To pay Jesus Christ his proper rent;
To spread his word is my intent
—Chaucer
The Church follows the world like Piglet following Pooh around the larch tree tracking Woozles—but we’re always a few steps behind.
We take up the world’s causes belatedly, some months or years after it brings them to our attention, and we make them our chief talking points. Next year, or the year after, there will be another set of wrongs to be righted and we will uncritically embrace them as well, often overlooking the underlying, unbiblical premises that inform them. Why do we, who claim to follow Jesus, allow the world to set our agenda?
In C.S. Lewis’ Screwtape Proposes a Toast, the demon Screwtape advises his demonic nephew to make men “treat Christianity as a means,” but allow them to go no further. Indeed, the world will use us as a means to its ends, but it will never adopt our end: to bring men and women, boys and girls into contact with the One who loves them beyond measure and gave his life to save them.
The world will always try to distract us by drawing our attention to penultimate causes (Woozles), but “What Jesus said” is our ultimate guide.
David Roper
10.22.20
