Keeping it real, Part III

Blogger’s note: This is the third and possibly final installment on the subject of being real. It is in response to posts by my friend Kim. Her blog is: Innocent Lamb.

'Connection - In an isolating age'

As I began to think about how to craft this post, I found myself embarking on a journey through what felt like a maze of narrow rows of thorns. No matter which way I turned or shifted, I risked getting cut – offending or, even worse, alienating one group or another. I also tried to weigh how much I needed to explain about my positions on the things which made this navigation tricky. Of course, that too could make the trip more difficult.
Ultimately, I am trying to look at how we turn our efforts to connect and be real with those outside the church, especially those seen as outcasts.
So I’ve come up with what I see is the best way to address these issues, both with the following disclaimer and a moderate amount of explanation along the way.
This post is neither an endorsement of the behaviors described or depicted below, nor is it intended as a condemnation of those who would engage in these behaviors. It is certainly not intended to violate the copyrights of the late Jonathan Larson or others who now hold these rights.

With that out of the way, let me introduce to you the following people:

Mark is a struggling filmmaker who has awkward interactions with his ex-girlfriend - a performance artist named Maureen - and her new significant other, Joanne.
Roger is a frustrated songwriter who is afraid to get involved with a stripper and IV drug user named Mimi.
(Tom) Collins is a technical genius who develops a relationship with Angel, a transvestite street performer who helped Collins in his time of need.
Collins, Angel, Mimi and Roger are all HIV positive.
These are the majority of the central characters in “Rent,” a dynamic, challenging, fantastic rock opera – now both in stage and screen versions - written by Larson.
Here are some of the questions they ask or realizations they reach:

From “Rent:”
How can you connect in an age
Where strangers, landlords, lovers
Your own blood cells betray
What binds the fabric together
When the raging, shifting winds of change
Keep ripping away

From “What You Own:”

Connection - In an isolating age;
For once the shadows gave way to light …
For once I didn't disengage

From “Finale B:”

Will I Lose My Dignity
Will Someone Care
Will I Wake Tomorrow
From This Nightmare
There's Only Now
There's Only Here
Give In To Love
Or Live In Fear
No Other Path
No Other Way
No Day But Today

Here's a key example of what I'm talking about from "Rent."

"Rent" is an amazing work I simply don't think we should dismiss because of its content.

On the subject of connectivity, to quote a work referenced in one of Kim’s posts, “Sacred Companions: The Gift of Spiritual Friendship & Direction” by David G. Benner:

“The hunger for connection is one of the most fundamental desires of the human heart. We are like immigrants in a new land, with no family or friends and no sense of place. We seem to have lost our mooring. Or perhaps we have lost some part of ourselves. Like pieces of a puzzle seeking their adjoining pieces, we long for connections that will assure us that we belong.”
Without giving away critical plot details in case you have never seen “Rent” and want to, these six outcasts from both the church and the culture at large form an inseparable bond that at one point is referenced as a “family.”
In talking over this post with Amanda, she made a very valid point: Sometimes those outside the church are better at creating community than those inside it.
Why is that when we are supposed to be work and exist as a body and inherent in that is connection? I don’t have an immediate, safe answer. I do know that I don’t think much of what we do in American Christianity is what we’re meant to do. Again, I’m not sure I have a formula or strategy as to how to get us to a modern form of the authentic church, but I do think it’s something to which we should strive.
How do we make Christ and his church attractive to people like the central characters in “Rent” without compromising the values we find in scripture? Does it really matter if we compromise dogma for the sake of “leaving behind the 99 to save the one?”
How can we make the church relevant to people who wind up finding family and connection in their own ways, seemingly making the church irrelevant?
How do we meet what I see is the standard, which is preaching Christ and him crucified and meeting the standard of Matthew 25:34-40 - helping those seen as the least.
How do we interact with those outside the church, who, by virtue of Christ’s commission, we are directed to reach, especially in today’s culture of fragmentation and often isolation?
I think we have to use Christ as the standard.
In scripture, we are directed to be in the world, but not of it. Somehow there is a balance to being relevant to and interactive with the world we find ourselves in and yet distanced from attitudes and behaviors contrary to Christ’s example.
If you’ll recall, Christ is seen by some as associating with the wrong crowds, something of which most of us in the modern church could never stand accused.

So how do we do this – interact with those would be seen as outcasts by the church and yet not follow their habits and patterns? It’s a perplexing question I think will take a lifetime to answer.

We have to get our own houses in order and make sure we are walking with Christ and are living out the things we say we believe among those closest to us first if at all possible. It’s a tall but necessary order. I used to think it was a “once and done” thing, but it’s really a daily process. However, we shouldn’t let fear of something being discovered being out of order in our own homes as an excuse not to follow Christ and his leadership in our daily lives as we engage the world outside.
As we proceed to look and act externally, we can start by looking at how Christ dealt with people seen as “sinners” and compare them with how he handled the religious elite of the day.
An example of the former can be found in John 4:7-26 – the story of the woman at the well.
It’s safe to say that while he was direct and truthful with “sinners,” he was not overly harsh or abrasive toward them.
He was a whole other person with those who thought of themselves as holy and righteous, but yet permitted unholy activity in sacred places, as seen in Matthew 21:12-16.
In response to these two passages, I think we should continue to study the character and nature of Christ and follow his example, treating people by the Golden Rule (treat others as you would want to be treated) and tackling the things with which Christ would take issue.
So then, at minimum, people seen as outcasts from society and the church would least have a chance to interact with the church, and possibly, learn to love Christ and his teachings. I pray the Lord will lead all of us who read this post to come to this conclusion and that people like those who live like the folks in “Rent” will somehow learn to have hope for more than just today, though today is all we have for the moment.
To borrow words from “Rent:” for once, maybe none of us will disengage.