“What shall I compare the kingdom of God to? It is like yeast that a woman took and mixed into a large amount of flour until it worked all through the dough” (Luke 13:20, 21).

Is the gospel really counter cultural? Is there a subversive, revolutionary, unruly aspect to the gospel of Jesus Christ?

A First-Century Revolution

There was in the first century. The acids of the gospel message went to work on slavery, power structures, violence, gender inequities, prejudice, religion, marital roles and relationships, and popular morality. The gospel contained explosive ideas back then. The early Christians hurled volatile notions of brotherhood, humility, love, forgiveness, and sacrifice across the battlements of a hardened and fortified culture.

And Christianity won. The culture changed. Values evolved. Attitudes altered. Habits transformed. Social structures realigned. In ways large and small, the world shifted.

And Christianity lost. For Satan learned that Christian ideas are often countered best not by resistance but by absorption. A little compromise here. A bit of accommodation there. Soften the firm. Cloud the clear. Nuance the straightforward. Let the explosive, bubbling, fermenting power of the gospel be muted and diverted by a selfish society and all its yammering ways.

Under such a strategy it didn’t take long for the gospel to lose steam: for arenas to be exchanged for cathedrals, for taking up a cross to morph into merely wear-ing one, and for personal convictions to be subsumed into “causes.”

Until today there is little practical force left to the gospel. We don’t expect the gospel to radically confront our culture. We don’t anticipate boiling, eruptive outbursts at the boundaries where culture and gospel meet.

I’m not talking about riots in the streets or heady confrontations between the agents of the church and the agents of the state. I’m talking about smaller boundaries, the ones that define Christian attitudes and worldly ones, Christian lifestyles and those of the world, what we want and what they do, how we think life works and their views on the “good life.”

Ultimately, a gospel that is counter cultural is a gospel that subverts little things—attitudes, habits, ideas, relationships—at the level of the individual. The culture wars are fought one person at a time, one heart at a time.

I know, it’s easier to sign petitions and boycott products. But the real down-and-dirty fighting in this spiritual war goes on at a personal level. The battle line boundaries aren’t in Washington or the board rooms. They are defined by those points where each of us contacts our culture, where our attitudes and habits, ideas and relationships intersect theirs.

A Twenty-First Century Revolution

With this article, I would like to begin a series of “thought pieces” on how Christians can rediscover the subversive and revolutionary nature of the gospel in the world. The focus will be on the small rather than the large. The intent is to challenge us personally rather than to rouse the church into unified action. I’m all for unified action. I believe in the power of the church, acting as one, to make a difference in this world. But my conviction is that the dynamite of the gospel is ignited first by a conviction made by each of us to become a “an army of one,” to take the fight to our benighted culture by being Christ’s agents and following in the revolutionary, transformative sandals of our Lord.

To accomplish this, I suggest that we turn to the Beatitudes as a template (Matthew 5:1-10). I want to explore the impact Christians could have on our culture if we took the Beatitudes seriously.

What does it mean to practice “poverty of spirit” as we go about our daily lives? How does mourning confront and challenge the values of our culture? What’s so radical about meekness? Why does a hunger for righteousness distinguish us from the world (and, too often, from the church)? How might mercy stand toe-to-toe with the powers of this broken world? Is there anything combative about purity of heart? Why is peacemaking subversive in today’s culture? What would happen if we pursued a course so stubbornly that beatings and ridicule could not divert us?

Would one Christian living like that make any dent in the world? Two? Fifty? A thousand? What might happen at the boundaries of our lives—as we interacted with waitresses and rude drivers and crying secretaries and wounded neighbors—if you and I took the Beatitudes seriously? Would there be any bubbling? Would there be any disruptive and intrusive yeast at work? Would such behavior start a revolution in the small things that, cumulatively, might have the power to change a world?

