rusty cellar

Here is a snippet of Hauerwas’ interview that I just came across. In my mind it summs up pretty well why I have been so excited about this innovative and courageous thinker.

Why are you considered controversial?

Because I tell Christians that they ought to do what they say. They ought to forgive their enemies. There isn’t an asterisk in the Sermon on the Mount that says, “Unless they are Arabs.”

How should Christians make their mark on society?

By telling the truth. I think that one of the problems has been that Christians have often accepted the speech habits that characterize general assumptions about America that have not done us any good in terms of how we should be witnessing to what we think is true. (For example, to say) I think Jesus is Lord, but that is just my personal opinion.

What should Christians be doing?

The first task of the church is to be the church, because only when you do that do you have the ability to be a witness to the wider society. It is only when you worship God that you are then able to say what is true. Most Americans think that everyone believes in God. The God most Americans believe in is not the God of Jesus Christ…

The title of your lecture is intriguing: “Why No One Wants to Die in America.” What does that mean?

It means that we live in a society that’s in deep death denial. Assuming that most Christians live like other people, thinking they can get out of life alive. It’s not going to happen. People care more about who their doctor is today than who their priest or minister is. Most Christians live lives of practical atheism. … Atheism isn’t explicitly a denial of God, it’s to live in a way that God does not matter.

Three things strike me here:

1.Being a follower of Jesus means being a person who is not afraid of speaking the truth. That is the only way to impact our world.

2.The church must be the church. The world does not need another community that mimics something or someone else. So often we are caught up in being purpose-driven, relevant, missional. we place such a big focus on adjectives that define us rather than living out our identity that is defined by a noun- church, the Body of Christ, and yes even Colony of Heaven. We are to give the world what it does need the most a People of God who embrace and live their God-given identity. [Isa. 2:3-4].

3.Atheism is living as if God does not matter. Ouch!!! That’s convicting.