We're Not Customers--May 13, 2021

We're Not Customers--May 13, 2021

"For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end.  As it is said, 'Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion'." [Hebrews 3:14-15]

We aren't merely paying customers or subscribers to a spiritual service that Jesus offers--we are stakeholders who share in a common purpose of God's Reign.

That difference is huge, because it means that Christ has taken us by the hand to join in what he is doing in the world, rather than merely trying to sell us on his religious products like we are passive consumers.

Other relationships in our lives are purely transactional--you order a pizza and expect them to remember the extra cheese and pepperoni because you're paying for it, but you don't join in the work of baking.  You pay for a streaming service or cable provider to bring you tv, movies, and other entertainment to your rectangles of technology, but you aren't invited to help create movies, nor do you get a say on what programs they run or which movies are available.  If you don't like what they're offering, you can either stop paying or quit complaining.  But you aren't a partner--you're a customer.  You're a consumer.

To be a part of the movement we call the church is different--we aren't here to be spectators, consumers, or customers.  We have become "partners of Christ," as one translation puts it--people who share in Christ and his work, people who hold something in common because we have a stake in our way of life, lived in God's love.  Being a Christian, then, is more than watching something on a screen, or buying a bunch of cross-emblazoned accessories, or even reading "inspirational" books bought from a "Christian" bookstore while "contemporary Christian music" plays in the background.  It is about a way of life that is lived shoulder to shoulder with the living Christ himself in the work he is still doing all around.

That feels like a particularly important message for us all in this moment in history, because the temptation as we have navigated a pandemic is to reduce our faith into a consumer product, watchable on screens and shared only as "likes" on social media, rather than a way of life we participate in.  We've been wrestling for a very long time with this temptation, to be sure, but the last fifteen months have certainly underscored it all the more.  When my faith is simply one more consumer product I buy, we have lost something essential.  When my approach to following Jesus is, "I'll watch this church video, or attend this service, as long as I like the product they're offering, or as long as they don't say something that challenges or calls me out, or as long as it's convenient and doesn't require anything else of me," we have turned the Christian life into a commodity, rather than a community.

Being a consumer makes me like a TV critic--just here to passively watch something and make judgments about whether I like it or not.  But being a partner with Christ means we aren't just watching things on a screen, and we aren't the "customer" who is proverbially "always right."  Rather, we're here to let Jesus shape us, strengthen us, and stretch us to be more like him, so that we can join in his work. A passive consumer picture of discipleship means if I've watched a video or listened to a song, I've done my "religious thing" for the day, while a partner-with-Christ picture means that every day brings the chance to make my world a little more just, a little more loving, a little more truthful, a little more merciful, a little more courageous, and a little more like the Reign of God.

In a day and age where we can binge-watch the day away on your favorite TV streaming service, it's worth remembering that Jesus hasn't called us to simply watch "religious content" on a rectangle of technology.  He's called us to share in what he does: to bless the ones who feel forgotten, to welcome the ones on the margins, to feed the ones who are hungry, to comfort those who grieve, to heal those who suffer, to wipe away tears, and to bring life to the fullest all around.  If I've been settling for being a passive audience member, now is the moment to be awakened, to stretch my legs, and to put one foot after the other, following where Jesus leads.

Lord Jesus, move us beyond being passive consumers to committed partners with you in your work to bring the world more fully to life in you.