Tuesday, January 11, 2005

Signs and wonders

The impact Lance Armstrong's story has had on our culture cannot be underestimated. Especially considering the massive popularity of the "Livestrong" bracelets originally intended to raise awareness for cancer studies. I use the word "originally" because the yellow $1 wristbands quickly became more of a fashion statement than a cause. There is still an amazing demand with few bands being readily available. More than likely, I would guess many of the bearers of Armstrong's brainchild wear Livestrong, not so much to raise awareness about cancer studies, but to be identified as part of a whole. And a symbol lets other know how they can identify the Livestronger. The problem though, is that the symbol's value is diluted. The original intent is not to group people together into a mass of $1 yellow wristband-wearing people that are known as those that bought $1 yellow wristbands, but to make others knowledgeable about a bigger problem. Fascinating.

This situation could simply be written off as a cultural phenomenon, but a closer look should reveal a more commonplace dilemma involving (gasp) Christianity.

While we'd never stoop to make graven images or worship golden cows, I think we do equate our spirituality, salvation, faith, basis for relationship with God, etc. with certain images. Yet, these images are simply that. Molecules and atoms created by God in the beginning that will one day be terminated. They're no more important to my faith than MacGyver and Family Ties reruns are to my childhood memories (though I am thankful for syndication).

A certain woman in my town is a religious fruitcake in every sense of the term, with the exception that, unlike most fruitcakes, I'm not sure you could actually pass her off as a Christmas present. Anyway she's crazy and is a horrible witness to the person of Christ and Christianity. Honestly, I feel certain that if she lived anywhere else in the United States, she'd have been shot years ago. Homophobic, Racist, Elitist are just a few of the titles she wears and probably answers to, but probably the most disturbing role she plays is that of a staunch protector of the Ten Commandments, and more specifically, the monument removed from the Alabama state judicial building in Montgomery sometime last year. She evens drives around with a magnetic version of the 10 Commandments clinging to her car door. So, I call it disturbing because I have fallen along this same party line before, and if I fall in the same line of thinking as this woman I think it's necessary to question whether what I'm doing is right or not.

So I got to thinking about how religiously we brandish symbols and battle for signs of our faith as Christians in America. It hits me that what we should be fighting for are not symbols but the hearts of men. Are these symbols more about reaching the lost or giving us a sense of security? A giant stone statue of the 10 Commandments is not going to lead anyone to Christ, but the message the statue represents can do that. Christ "has also set eternity in the hearts of men (Ecc. 3:11)," thus the true message of the 10 Commandments rest no longer just in an enormous, impractical stone statue that is difficult to move around and that one day will be destroyed in the elements, but now is manifested in an eternal form, in the soul. Think of it like heavenly space-saver Tupperware or post-its notes or something like that. It's practical and efficient. The point is that it's so much better than what it was originally.

Still, it's so much easier to fight for a symbol that we feel validates our faith than to let the Gospel message rest in our hearts and work it's way out to those around us. So we tirelessly fight for the image Moses received on Mt. Sinai and broke later (though, the technical Sabbath day is not observed by most of Christianity), we plaster the Icthus on our cars next to bumper stickers that read like cheap commercials on local tv stations and some of us still latch onto W.W.J.D.'s (remember those?). Meanwhile, the real truth, that which we can live out daily, is kept in reserve because we have these symbols that supposedly speak the truth and love of God into the hungry souls of the unsaved.

How odd would it be to one day find out in eternity that the 10 Commandments, which denies graven images, became just that to Christians in 2005? Perhaps the removal of the monument and other such symbols are not so much signs of Satan taking hold of America as it is a sign, wonderful at that, from God that our hope is not in worldly things but in Him? Indeed, the power of God cannot be limited to mass and matter but resides where it cannot be taken. Our responsibility is to take it and use it, which takes guts, time, energy and faith among other things. A symbol will never do that, but it will make us feel safe...perhaps the most dangerous place for the Christian.

^"Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven." Matthew 5:15-16

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