Holy Chain Mail, Batman

I guess it’s finally time I said this. Of all of the worship choruses that I sing or intimate prayers that I pray, or all of the time I spend personally with the Savior of the World, I must not love Him. No matter how deeply I understand and thrive on the love and grace of Christ, and no matter how much I think I know and love Him, I must be wrong. Over and over, no matter what I put first in my life or how I live it, I am told that my faith in Jesus is not enough. I’m told over and over that I really don’t love Jesus the way that He wants me to. And this comes not from teachers or preachers, theologians or psychologists, but from some random guy or gal through email.

Holy-chain-mail, batman, my peers think I don’t love Jesus. They think that my love for Jesus is a lie and that I don’t even know Him. They think that all of my spiritual life is a waste because I don’t forward email messages with cutesy poems and phrases in them (what the OC Supertones called “bumper sticker doctrine and cute catch phrases”). I must not love Jesus. Every time someone wearing a WWJD bracelet and an “I Love Jesus” tee-shirt decides to distort the word of God and send out some chain email, I am declared guilty of my lack of love or knowledge of Him.

The latest piece of holy-chain-mail that I got came with this warning:

“If you believe in God and in Jesus Christ His Son send this to all on your Buddy list, if not just ignore it.

In the Bible, Jesus says: ‘If you deny me before man, I will deny you before my Father in Heaven.’”

Are you kidding me? Do you see it? It says, (not just implies, but says) that people who believe in God and in Jesus will (not just might), but will send this to everyone they know. And it is proof that you don’t know Jesus when you don’t forward the email. Obviously people who love Jesus and know Him as savior and lord would forward an email about Him. So, obviously if you don’t know or love Jesus you won’t forward the email. In other words; you are saved and prove that you are saved when you forward the email, and you are lost and prove that you are an enemy of God when you disregard the email.

It says, if you don’t believe in Jesus just ignore this message. Which brings to mind another question. Who is this message intended for? Is it intended to show unbelievers the greatness of the love of Christ? No, because it encourages you to ignore the message if you aren’t a Christian. As if the message of grace was not intended for the lost but for a bunch of stuck up Christians who want to pat themselves on the back.

Apparently the God of the universe, the Savior of the world, and the Spirit of Truth are not equipped to declare my salvation, that feat must be left to a self-righteous, self-centered, and self-honoring email that some misguided holier-than-though “Christian” would write. When Jesus said in Matthew 10:32-33 that “everyone who acknowledges me before men, I also will acknowledge before my Father who is in heaven, but whoever denies me before men, I also will deny before my Father who is in heaven,” He did not mean “send the email to your friends and coworkers or go to hell.” That’s not what He was saying. Not forwarding an email has nothing to do with my acknowledging or denying Christ.

The way I acknowledge Christ is to live in such a way that people see Jesus. “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. I do not nullify the grace of God, for if righteousness were through the law, then Christ died for no purpose (Galatians 2:20-21).” It’s all about the grace of God at work in my life, not about obtaining righteousness by sending an email.

You see, God reached down into human history and spoke His grace and love into it through the bible and through the Spirit and through all of the glorious things that Hes does in our lives, not to mention the greatest gift of love: the cross. What else was the cross than a public display of God’s glorious triumph over man’s sin and the greatest display of love and mercy that we could ever know? God doesn’t need email to make His point, He already did that. Jesus on the cross and in the tomb and raised again to ascend into heaven is more more dramatic than a cheesy email. But us self righteous Christians spend our time trying to add more to God, as if we humans have something that God needs. God is not lacking of anything. He doesn’t need holy-chain-mail to get His message across, He gave us the Bible. And we need the Bible more than we need any self serving email.

So, please no more holy-chain-mail. I’m tired of it. I’m frustrated that someone would feel good enough about their position before God so as to suggest that other people’s salvation and love for God is determined by what they do with an email, not what they do with Jesus. Come on church, it’s time to start acting like we know who He is, and put the focus back on Him. Please no more holy-chain-mail, it’s pointless, and will be deleted, but not before I reply to everyone of you with this message. Also, so you know, I do value receiving email from my friends and family, I even like receiving email about Jesus, and would even love to read your new poem or story about Him and what He’s done, or just completely random things. I am just ranting against email that says I don’t love Jesus if I don’t forward it. Don’t be discouraged to send me email, just understand that my love for Jesus is secure even if I think the email is lame and delete it.

I do love Jesus. More than anything. He is the only one who has never let me down, is always there to comfort me in need, and the only one who can put up with me as I am and love me for me, not some future version of me, but me today.