t act so nice (John 13:1 - 5). I call this the “Let’s get a cup of coffee” Jesus.
The culture does not really like the church (if they did the pews would be full on Sunday) but I don’t think the culture really knows the church. If they did know us, I think they would like us and I think they would like Jesus too. Maybe if we didn’t seem so mad all the time. Maybe if we stopped turning over so many tables and started washing a few more feet. Maybe if we stopped defending Jesus and started to be more like Jesus.
In John 15:11 the Rabbi told us that He wanted His “joy in us, and that our joy might be full.” Overfl owing with joy and gladness, there’s an idea for the modern-day church. Bobby McFerrin sang about this back in the late 1980’s. Christians need to stop worrying and be happy. A happy Christian, now that’s a pretty cool thing. Instead of telling everyone what’s wrong with them, why don’t we start asking, “Can we get a cup of coffee?”
Don’t worry about me and the name calling. I’m in good company, they called Jesus names too.
He told me to tell you that.
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