I’m not sure. But I think it’s time for us to recover a sense of the gospel that calls us to counter the culture rather than be absorbed by it. |L

OTHER COLUMNS:
July 25, 2010 - The calling
July 11, 2010 - A brief history of the Third Millennium [part two]
June 27, 2010 - Carpe chitchat
June 13, 2010 - A brief history of the Third Millennium (part one)
May 30, 2010 - Love your neighbor
May 16, 2010 - The most popular lies atheists tell (Part Three)
May 2, 2010 - Of lighthouses and stormy seas
April 18, 2010 - The most popular lies atheists tell (part two)
April 4, 2010 - Whose friend are we?
March 21, 2010 - The most popular lies atheists tell (part one)
March 7, 2010 - Vampires everywhere
February 21, 2010 - The new buzz in Narnia
February 7, 2010 - Counting the cost of influence
January 24, 2010 - Clone Wars:
morality tales for parents and children
January 10, 2010 - Christians and Culture
December 23, 2009 - Bad Movies vs. Movies that Are Bad
December 6, 2009 - Unless they hear
November 22, 2009 - Why fighting for sexual truth still matters
November 8, 2009 - Why I believe in God
October 25, 2009 - Commuting in days of evil
October 11, 2009 - Poets and don’t know it
September 27, 2009 - How Hollywood proves abortion is wrong
September 13, 2009 - Significance
August 30, 2009 - Dance alternatives
August 16, 2009 - Gluttons for gossip
August 2, 2009 - Truth from Twilight
July 19, 2009 - Visitor-friendly churches
July 5, 2009 - The Shack
June 21, 2009 - When forgiveness fails
June 7, 2009 - Re-imagining Education (Part Six)
May 24, 2009 - We are not alone
May 3, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part five)
April 26, 2009 - Conviction
April 12, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part four)
March 29, 2009 - An evangelistic proposal
March 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part three)
March 1, 2009 - He makes me sick
February 15, 2009 - Re-imagining education (Part Two)
February 1, 2009 - Spiritual insecurity
January 18, 2009 - Re-imagining education (part one)
January 4, 2009 - Church and politics
December 21, 2008 - Heaven’s music
December 7, 2008 - The church and marriage
November 23, 2008 - God and the president
November 9, 2008 - A time for courage
October 26, 2008 - Likes and dislikes: the Prince Caspian movie
October 12, 2008 - What’s that noise?
September 28, 2008 - Modesty matters (part two)
September 14, 2008 - All it takes is some TLC
August 31, 2008 - Modesty matters (part one)
August 17, 2008 - What would you fight for?
August 3, 2008 - Staying through the credits
July 20, 2008 - Honor to whom honor
July 6, 2008 - Tyler Perry and the movies you’re missing
June 22, 2008 - The peaceable kingdom
May 25, 2008 - Another generation grew up
May 25, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part two)
May 11, 2008 - Technology and the Bible (part one)
April 27, 2008 - What is truth?
April 13, 2008 - And the geek shall inherit the earth
March 30, 2008 - A charactered God
March 16, 2008 - The college choice (part two)
March 2, 2008 - Good news can be hard to hear
February 17, 2008 - The college choice (part one)
February 5, 2008 - Ten suggestions for a godly standard of living
January 20, 2008 - Expelled: that “Bueller” guy’s pro-God movie
January 6, 2008 - Choosing a lifestyle
December 23, 2007 - Teachable TV?
December 9, 2007 - Owners or stewards?
November 25, 2007 - Christians teaching Christians to change TV and film
November 11, 2007 - My money is God’s business
October 28, 2007 - Navigating under the radar
October 14, 2007 - The things God values
September 30, 2007 - Movie moments
September 16, 2007 - God’s economics
September 2, 2007 - The best books to read
August 19, 2007 - There’s a rat in ‘separate’
August 5, 2007 - The art of reading
July 22, 2007 - Atheist chic
July 8, 2007 - Why books matter: the sequel
June 10, 2007 - Books: why they matter
June 3, 2007 - The non-impact of “The Lost Tomb of Jesus”
May 27, 2007 - The universal gospel
May 13, 2007 - Loving Muslims through culture
April 29, 2007 - Hope
April 15, 2007 - God in the dark
April 1, 2007 - The gospel goes to the movies
March 18, 2007 - What the Bible movies can teach us
March 4, 2007 - What will you hurt for?
February 18, 2007 - Why Heroes . . .
February 4, 2007 - Give peace a chance
January 21, 2007 - When fairy tales are true
January 7, 2007 - WYSIWYG lives
December 31, 2006 - What’s coming next?
December 17, 2006 - Mercy, mercy
December 3, 2006 - Proof of evolution!
November 19, 2006 - Hungering for God
November 5, 2006 - Violence and government, war and peace
October 22, 2006 - The mighty meek
October 8, 2006 - The Battlestar and the Bible
September 24, 2006 - Soap for the soul
September 10, 2006 - Right vs. cool
August 27, 2006 - The painful truth
August 13, 2006 - More Lies Hollywood Tells
July 16, 2006 - The lies Hollywood tells