The Widow's Mite. My friend Mike sent me a large sum of money to support me in my trip to Russia this summer. Out of his need he helped me. He's in Slovakia right now, committed to 2 years of work among the young people there. Sacrificed the easy, comfortable "American" way of life.

But I was surprised by how much he sent, and when I opened it I was reminded of the story where Jesus and his disciples were sitting in the temple near where people dropped their offerings. They watched numbers of weathly men come by and drop in their "tithes." But a poor widow was chosen by Jesus to teach a lesson, another important vision of the Kingdom, and how it's supposed to be. He told them that she had given the greatest amount because the rich had only given a small fraction of their surplus, but she had given all she had to live on.

I know that sounds like bad "stewardship," but if more Christians knew about real stewardship, the world would be a better place. Now that may sound trite, but Jesus didn't seem to be too impressed with those who came by and gave their 10 percent and walked away to spend the rest on themselves. He was impressed, as ever, with sacrifice. Christians in America do not live a life of sacrifice.

I know that many people think that Al Qaeda, Iraq, etc. hate America because we are a Christian nation and they see it as some kind of "holy war" to destroy us. And from their perspective that may very well be true. Christians do have a spotty track record (to say the least). However, the fact remains, we're not a Christian nation, at least, not the way the Fundamentalists preach it. We were not founded on Christian principles (insofar as English Parlaimentary Government and Greco-Roman Democracy include morals and ethics also featured in Christianity). We are a nation that includes Christians, Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, Atheists, Unitarians, etc.

I just think that if Christians in America were behaving more like Christ, the world wouldn't hate us as much. But it's because we have so much and share so little of the surplus. We spend our money building kingdoms of this world, but Jesus said his Kingdom is not of this world.

Tourists and Pilgrims

We assume that if something can be done at all, it can be done quickly and efficiently. Our attention spans have been conditioned by thirty-second commercials. Our sense of reality has been flattened by thirty-page abridgements.

Millions of people in our culture make decisions for Christ, but there is a dreadful attrition rate. Many claim to have been "born again," but the evidence for mature Christian discipleship is slim. In our kind of culture anything, even news about God, can be sold if it is packaged freshly; but when it loses its novelty, it goes on the garbage heap. There is a great market for religious experience in our world; there is little enthusiasm for the patient acqusition of virtue, little inclination to sign up for a long apprenticeship in what earlier generations of Christians called holiness.

Religion in our time has been captured by the tourist mindset. Religion is understood as a visit to an attractive site to be made when we have adequate leisure. For some it is a weekly jaunt to church; for others, occasional visits to special services. Some, with a bent for religious entertainment and sacred diversion, plan their lives around special events like retreats, rallies and conferences. We go to see a new personality, to hear a new truth, to get a new experience and so somehow expand our otherwise humdrum lives. The religious life is defined as the latest and the newest: faith healing, human potential, parapsychology, successful living, choreography in the chancel, Armageddon. We'll try anything--until something else comes along.

...Everyone is in a hurry. The persons whom I lead in worship, among whom I counsel, visit, pray, preach and teach, want shortcuts. They want me to help them fill out the form that will get them instant credit (in eternity). They are impatient for results. They have adopted the lifestyle of a tourist and only want the high points...The Christian life cannot mature under such conditions and in such ways.

Friedrich Nietzsche, who saw this area of spiritual truth at least with great clarity, wrote, "The essential thing 'in heaven and earth' is...that there should be long obedience in the same direction; there thereby results, and has always resulted, in the long run, something which has made life worth living." It is this "long obedience in the same direction" which the mood of the world does so much to discourage.

For recognizing and resisting the stream of the world's ways there are two biblical designations for people of faith that are extremely useful: disciple and pilgrim. Disciple says we are people who spend our lives apprenticed to our master, Jesus Christ...A disciple is a learner, but not in the academic setting of a school-room, rather at the work site of a craftsman. We do not acquire information about God but skills in faith.

Pilgrim tells us we are people who spend our lives going someplace, going to God, and whose path for getting there is the way, Jesus Christ. We realize that "this world is not my home" and set out for "the Father's house." Abraham...is our archetype. Jesus...gives us directions...the letter to the Hebrews defines our program: "Do you see what this means--all these pioneers who blazed the way, all these veterans cheering us on? It means we'd better get on with it. Strip down, start running--and never quit! No extra spiritual fat, no parasitic sins. Keep your eyes on Jesus, who both began and finished this race we're in..." (Hebrews 12:1-2)

Eugene Peterson, A Long Obedience in the Same Direction, InterVarsity Press, 2000.