Welcome to this week’s devotion, dear readers!

Greetings to readers from various subcultures, including all my Trekker,  Goth, Vegan, and Teenager readers.  Hi!

(A subculture is a group of people that exist within the larger mainstream society, with their own ways of doing things.)

I’d also like to welcome readers from various countercultures, including Hippies, Gang Members, members of PETA, and even the Mafia.  Hello!

(A counterculture is a group of people who oppose and work against the mainstream culture)

I don’t understand or even agree with you all, but I’m glad to see you.

Now, one more group to welcome.

Hello, Christians!

Hmm, I’m wondering…

Which group are you in?

Is Christianity a subculture or a counterculture?

It’s a question worth pondering.

Are Christians a group just within the culture, or opposed to it?

This is kind of tricky, and Jesus isn’t walking around here in the 21st century to tell us the proper posture to take.

On the one hand…

• Jesus said to pay Caesar what was due Caesar, but to pay God what was due God.
• And elsewhere he said he had not come to abolish the law, but to transform it.

Those both seem to be statements accepting the current culture and showing a willingness to work within it.

But while its true that there were times Jesus seemed okay to co-exist with culture, I’m pretty such he never accommodated it.

• He elevated women, children, tax collectors, prostitutes, lepers, and more far above society’s norms.
• He preached a radical equality, a rejection of material wealth, and a life of Kingdom-centered servanthood as the goal of every follower.
• He was willing to die, in fact, so that things might change.

Alright, then.

I believe that if Jesus were to weigh in on the subject, he would declare a strong desire that Christianity be seen as a counterculture.  A group of people mobilized for transforming the world.

I’m wondering, dear reader…

How do you see it?

Have a great week,

Mitch

These crosses hang in the back of the Trinity United Methodist Church Sanctuary in Ottawa, KS.