Strange, but Not for the Sake of Strangeness
Solidarity with a Christ who didn't fit in.
We who follow Christ aren’t called to seek out conflict, but neither are we called to blend in.
Jesus tells his disciples plainly: “If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.” He doesn’t say, Go make people mad. He doesn’t say, Try to be as different as possible just for the sake of it. He simply states the reality: If you are shaped by my love, by my kingdom, by my way of life, then the world—the systems and values that operate apart from God—will resist you.
Sometimes there’s a tendency among us to go to one of two extremes:
Some look for a fight. They think being faithful means making enemies at every turn, standing against the world in a way that is loud, combative, and defensive.
Others try to fit in. They work hard to prove that faith is normal, respectable, and completely at home in the culture around them.
But Jesus offers a different way. He doesn’t tell his followers to seek out hatred or opposition. But he also makes it clear that true discipleship won’t always be popular, won’t always be understood, and won’t always be welcome.
We don’t need to chase controversy. But we do need to be faithful, even when that faithfulness puts us out of step with what’s expected or acceptable. And when that happens—when we feel the tension of not quite fitting in, of not being understood—we remember that we are in good company. And it’s okay to feel good about that (but we need not point to it, boasting of righteousness.)
The Church is not here to blend into the world. It’s here to be a sign of something different.
John 15:18-25
“If the world hates you, know that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, the world would love you as its own. However, I have chosen you out of the world, and you don’t belong to the world. This is why the world hates you. Remember what I told you, ‘Servants aren’t greater than their master.’ If the world harassed me, it will harass you too. If it kept my word, it will also keep yours. The world will do all these things to you on account of my name, because it doesn’t know the one who sent me.
“If I hadn’t come and spoken to the people of this world, they wouldn’t be sinners. But now they have no excuse for their sin. Whoever hates me also hates the Father. If I hadn’t done works among them that no one else had done, they wouldn’t be sinners. But now they have seen and hated both me and my Father. This fulfills the word written in their Law, They hated me without a reason.”
Psalm 69:1-4
Save me, God, because the waters have reached my neck! I have sunk into deep mud. My feet can’t touch the bottom! I have entered deep water; the flood has swept me up. I am tired of crying. My throat is hoarse. My eyes are exhausted with waiting for my God.
More numerous than the hairs on my head are those who hate me for no reason. My treacherous enemies, those who would destroy me, are countless. Must I now give back what I didn’t steal in the first place?
Prayer1
God,
Give us the courage to be your people. We do not ask for a life free of difficulty, but we do ask for strength to remain faithful when being your disciples sets us at odds with the world.
Keep us from arrogance, from self-righteousness, from thinking that we are persecuted when we are simply being difficult. But also save us from the desire to be accepted, from the temptation to make your gospel fit too neatly into the world as we know it.
Teach us to be strange, not for the sake of strangeness, but for the sake of your kingdom.
May our faithfulness be shaped by love, and may our love bear witness to the One who was rejected, so that all might be redeemed.
In the name of Jesus, who did not fit in, yet loved the world completely,
By your spirit & in Christ,
Amen.
Adapted from Stanley Hauerwas’ Prayers Plainly Spoken.
Well said, phrase the LORD!!