c. 1999 Religion News Service

(Dale Hanson Bourke is publisher of Religion News Service.)

UNDATED _ What if we got it wrong?

What if da Vinci and Mozart and Michelangelo were all mistaken?

What if Christ never came to earth to inspire cathedrals or cantatas or crusades?

Think what the last 2,000 years might have been like if Christianity was mostly a private way of life instead of a public declaration. Imagine what would have happened if Christians through the ages had placed more emphasis on Christ’s exhortations about lifestyle and reverence than conversion and proclamation.

What if Christians had spent all their energy on living life as Christ did instead of telling others to do so?

I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if no billboards had ever been erected, no television shows broadcast, no bumper stickers affixed claiming the Christian life as a quick and easy fix.

What if Christians only told about their faith when asked and then gave the tough truth first: Being a Christian is not the easiest way to live. What if Christians tried to talk those interested out of converting and explained how life gets infinitely more complicated if you really start asking,”What would Jesus do?” Perhaps we were never meant to appeal to the masses or Christianize nations or fight for the right to pray at football games. Perhaps we were supposed to live a quiet life of witness and never impose it on others.

There’s plenty of evidence that Christ might have had that in mind. After all, his public preaching was minimal and the Bible is full of stories of him spending time with seemingly insignificant people.

He never sugarcoated the implications of belief. He offered plenty of evidence that following him would result in suffering and even death. Nowhere in his teachings did he even hint at a life of worldly success and prosperity.

Somewhere along the lines Christians took the birth and death of Jesus and hyped them into something other than frighteningly holy events. Somehow we stopped being scared speechless like the shepherds or awed into obedience like Mary and Joseph and became more like carnival barkers rounding up people for the show in the big top.

What if it was never meant to be like this?

What if Christians had spent the last 2,000 years quietly worshipping, reverently following, simply obeying the words of Christ? What if our only witness had been our deeds and our only words had been ones of caution? What if we followed Jesus so closely that we were daily struck dumb in awe?

AMB END BOURKE