Life in hostile territory

Someone at my work commented this week that something that I had said had offended them. It was a light-hearted quip that had been taken the wrong way, and they were understandably sensitive since they had just been told their job was at risk and they were facing possible redundancy. It was an office filled with unease, no one knew who would be called into an office next to be told that their post was at risk (including myself). No one knew if the job that they would end up with, if they did have a job, would be one they would really want. My way of dealing with the tensions was to use humour. This was considered insensitive. The person told me this quite strongly, and I just said that I meant them no offence, and was truly sorry if I had upset them, which was completely true. I meant them no harm, I was only trying to cheer up the place.

It may sound like I am trying to justify myself, but I'm a great believer in humour. Having watched my sister loose consciousness, struggle, and eventually despite all the prayers die you have to survive somehow. But it pre-dates that I saw my Mum have cancer, which could have spread and been life-threatening because they had not spotted it in time. I've known others who have suffered in tragic circumstances. I think with me it started with being bullied, someone came up to me and said, "Do you want a fight after school today, we are going to beat you up." I responded, "Not today, I'm really busy today, what about tomorrow?" I was only about eight, but you have to live somehow.

For me there is something deeper that you learn as well - people don't like the truth. I was told once by a manager when she told me off for something that I said, that I shouldn't even think it. The truth does not matter. We are called to be professionals, to follow the programme, to speak the script. We are not meant to be human, not meant to be alive, not meant to be free. The English used to be famous for their eccentricities, but the supposed diversity of our society is a sham. Keep your mouth shut, walk in line, don't rock the boat - and you will be rewarded in this life.

What though should we be doing if we believe our home is in heaven and we are not looking for the rewards of this world, but those of heaven? Christianity brings freedom, not just the freedom from eternal hell, not just the freedom from sin, but the freedom to be who God created us to be. The problem is the more we become who God created us to be the less well we will fit into the world as it is. That sounds dangerously like self-justification, but that is not my aim.

Actually Jesus gives us freedom but Paul is quite clear that we are not called to use our freedom in a way that damages other people. There is an easy arrogance, and one that we as Christians are very vulnerable. We have been set free, we are God's children, and who is he that condemns us, but that we still need to be careful about how we behave. We are called to love, because without love we are nothing.

As a prophetic people we should do more than just scratch the surface of the society in which we live, we should be different and make a difference and some people will not like that. We just need to be careful that that is what we are doing, rather than just exercising our natural awkwardness and untransformed self-centred nature. We all like to be noticed, and have a tendency to think better to be noticed for the wrong reasons than not to be noticed at all.

Jeff Lucas comments on Philippians 2 v 15 ("in which you shine like stars in the universe.")

"The call for us to be culturally relevant as Christians is not the full story. Putting it bluntly, we are supposed to be as obvious as the stars in the clear night sky, living lives that are as welcoming as a bright city on a hill, a wonderful sight to a weary traveller. Out attitudes, speech, responses to conflict and commitment to purity should enable us to live 'lighthouse lives' that show the way to a world that is floundering on the rocks." Jeff Lucas, Lucas on Life, Wed 24th Jan.

In other words it is not about me, it is about Jesus. It is not about showing the world our way, but God's. In the church and in our relationship with each other we need to live out the transforming freedom that God gives us, but not in such a way that hurts and damages those that are weaker. In the world we need greater sensitivity, we have been set free in a world of slaves. We therefore should not be following the conventions of this world, we do not have the same drivers as other people have, but we need to meet people where they are, with sensitivity and love.

I am conscious as I read this myself that I am an imperfect people in an imperfect world. There is a danger in pressing the publish button on the internet that we may also say something that later we may come to regret - and utter foolish or words that show a lack of understanding that may come back to haunt us. We truly are travellers on a journey of discovery and we need that humility. We do not always get it right.

The reason we should shine like stars is because Jesus has come and is reigning in our lives. His truth sets us free, but it is worth quoting Paul properly, Gal 5v13-14.

13You, my brothers, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature; rather, serve one another in love. 14The entire law is summed up in a single command: "Love your neighbour as yourself.

True freedom may lead to self-realisation, but it should not lead to selfishness, but love and service. We are free, but we are called to choose to love and to choose to serve and that is what the world should be noticing.

God loves us and sets us free, not so that we should indulge ourselves - we will one day have heaven to enjoy, but that we may choose to love and serve Him and choose to love and serve others as well. God has no needs that we can meet, but others do, and when we meet their needs and touch their wounds rather than wounding those who are already hurting we are serving Him.

To return to the original situation what is the call. We do live in hostile territory, how should we respond? Answer is simple, as Jesus would, with love. That does not mean that we should conform to the way that this world works, or become something we are not, it just means the priority is always love and we need to be gentle and wise in the way that we exercise our freedom.

We should be different because God is in us, we should be different because love lives in our hearts, but what we need to do is to serve God without compromising - that as our first aim - but included in that is a love for each and every person since all are precious in His sight.