Introduction
Once,
while sitting in the back of a class in seminary, I turned to a friend and
said, “I’m a radical centrist.” At the time, I was mostly just amused by the
oxymoronic irony of the phrase. But, upon reflection, I have come to appreciate
the term. To be a Christian is to place the life and teaching of Jesus at the
center of one’s life. This is the first is a series of posts in which I will
explain what I think that means – and doesn’t mean.
I. What it is Not, Part
1: Not Moderate
Radical
Centrist is not the same as “moderate.” I confess that I am congenitally
cautious. Thus, I find moderation in and of itself an attractive idea. It can
be a short-coming for sure. But I am also convinced that there is nothing
moderate about following one who said things like:
If any want to become my followers, let them deny
themselves and take up their cross and follow me.
– Mark 8:34
But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for
those who persecute you,
– Matthew 5:44
For the gate is narrow and the way is hard, that
leads to life, and those who find it are few.
– Matthew 7:14
He who finds his life will lose it, and he who
loses his life for my sake will find it.”
– Matthew 10:39
To him who strikes you on the cheek, offer the
other also; and from him who takes away your coat do not withhold even your
shirt.
– Luke 6:29
It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of
a needle than for someone who is rich to enter the kingdom of God.
– Mark 10:25
So therefore, none of you can become my disciple
if you do not give up all your possessions.
– Luke 14:33
But I say to you that everyone who looks at a
woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart.
– Matthew 5:28
But I say to you that if you are angry with a
brother or sister, you will be liable to judgment; and if you insult a brother
or sister, you will be liable to the council; and if you say, ‘You fool,’ you
will be liable to the hell of fire.
– Matthew 5:22
If you forgive other people when they sin against
you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive
others their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.
– Matthew 6:14-15
Whoever divorces his wife and marries another
commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another,
she commits adultery.
– Mark 10:11-12
If any one comes to me and does not hate his own
father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even
his own life, he cannot be my disciple.
– Luke 14:26
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you tithe mint, dill, and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters
of the law: justice and mercy and faith. It is these you ought to have
practised without neglecting the others.
– Matthew 23:23
You that are accursed, depart from me into the
eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels; for I was hungry and you
gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, I was a
stranger and you did not welcome me, naked and you did not give me clothing,
sick and in prison and you did not visit me.’ Then they also will answer, ‘Lord,
when was it that we saw you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or
in prison, and did not take care of you?’ Then he will answer them, ‘Truly I
tell you, just as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not
do it to me.’ And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous
into eternal life.
– Matthew 25:41-46
I give you a new commandment, that you love one
another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this
everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.
– John 13:34-35
Truly, truly, I say to you, unless you eat the
flesh of the Son of man and drink his blood, you have no life in you;
– John 6:53
He who believes in the Son has eternal life; he
who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God rests upon
him.”
– John 3:36
I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one
comes to the Father, but by me.
– John 14:6
If you love me, you will keep my commandments.
– John 14:15
For more, see What Jesus Commanded
To
be a radical centrist means being centered on Jesus Christ and taking seriously
the radical challenge of his whole life and teaching. It also means being
suspicious of attempts to rationalize or interpret away that challenge in any
of the particulars in order to make Jesus ‘safe’. And it means being honest
about one’s own failure to live into his radical challenge. There’s nothing
very moderate about any of that.
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