{"id":776,"date":"2021-06-09T11:22:08","date_gmt":"2021-06-09T15:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/js1cd06kre.onrocket.site\/?p=776"},"modified":"2021-06-09T11:22:08","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T15:22:08","slug":"walk-the-talk","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/2021\/06\/09\/walk-the-talk\/","title":{"rendered":"Walk the Talk"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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According to Greek mythology, the seemingly invincible warrior Achilles was saddled with the original Achilles heel. 

His mother Thetis, in an effort to endow her infant with immortality, had dipped him into the river Styx.

Unfortunately, his left heel never made it into the water.  That\u2019s the place where she had been holding him.  Having one small point of vulnerability seemed like a minor issue \u2013 until the Trojan War, that is, when the Trojan prince Paris, seeking vengeance for the death of his brother at the hands of the Greek hero, shot an arrow that hit just the right spot and brought Achilles down.  

Since ancient times, an \u201cAchilles heel\u201d has referred to the point of weakness of an individual, an idea, an enterprise, or even a nation \u2013 not to mention the fatal vulnerability of a religion.

For centuries, the so-called problem of evil \u2013 \u201cHow can an-all powerful, all-good God allow so much suffering in the world?\u201d \u2013 has been regarded as the place where Christianity is most vulnerable to attack.  But in his book Fool\u2019s Talk: Recovering the Art of Christian Persuasion<\/em>, Os Guinness proposes that the Achilles heel for most followers of Jesus \u2013 at least when it comes to relating to others \u2013 is their hypocrisy.

To put it bluntly, Christians regularly and even outrageously fail to practice what they preach. 

This is not a new development.  During the waning days of the Roman Empire, the emperor Flavius Claudius Julianus (known to history as Julian the Apostate) endeavored to return Rome to the paganism of his ancestors.  Julian knew that throwing Christians to the lions had backfired \u2013 persecution had actually stimulated the growth of the early church.   

Julian, however, whom many historians believe had a Christian upbringing, knew his opponents well.  He would destroy them by exploiting their hypocrisy in representing the Prince of Peace.

The emperor called a special meeting of the bishops.  He urged them to work through their differences and live together in harmony \u2013 knowing that would almost certainly trigger their worst impulses.  \u201cNo wild beasts are as dangerous to man as Christians are to each other,\u201d he declared.  As Guinness points out, \u201cWhen Christians fight with Christians, there is an important sense in which both are defeated already.\u201d

Julian\u2019s pagan revival ended dramatically when he died after only two years on the throne in A.D. 363.  But scores of other historical figures \u2013 friends and foes of the church alike \u2013 have followed in his footsteps, repudiating Christians for their failure to walk their own talk.

\u201cChristianity might be a good thing, if anyone ever tried it.\u201d<\/em> (Playwright George Bernard Shaw)
\u201cFor God\u2019s sake, don\u2019t touch the Church of England.  It\u2019s the only thing that stands between us and Christianity!\u201d<\/em> (Philosopher C.E.M. Joad, who ultimately became a Christian)
\u201cI believe in the Holy Catholic Church, and I only regret it does not exist.\u201d<\/em> (Archbishop William Temple)
\u201cIf Christians would seem to me to be more saved than they are I might believe in their Savior.\u201d<\/em> (\u201cGod is Dead\u201d philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche)
\u201cThe world is filled with half-unbelieving believers and with half-believing unbelievers.\u201d<\/em> (Theologian Reinhold Niebuhr)

In his book The Portable Atheist, <\/em>Christopher Hitchens calls attention to the historic failures of Christianity.  Instead of documenting a glorious atheistic vision for the world \u2013 as Guinness points out, there is no such vision \u2013 Hitchens zeroes in on the Crusades, the Inquisition, and witch-burning.  Christians, in other words, turn out to be their own worst advertisements.

These observations, because we know they are valid, sting like an arrow that has found its mark. 

But that doesn\u2019t mean our spiritual failings have to be our Achilles heel, let alone the grounds that others might use to dodge their own honest search for God.     

Christians are not the only hypocrites in the world.  It\u2019s safe to say that inconsistency in keeping promises and living up to one\u2019s highest personal ideals is a universal human experience \u2013 and a powerful confirmation that the biblical notion of pervasive sin is rooted in reality.  

As Jesus\u2019 Parable of the Sower makes clear, only one out of the four kinds of \u201cheart soil\u201d yields a healthy spiritual harvest.  Christ himself, in other words, predicted the failure of most people who call themselves Christians.

But that hardly lets us off the hook.  Jesus didn\u2019t say, \u201cYou know, you should try really hard to be the light of the world and the salt of the earth.\u201d  In the Sermon on the Mount he declares, \u201cYou are<\/u><\/em> the light of the world and the salt of the earth.\u201d (Matthew 5:13-15) 

That\u2019s not just our goal, but our identity.  We are Christ\u2019s witnesses, called to provide an authentic and factual account of his work in our lives. 

\u201cLet your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.\u201d<\/em> (Matthew 5:16)

You would think that after two millennia of the church\u2019s less-than-perfect performance in that quest, the world would have turned its back on Jesus.  But just the opposite appears to be true.  Spiritual inquirers seem more curious about his life and famished for his message than ever. 

Outsiders may look at Jesus\u2019 followers and sigh, \u201cWell, I don\u2019t necessarily want to end up looking like them. <\/em>But I do want to learn more about Jesus.\u201d 

May God give us the grace we need to close the gap between what we say and what we do \u2013 so his Light can come shining through. 
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According to Greek mythology, the seemingly invincible warrior Achilles was saddled with the original Achilles heel.  His mother Thetis, in an effort to endow her infant with immortality, had dipped him into the river Styx. Unfortunately, his left heel never made it into the water.  That\u2019s the place where she had been holding him.  Having one small point of vulnerability… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":777,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[254,255],"class_list":["post-776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-hypocrisy","tag-light-of-the-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=776"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":778,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/776\/revisions\/778"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/777"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/glennsreflections.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}