So something interesting happened the other day. A few weeks ago I had to go to the hospital (SPOILER ALERT: I'm fine). I took an elbow to the head in basketball, five days later I was still in pain, parents convinced me to go to the ER, so I went.
Once I sat on the bed the nurse came in to ask me some questions. She started off with the normal questions, height, weight, celebrity look alike (I saw her pencil in Brad Pitt). Then a question I haven't normally heard in these types of situations came up. "Do you have a religious preference?" I'm not sure why, but I was taken back by the question and wasn't sure what to say. The first thing that came to my head was, Christian, but I hardly ever use that word to identify myself (I normally say that I am a follower of Jesus). The next thing that came to my head was to say, follower of Jesus but I wasn't sure if she had to check a box or write my answer in, and I was pretty sure there was no box that said, "follower of Jesus." The whole situation was getting too complicated in my head so I simply responded, "No, I don't."
We moved on as usual and I am guessing that she never caught the subtitle of the book I was reading which read, "What is Jesus worth to you?" The nurse exited after asking me everything she needed to know and I was left with my thoughts of why I had reacted in such a strange manner to her simple question and why someone who works in ministry identified as having no religious preference. I came to realize it is because the word Christian doesn't mean to the world what it means to me.
According to a very scholarly source (wikipedia) 76% of Americans identify themselves as Christians. To me, to be a Christian is no simple identity to take on. Peter Rollins writes a parable in which the world is in a battle with Christians. In his story, a man is on trial for being a Christian, which in this world is illegal, and the world holds the following stance; "The court is indifferent toward your Bible reading and church attendance; it has no concern for worship with words and a pen. Continue to develop your theology, and use it to paint pictures of love. We have no interest in such armchair artists who spend their time creating images of a better world. We exist only for those who would lay down that brush and their life, in a Christlike endeavor to create a better world. So, until you live as Christ and his followers did, until you challenge this system and become a thorn in our side, until you die to yourself and offer your body to the flames, until then, my friend, you are no enemy of ours."
That very last line really gets me, "Until then you are no enemy of ours." I get that and that resonates in my heart. To be a Christian, to be a follower of Jesus is to be an enemy of the world (see 1 John 2:15, Romans 12:2). If people heard the word Christian and were afraid of what it might mean, I might want to use it. I do have interest in reclaiming the word, but the last thing I believe that Jesus and his followers were was normal. I believe they were different in a challenging way, after all, most of them got killed.
I don't think that everybody needs to feel the same way that I do. However, that word means just about nothing in my mouth. If I could go back to the situation with the nurse, I wish I would have said something to the effect of, "well I am a follower of Jesus, but you can just write down Christian if you want."
