Scary books

I'd like to call him a friend, but really, I just met him once. His name is Michael Frost. He's from Austrailia, and he writes scary books.


His most recent is called "Exiles." In the first chapter he quotes a poem by Danish pastor, Kaj Munk. The opening lines go like this:


What is therefore, the task of the preacher (or the church) today?
Shall I answer; "Faith, hope and love?"
That sounds beautiful
But I would say - Courage.
No, even that is not challenging enough to be the whole truth.

Our task today is recklessness.
For what we Christians lack is not psychology or literature.

We lack a holy rage.

The words stopped me dead in my tracks. For a while now I've had this nagging sense that I'm missing something; both in the expression of my own personal faith and in my experience of church I've a hunch that I'm still a long way from the real important stuff. The poem continues;

The recklessness that comes from the knowledge of God and humanity.
The ability to rage when justice lies prostrate on the streets...
and when the lie rages across the face of the earth -

a holy anger about things that are wrong in the world.

To rage against the ravaging of God's earth.
and the destruction of God's world.

To rage when little children must die of hunger,
when the tables of the rich are sagging with food.

To rage at the sensless killing of so many
and against the madness of militaries.

To rage at the lie that calls the threat of death and the strategy of destruction - peace

To rage against complacency.

To restlessly seek that recklessness that will challenge and seek to change
human history until it conforms with the norms of the Kingdom of God.

I talk a lot about 'BEING' the church and I'm starting to see that doing so really means a fundamental change in lifestyle and values and that scares me spitless! Honestly, I crave comfort and convenience and wealth and material possessions far more than I "hunger and thirst for righteousness."

God have mercy on me; I don't even know how I got here!

Munk ends his poem with the most difficult words of all;

And remember the signs of the Christian Church have always been
the Lion, the Lamb, the Dove, and the Fish...

but never the chameleon.