The Kitchen Sink
An occasional piece of paper
October 15, 2006
Vol. 9 no. 40

Everything But...
           A Beadle between two Stones, rolling, that is. Bad jokes have to be preserved somehow now that the Stones have finally left town.
           Bad jokes are easier to understand than Jesus lately. The onslaught of excruciatingly demanding and puzzling proclamations continue as the rich young man asks Jesus about the spiritual life. Camels and needles keep getting stuck in our way.
           Exactly how one does live the spiritual life fully and authentically is like dragging a huge camel through the narrow eye of a needle. We want the camel to carry all our baggage as a matter of course, and of course, it’s hard enough just to get ourselves and the camel through. We are attached to so many other things that we are weighted down. Most of us will buy shedding wealth, though who doesn’t want to take a little with them?
           But leaving behind, renouncing family is just un-Christian. Lots of churches advertise themselves as “family churches,” building their entire scope of ministries around the sacred family unit. It is exceedingly hard to be a single person in such churches, but ironically easier to be faithful to the Gospel.
           The Gospel is not family-oriented, as much as we try to squeeze it through the needle. In most cultures, family is the most important social unit and one is expected to defend it first against all enemies. I have witnessed many a person who has consistently chosen family over involvement in the church and engagement in the Gospel life. Don’t get me wrong, I love my family and certainly want lots of other families in our church, but it is painfully true that emphasizing family is detrimental to the growth and life of a Christian church. What do we emphasize instead?