Saturday, August 27, 2011

Looking for Substance in the Shadows

Shadows are hard to hang onto. You can see them, you can get a rough idea of what it is they represent, but even in their sharpest relief they are a poor facsimile of the real thing. The problem with shadows is that they lack substance and any effort that is made to grab them, hang onto them, and find sustenance in them is met with empty hands and empty bellies. No one tries to eat the shadow of a tomato plant or ride in the shadow of a car because there is nothing to bite into and no space to actually occupy. We all know this about shadows, of course. It seems silly to even belabor the point. Yes, yes, you are saying, no one expects a shadow to give to them what only the real thing can give, no one looks for a substance in shadows. Or do we?
It seems to be a common experience in evangelical circles these days that we do not find substance in our daily walk. There are many who in the deep quiet of the night wonder if there is anything real to this Christian thing. We do all the right things, of course. We go to church, we attend studies, we fulfill our duties on various church committees and give our dues. When asked why we do these things we will tell you we do them because we are Christians, but when we are pressed, or when the outcome of our lives is observed there is little substance to be found. Sin that has confounded us for years continues to confound us. There is little difference for us between our involvement in the Rotary Club and our involvement in the church. Our relationships in the church are not marked by love but by obligation.  Hopelessness seems to engulf us when we are pressed to speak about the internal substance of our daily walk. The promise of the Christian life, the greatness of being filled by Him in whom the whole fulness of the deity dwells bodily, of being buried with Him in baptism, raised with Him through faith, and of being made alive together with Him (Col 2::9-15) are phrases without substance in our everyday lives. Not only are these phrases without substance but they have become meaningless in any real everyday kind of a sense. Those are things for theologians and those thinker type people, we might say, not for us everyday folks. Those aren't things that anyone can really lay hold of or find real. You just have to do the best you can. Living the Christian life means doing and not doing certain things, it's what you eat and drink and what you wear. Christians go to church and work on committees. It means dividing up according to what kind of music we like and arguing about money. It means forming social groups where we can do 'Christian-y' things with something for every age and stage. When these disappoint we seldom wonder why our 'Christian thing' has failed but rather seek to do these things longer, harder and stronger; with more focus and with everyone on the same page.... In short, we strive after things that have the appearance of life but are of no value in the still of the night, or in the clamor of the day, or in the temptation of the moment. We have come to believe that the shadow is the substance and we teach others to believe so too.
To use Paul's words, this ought not be. The substance is Christ. He has come. He is alive in our midst. The life that is in Him and in us is not an impotent life. This Christ-life does things, it moves us out of bondage and into freedom. It not only promises us freedom from the sin that besets us, it can actually overcome it. It not only is the love of God to us, it gives to us the love that is to mark the believing church. This life gives hope in the dark days and encouragement in the storms. 
Sometimes you have to look at the result before you can understand the cause. The Christian walk is not supposed to end in a list of committees that we attended, rules that we kept, or forms that we upheld. These things are at best mere shadows and there is no life in the shadow! The Christian walk is supposed to end up in places where our hearts are encouraged, where we walk together with others with whom we have been knit together in love, and where we come to a rich understanding of God's mystery, Christ, in whom all the treasures are to be found. (Col 2:2-3) Anything less is a mere chasing after shadows and ends in places where we are taken captive by an empty deceit that is according to human traditions and elemental spirits of the world, but not according to Christ. Paul urges us to 'see to it that no one takes you captive.' May it be so for us and may the substance that is Christ permeate our walk that we might find life!