I get sick to death of Christianity.

If you've been in Ashland Christian Church's Adult Cultivation Class at any point this Summer, you've heard me say those words. And while they may seem overly cynical or, going to the extreme, a bit inappropriate for someone in full-time Christian ministry to say, they're the truth. The reason is simple - the very simple way of Jesus has, over the last couple thousand years, evolved into something that, more times than not, exhibits as much of the world's ugliness as it does the beauty of God.

Take last week's Chick-Fil-A fiasco, which, sadly, played out precisely like every other quasi-theologial debate has in my sixteen years in the church. What could have, and should have, been an opportunity for level-headed, Holy Spirit inspired converation on how we can best reflect the love of Christ in a world that sorely needs it, instead became the intellectual equivalent of a back yard brawl. Both sides of the conversation quickly resorted to using the weapons of the world - guilt and fear and manipulation - to try to 'win' whatever it was they were trying to win, whether it was 'standing for the truth' or 'setting themselves apart from the crazy Christians' or anything in between. The end result was, sadly, yet another black eye for the faith, as a community that's supposed to be so changed by God's love that they become vessels of that compassion and mercy to others, turned into yet another mob of people all jockeying for personal gain, the advancement of political agendas and the so-called 'moral high ground.'    

And the worst part of all is that I'm a part of it.

That's, at the end of the day, why I get so sick of Christianity - so often, it brings out the worst in me. It doesn't matter whether we're talking about chicken sandwiches or the rights of the unborn or the role of baptism or spiritual gifts or women in the church or musical styles or small group methods or whether or not the President of the United States was born in this country. No matter what it is, every time I find myself in a theological or social Christian debate, I find myself acting less and less like Christ and more and more like the world. And there's a good reason for that.

After all, when we fight over social, political, and quasi-theological side issues, we're NOT promoting the simple gospel of Jesus.

And that's what I never get sick of, which is why we've spent a solid three months in Sunday School in the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus' words are life-changing and course-altering; they speak to the heart and the soul and the depths of who we are; they transcend social boundaries, prejudices and bigotry. And when we make them the foundation of who we are, we'll become more and more loving and gracious and compassionate, because we'll become more and more like Jesus.

I don't have all the answers to life's questions, and honestly, I don't care to. It doesn't always matter who's right and who's wrong and whether or not we 'win'; in fact, you can be totally wrong about nearly everything and still be the person Christ wants you to be, since all that TRULY matters is whether or not our relationship with our loving God helps us to love others. That's the gospel; that's the essence of the kingdom Jesus is the King of.

And that's something that I'll never get sick of.