A Pastor Torches Self-Satisfied Christianity

Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt

Excerpted from Action in Waiting, available FREE in e-book format.

Given the number of people who've been "saved" these days, you'd think the world was becoming a brighter place. It could be, too, if more people would stop worrying about religion and lose themselves in service to God and each other. People like Christoph Friedrich Blumhardt (1842-1919), the maverick German pastor and religious socialist who wrote the piece below.

Blumhardt's witness influenced theological giants like Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Karl Barth, but his books (mostly collected sermons and devotions) can hardly be characterized as theology -- they are too blunt, too earthy, too real. Burning away the trappings of modern pietylike so much chaff, his "active expectation" of God's kingdom leads us away from ourselves and toward our fellow human beings. Blumhardt's Christ is not the bringer of a new religion (nor a political power-seeker), but a Savior whose humanity brings hope to the despondent, and whose compassionate hands reach down into the darkest places.

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Nowadays, unfortunately, many things are done with the idea that the more spiritual and otherworldly we are, the better. But it is just the other way round. The more we learn to seek truth and to act on it as far as possible in the situation in which God has placed us, even if that be in the dirt, the better it is. For the Savior does not want to come as an idea but as a reality, wherever people live and struggle (Matt. 18:20). It is here that we must make way for him and how can we do this except by acting in accordance with his nature? And his nature is simple, true, and genuine.

Every person who is waiting for Jesus can receive a distinct impression of what is right and good (Rom. 2:12-16). Perhaps he may feel that one or the other habit he has cannot be pleasing to God. If he stops it and changes, then he is making way for the one who comes. When our hearts are set on this practical kind of waiting, God will surely guide us every step of the way. In fact, all sincere followers of Jesus will be given so much practical work to do that - if you will permit me to say so - they will hardly have time for long devotions or for sitting in church (James 1:27).

Jesus has been called a founder of a new religion. But that is not God's word to the world. His aim was never to give us a new religion in order that we might live a bit more decently - in that case Moses and his law would have sufficed.

With Jesus' simple command to the disciples the Savior is saying, "Don't make a religion out of me! That which I bring from God is not a religion, for all religions are rigid. They don't want to move forward, they don't intend to change. They set up shrines, they institute museums, they set up councils, and because of all this they are a stumbling block to the world." As a matter of fact - to be quite frank - our religions are a hindrance not only to the world but to the history of humanity.

Nothing is more dangerous to the advancement of God's kingdom than religion. But this is what Christianity has become. Do you not know that it is possible to kill Christ with such Christianity? After all, what is more important - Christianity or Christ? And I'll say even more: we can kill Christ with the Bible! Which is greater: the Bible or Christ? Yes, we can even kill Christ with our prayers. When we approach God with our prayers full of self-love and self-satisfaction, when the aim of our prayers is to make our world great, our prayers are in vain.

The Savior will not allow himself to become petrified in religion. That is why the Savior told the story of the ten virgins, some of whom were wise and others not (Matt. 25:1-13). With this, he says, "There are some who make a religion out of me, a cozy haven, a state of bliss. It is the others who will be the living Christians, always open to change, always seeking something new, until the entire world stands there renewed."

Yes, we love the word of God spoken to humankind but if we truly love it, we will understand that this word is much greater than the Bible. It cannot be chained, written down as if set in cement. When God's word is frozen, even the best Christians are able to justify their hate toward their fellowmen, even killing them and vehemently separating themselves from them.

Today there are Christians who believe that they will (after death or at Jesus' return) fly with the Savior to heaven and then laugh at those left behind. I find it incomprehensible that those who call themselves devout consider themselves better than others or exempt from God's judgment. This kind of religion is false because it separates us from other human beings. I will have nothing to do with it! Jesus entered right into the human condition in all its ugliness. He united with people. He did not separate himself from thwm.

Reprinted from http://www.bruderhof.com/, used with pernission