Nick Bundra
Contributing Writer
“I hear you talk the talk, but I don’t see you walk the walk, and I still don’t believe a thing you say,” sang Trevor Keith of Face to Face.
The quote is indicative of the major criticism of Christianity: that its adherents fail to practice what they preach. I agree with Keith.
Interestingly, this criticism was first voiced by Paul of the New Testament.
In Romans 2, an exposition on hypocrisy, Paul poses a rhetorical statement, “art confident that thou thyself art a guide of the blind, a light of them which are in darkness.” I, like many Christians, shout “Yes, I can show people the primrose path to heaven. Accept Jesus and you can be as happy as me and have your life squared away.”
What an exciting proposition — eternal life, streets of gold and endless interaction with condescending Christians. I’d say “sign me up,” but I am already in. I’ve got the golden ticket to heaven.
The salvation of Christ is more than a free ride to the celestial kingdom come. It’s more than going to UM, attending church and donating Spring Break to Project Serve.
Christianity is our relationship with Christ and its overflow into our human relationships. That’s the core of Christianity. Relationship is the context for all aspects of God. Without a relationship, we must relegate Christ to the Hall of Fame of Dead Scholars who, though inspirational, are nonetheless dead.
I refuse a god separated from human existence. I want a god who lived my life with all furiousness and sympathizes with my struggles. I want my life consumed by this entity.
Allowing Him to consume our lives, allows us to live authentically. If we refuse this step, we parrot the sound bites of Christianity without actually manifesting Jesus’ teachings. However, when these teachings are internalized and practiced, they have the potential to radically affect our world.
Pepperdine urges its students with the slogan, “freely ye have received, freely give” — a statement that resonates with an anthem in all of our hearts. In my heart, though, that mantra has encountered a barrier of fear. I bribed my heart. I said, “If you give me peace, I’ll pay my 10 percent to church, accept God’s grace, smile at the outcasts and help people over 70 move… if they use a walker.”
I even go further than that. I see a bum on the street so I dig through my pockets for a dollar bill, like a good Christian. I’m a free giver. Sometimes I even buy the man a burger and give him a few minutes of my time, prayer, if I want a bigger smile.
Don’t get me wrong, I want to freely receive. In the depths of my soul, somewhere, too, I want to freely give. But if I give, I want the prescription of how to live a Christian life and a cost-and-benefit analysis.
That’s not the Christ of the bible and that’s not Christ now. It’s good news but, at times, I hate that truth. Christ died for the sake of love: “Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13). Christ was a martyr for the purpose of love, for each individual human.
In “A Tale of Two Cities,” Sydney Carton sacrificed his neck at the guillotine so the girl he loves can live life with her condemned lover. See, the romanticized nature of martyrdom inspires me to death. My spirit cries, “I could be Sydney Carton!” But Christ did not only die a martyr, he also lived daily a martyr, murdering his perceived personal needs for the sake of others.
I want to die like Sydney Carton. I have a harder time wanting to live like Christ. But that’s where I can walk the walk that I daily talk.
I’ve come to the point where I’ve decided, perhaps in the course of writing this article, that if I’m to live the Christian life, I must live more radically than I’ve ever lived previously.
My self-criticisms offer each Pepperdine student a similar opportunity to examine their own failings. If we are to call ourselves Christians, then let’s live that life with reckless abandon.
If dying a martyr means laying down emotional ties and life itself, then living must encompass a far greater cost. I want to walk that dangerous walk. I’m done talking.
2-24-2005
