I think about what it must have taken to be Noah. We all know the story. Genesis 6:9-10 reminds us that Noah was righteous, blameless, and that he walked with God. And yet the people of his time thought him to be at best a fool, at worst completely insane. So I wonder: “Is this what it means to follow God? Will it mean that others will see us as fools, or perhaps even worse?”
Thousands of years later in his letter to the Corinthian church Paul wrote of Jesus’ atoning death, “…but we preach Christ Crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to the Gentiles foolishness, but to those who are the called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ is the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men.”
Jesus put it in perhaps slightly harsher terms, saying to the disciples that if they loved him, the world would hate them. He went even further in the Sermon on the Mount to say “Blessed are you when men hate you, when they exclude you and insult you and reject you as evil, because of the Son of Man.”
There is a consistent theme throughout the scriptures pointing to this simple reality. If we follow Christ closely, the prevailing philosophies and structures of our fallen world will not look favorably upon us. However, as people who seek righteousness both in the personal and social arenas, our calling is to be faithful to God’s Kingdom vision, regardless of the harm we may do to our own social reputations.
When I think about Noah, I instantly flash forward to people within our collective memory who have had the courage to pursue righteousness in the midst of intense pressure to conform. People like Eric Liddell, the runner highlighted in the movie The Chariots of Fire, who refused to run in the Olympics because his event fell on the Sabbath. Resisting intense pressure from the British Olympic Committee and the Prince of Wales, his convictions triumphed over National Pride. Or Martin Luther King Jr and Rosa Parks, who in the face of profound institutional oppression found their voice and stood by their convictions in opposition to an entire culture. Or the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoffer who, in direct defiance of the Nazi party, repeatedly called German Christians to reject the evil of the Third Reich, and pursue the righteousness of the Kingdom of God. For his faithfulness Bonhoffer was put to death just days before Germany was liberated. “The world will hate you” indeed.
But I also think of people in my own life. Like the hundreds of college students I have known who have forgone the typical indulgences of youth, and instead lived a life of righteousness in a subculture more conducive to licentiousness and debauchery. I think of a good friend who decided to forgo admission to a prestigious medical school, in order to pursue the ordained ministry even in the face of fierce resistance from her parents. I think of a former colleague who gave up her life of relative ease to pursue mission work in a region where she could be killed for her work.
So here is the question: Where are you putting your faith on the line? Where are you standing on the principles of the Kingdom in such a way as to draw skepticism and concern from the prevailing dictates of our culture? Here is what I think. When each of us finds that place where God is calling us to make a transformative difference, and we begin walking in obedience to his calling, the scriptures are reminding us that we will find opposition, even ridicule, but in the end the joy of walking with God will overwhelm us, because it’s just the right thing to do.
Chuck Russell serves as Leadership Development Director at The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection.
