“The work of Jesus was not a new set of ideals or principles for reforming or even revolutionizing society, but the establishment of a new community, a people that embodied forgiveness, sharing and showing self-sacrificing love in its rituals and discipline. In that sense, the visible church is not to be the bearer of Christ’s message, but to be the message.”

Stanley Hauerwas

Over and over we hear this truth, and maybe even repeat it, you know the one attributed to Francis of Assisi, “Preach the Gospel always, and when necessary use words.” I think this is a beautiful statement. I wonder though, does our ‘knowing’ this innoculate us from being the truth it presents? Have we somehow allowed our cultural bias for ‘knowing something intellectually to be equivalent to mastery of the truth’ to deceive us? In other words - since we know, for example, that eating too much fat is harmful, we can still get along fine eating fatty foods (since after all we know it is detrimental). In many instances - this could be defined as a mental illness; but in some of our churches this is the status quo. We seem to shrug off many of our obedience obligations with a “Oh yeah, I know that” or “we know that.”

Really? Do “I know that?” Do we know something if we only know it, but fail to live it? Don’t we have an obligation to transform truth into life? Isn’t the incarnation of Jesus the model of such a transformation; the Word made flesh and tabernacling among us (John 1:14)? Isn’t our faith to be an embodied faith? Where did we get the idea that Christianity could be solely an intellectual enterprise (a theological science of doctrine and dogma)?

Our students are not content with a Faith that is merely discussed (important as that is - there are things we must understand and comprehend - but it can not stop there). Our youth will make an exit for the doors and be on to the “next thing” if all they find in our churches as it pertains to God is: words, ideas, and intellectual concepts. Our young people are hungry for something that they can die for, something to be passionate about, something that is worthy of their life, something that will help define their identity, inspire them, and something they can invest there time, energy and passion in. Youth need more than ideas and talk; they are longing for living and breathing examples of truth and the Gospel.

The good news is that the message of Jesus is chock full of such adventure and an endeavor that invites us to come with our whole life. The truth in God’s Word is not offered for us to talk about - it is presented that we might be it and act upon it. We are called to be a third testament or a fifth Gospel. May we be diligent to understand that truth is not meant to merely be understood or believed - but to be known and lived. Somewhere along the line I stumbled across this statement, “Truth that has not been lived is stolen.” Let’s stop breaking the eighth commandment.

How are we doing with modeling a lived, embodied truth? How are we doing in calling our community to value not only being diligent in pursuing a knowledge of the truth, but also sharing and showing God’s truth to one another?

May we make the very heart of our vocation, to convert truth into life.