The "Gift" of Antagonism

We all know about the different gifts that we receive from the Holy Spirit in order to function in the Body of Christ. For a list of these gifts, open your bibles to Romans 12 or 1 Corinthians 12, 13 and 14 and while you're at it please mull over 1 Corinthians 14: 12 "So also you, since you are zealous of spiritual gifts, seek to abound for the edification of the church."

We are also told that each one us, those who are part of the Body of Christ, will have at least one of these gifts and that we are to function with these gifts in that same Body of Christ in ministry to our brothers and sisters and ministry to those who are lost in the world. There is, however, one "gift" we all seem to have in common in varying degrees. And it is that most egregious of "gifts" - Antagonism. We all, whether intentionally or not, have the ability to piss people off.

Don't get me wrong, there is a time and place for antagonism and outrage. Christ himself followed through on his outrage when he drove the merchants, the money-changers and the prostitutes from His Father's temple. But there is an appropriate time and place for everything and, well, defiling the Holy Temple provided one whopping excuse to denounce and show outrage. Christ, too, was downright antagonistic towards the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Didn't He, on one of their many confrontations, denounce them as hypocrites? But then again He was dealing with the Pharisees and and the Sadducees - the ancient equivalent of the politicos and moral equivalency advocates of our day. So yeah, I can see that happening too. However, everything that Christ did, He did with love and in love. He even left us with a commandment that would identify us to world as His disciples: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another. By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another." (John 13:34-36)

Unfortunately, though, today especially in North America, many in the Evangelical Church have become quite the opposite of what Christ has commanded. We've become a denunciatory and antagonistic bunch in general, not just towards the lost but towards each other as brothers and sisters in Christ. Many of us so-called Christians are focusing on the shouldn'ts, couldn'ts and wouldn'ts of the Christian life as opposed to engaging our brothers and sisters in Christ-like interaction. We have lost sight of our goal - to be Christ-like in all aspects of our life. We've resorted to finger-wagging, here's a new term - "blog-smearing" and so much in-fighting that we've forgotten to look to our Savior and offer ourselves to Him as His beacon of light to bring the lost home. Many of us spread the gospel not by action but by angry rhetoric that does nothing more than turn away the lost and antagonize those who may disagree with said rhetoric.

In this day age, where Christian persecution is taking center stage in every aspect of our culture, we have done little to enhance or improve the credibility of our Christian witness. On one hand we've besmirched our reputation by engaging in reprehensible and heretical behavior in our own churches. We now have homosexual pastors, female bishops, prominent personalities who promote heresy and in-fighting because my denomination is better than yours.

There are factions in the Church where most anything goes as long as everything is tagged with "I Love Jesus". Most conversations take on the surreal tone of something like: "Man, I believe that the high priest in the higher realm of Kilimanjaro is far better than your Dalai Lama of the Himalayas and Deepak Chopra combined so there - oh and by the way - I Love Jesus too man!" Guess what? Satan loved Jesus too you know - before his fall.

On the other side of the spectrum, we've got the extremist who would stop at nothing to create havoc in the world. In the last few years there have been a lot of negative and controversial things and issues inaccurately attributed to what is popularly called the Christian right (kind of redundant, if you know what I mean). We've been accused of things such as gay-bashing or abortion clinic-bombing. And although there are some people guilty of such abhorrent acts, I can say with certainty that they are not Christians because that is not the kind of behavior a true follower of Christ engages in.

And then there are those who claim to zealously love the Lord and will fight and uphold the Truth of our Lord to the extent that they alienate everyone and cost them the credibility of their Christian witness. Because of their zealousness for God's truth, they are more than willing to pick up God's sword and quick to skewer those who are of the same faith but leave room for error (grace?) or those whose beliefs are not entirely reliant on the written word of God. Of late there has been a rash of downright slanderous name calling and internal bickering amongst fellow believers because of these differences that we are accomplishing nothing to further God's kingdom in this world. They forget that for the most part anything we do in love will have more of an impact than anything we do with outrage and indignation -righteous or otherwise.

Consider this, recently, I read somewhere that one should consider the message and not pay attention to the method of delivery. To that I reply, but the method of delivery is always a part of the message. Just take the lost art of rebuke. Rebuke is one of the hardest things to do in our daily life. First, I don't know of anyone who lives for a confrontation. Second, the message is never pretty. But if done in gentleness and in love, with a generous serving of encouragement, the rebuke will go a long way to accomplishing change, hopefully for the betterment of the individual. Now take the same message and add all the bluster and outrage of a raving virago under the guise of righteous indignation and not only have you tainted the message with antagonism and malcontent, but you've also destroyed that most precious of commodities - your Christian witness. Congratulations!

There are other things we do to screw up our Christian witness. There are the big things like Ted Haggard or Jimmy Swaggart. And then there's the little things - those that play out in our everyday life. The worldliness, the inconsistencies in our faith, the disconnect between our professed faith and our values and our daily fall from grace. Our everyday life is a different matter altogether. We touch and influence more lives on a day to day basis and though most of us Christian believers understand how repentance and forgiveness works, the rest of the unforgiven world does not. All they will see and, most likely remember, is the disjointed and discongruent relationship between our professed faith and its practice, or lack thereof, in our life.

As I said before, there is a time and place for appropriate and righteous anger and outrage, but if that is all we indulge in then we're shooting ourselves in the foot even before we get a chance to put said foot in our mouths for good measure. If we continue on this path, devoid of love, grace and the giving of, and even the asking for, forgiveness, we are faced with the most heartbreaking of losses - the loss of our ability to effectively reach out and spread the Gospel under the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ.

9/11 - Six Years Later

It happens very rarely, but on this day, I become a news junkie. My television is set to Fox News, my radio is set to KRLA (my local conservative talk radio) and I comb the blogs for everything and anything - the good, the bad and the ugly - related to the attacks on the World Trade Center six years ago today.

The 9/11 Commission Report states the death toll at 2,981; 2600 at the World Trade Center, 125 at the Pentagon and 256 people died on four planes 40 of whom died resisting their hijacker. All of them died a hero's death.

Six years later, it strikes me that we now have a generation of children who, for the most part, will never know a loved one who lost their life 6 years ago. Every year in New York, thousands gather at ground zero to commemorate these attacks and as the years pass on these kids, who without understanding why, will come up with their parent or guardian and will stand in the heat or rain to hear 2981 names being read and the bell that tolls for each one.

I can't help wondering what this day means to them or how they will view this event 10 years from now - on the 16th anniversary of 9/11. What is our responsibility, us who witnessed these attacks unfold first-hand to them? What will our legacy be - the truth as it happened or will it be the spun web of lies put forth by the jihadist, the extremist or the likes of Rosie O'Donnell?

From where I stand, it is clear what our responsibility is to those who come after us. We must never forget the significance of today's attacks, how they happened and more importantly, why they happened. We can have different opinions of the aftermath, like the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - but let's not dishonor, disrespect and defile the memories of those who lost their lives in the service of this country that day.

With understanding and compassion, and in love, let us leave a legacy of heroism and truth for our children.