The great tragedy of our age is the fact, if one may dare to say it, that there are so many godless Christians - Christians, that is whose religion is a matter of pure conformism and expediency. Their "faith" is little more than a permanent evasion of reality - a compromise with life. In order to avoid admitting the uncomfortable truth that they no longer have any real need for God or any vital faith in Him, they conform to the outward conduct of others like themselves. And these "believers" cling together, offering one another an apparent justification for lives that are essentially the same as the lives of their materialistic neighbours whose horizons are purely those of the world and its transient values.
I was first struck by the term "godless Christians." We once heard godless attached to communist. In fact, that was so much the case that we attached "under God" to the Pledge of Allegiance in the early 1950's so that we would be seen as people on God's side. At the sound of such a description, I really had to hesitate and take a look at what is godless about what is so often considered Christian. It is painful to see that as I attempt to look at that, I'm looking in the mirror some of the time....maybe most of the time. So, how do we let go of that image of Christ that is really not the Christ but more like our own image or the image of life we love. Sounds like we are often involved in an idolatrous relationship rather than in a relationship with the God who beckons us to come and see the wonder and life of God's Reign - unmanipulated by us. I've been struck lately by the importance of seeing things anew. That is a painful journey because we must begin to see ourselves without the well-crafted facades that rule us and our religiosity. We must remember that this is a journey that many have take on and therefore we can be encouraged as we begin and we can be hopeful that life will become a place to rest and act and live as we have never done previously.
Connection: This is another one of the reasons it is vital to find other people with whom we can begin to take this walk and begin this life.
Be for us, O God, the constant invitation to trust in how you become alive within us so that we ma
y all blossom into the individuals who are made in your image. We are already busy making ourselves into our own image and we need to take a rest and find how you are present among us and with us and for us. Release us from our pursuit of ourselves. Amen.
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