4 August – Ben Cornell – Hope Church, Petersfield

Was Jesus polite?

When we four brothers gather, my wife and I are the oddballs.  They drink – all day and late, wake up, laugh about it, recover their heads and start again.  It’s accepted we don’t drink much, but we feel the cultural difference keenly.  Especially as the most common expletives are: ‘Jesus ‘F’ Christ!’ and ‘God Almighty!’ etc.  Ironic from the mouths of ardent atheists who politely consider people of faith regressive fools.

We all get on well, but we hold to a truth, which they don’t want to hear.  They don’t see that all people are plugs, that God is the socket we were made to fit.  If I suggested alcohol is the wrong socket, I don’t see them accepting my metaphor and choosing God’s path.

So, how does one be a disciple of Jesus in this modern, everyday situation?  In Matthew chapter 7 Jesus warns against judging.  And really, that’s not what’s needed here.  They are decent, normal, honest people.  Realization is what’s needed – that they’re plugs looking for a socket.  But there’s no debate about Christianity to be had.  I’ve tried that over the years.  They already know they know better.  I am the wayward fool.  If I take the Jesus approach of asking searching questions that cut to the quick: ‘Why do you need to drink until you pass out?’ ‘Do you know how to ‘be’ without alcohol?’  How will you feel when your children adopt your normalized mode of social interaction?’ I wonder what that would do to our relationships.  Isn’t good relationship what God is all about?  How then can I risk breaking them?  But am I ignoring Jesus if I ignore the elephant in the room?

Prayer and perseverance, yes, but what of Jesus’ radical challenge versus English social passivity, aka: being polite?  Are they not (blind) captives?