Wednesday past, I write a post about how to fix what was wrong with us. It was written in the wake of yet another attempt to assassinate the president. It was a call to be overtly Christian. Unfortunately, the evil kept on rolling through the rest of the week as we learned the Biden DOJ wanted top prosecute nuns, and Democrats in Maine have effectively nominated a Nazi for U.S. Senate. In light of that continuous advance of evil, yesterday I berated primarily denominational Protestants for failing to be so overtly Christian. I think this Sunday morning we should examine with a bit more depth just what it means to be overtly Christian.
Too many people think that to be Christian is about what we do. Going to church, where we give our money, the programs we volunteer for – that sort of thing. We also think it is about personal prescriptions, often summarized, “Don’t smoke drink, or chew – or go with girls that do.” But Christianity is, in actuality, much deeper. It is not about what we do, exactly – it is about changing us into people for whom doing those things is natural and instinctive. It is about transforming us so that those things are a natural expression of who we are and not a matter of discipline or sacrifice.
Yesterday I quoted Romans 12:2 in which Paul calls us to be “transformed.” There are other similar verses. Corinthians 5:17 – “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, this person is a new creation; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” Galatians 2:20 – “I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.”
Jesus was no mere behaviorist – He was after something much, much more fundamental. We ignore that at our peril. When we build programs instead of allow ourselves to be fundamentally changed by God, the programs will turn sour, or worse. Too often we allow our efforts to act like a Christian stand in the way of allowing God to actually make us Christian.
There are few more powerful scenes in literature than the “dedragoning” of Eustace in The Voyage of the Dawn Treader by C.S. Lewis. (There are also few screen adaptations that miss the author’s point more than the movie by the same name.) Eustace, a reprehensible character, is transformed into a dragon by his misdeeds and forced into utter misery. Aslan, the Narnian analog for Jesus, comes along as Eustace is hopelessly trying to remove his dragon shell – ripping his skin off repeatedly only to reveal more dragoness underneath. Only when he permits Aslan to cut extremely and painfully deep does the boy once again emerge. Way too often we are Eustace trying to remove our own dragon skin and failing, while ignoring Jesus sitting right there just waiting to do the job properly.
To be overtly Christian is to let Jesus cut deep, and painfully. To be overtly Christian will show in the little things, not the big ones. It’s not about the program, it’s about how you treat the waiter when no one is watching. To be overtly Christian is not about who you are in public – it is about who you are in private. To be overtly Christian is to be naturally nice and kind, not to have to struggle to be so.
This morning as we head to church, let’s examine ourselves and be honest about how often we try to remove our own dragon skin. Then let’s allow Jesus to do the job.
