“No-one ever suspects the butterfly” sniggered Bart Simpson in one of many pearls of wisdom to be gleaned from the yellow skinned inhabitants of the world’s longest running sitcom.
It’s sometimes not the biggest and best that end up taking the world by storm. Who would have thought that a mis-fit band operating out of a Guildford off-license would go on to make their contribution to the soundtrack of a generation?
It was 1974 and the group that became known as ‘The Stranglers’ were beginning to make their name in the emerging punk culture. Three years later, the hit single ‘No more heroes’ epitomised their mix of insight and misanthropy. Not familiar? You can still find it on youtube. It’s a montage favourite; often providing the backdrop to fallen celebrities’ darkest moments.
“Whatever happened to the heroes?” wailed the Guildford quartet. Plato, the Greek philosopher, defined ‘misanthropy’ as when one puts complete trust in somebody thinking the man absolutely true and sound and reliable and then a little later discovers him to be bad and unreliable and when it happens to someone often he ends up hating everyone. He could have been talking about The Stranglers. You’d think the world would have got used to being let down by now. The expenses scandal, Tiger Woods, Wayne Rooney, it seems like barely a week passes without another sports star or politician falling from grace. It’s been going on for centuries. Put someone on a pedestal and it doesn’t take long for them to trip or get knocked down. Maybe that’s why Jesus seems like such a crazy idea to most of the world. Someone who could never let us down? Really?
Jesus doesn’t promise our everyday lives are going to be OK as soon as we start walking with him, but he does promise he’ll never leave us, that whatever happens he’ll always be there, to the very end of the age. So how can we share this message? Through history it seems like people have tried almost everything. “I know, let’s build a cathedral so magnificent that everyone will see how great God is. Or how about sticking some guy who seems to know a thing or two in some fancy robes and driving him around in a Pope Mobile. Or what about putting together an incredible band. Maybe we should create a dedicated divine cable TV channel? Perhaps we should do an amazing conference with some fantastic speakers. We could create a new gimmick or model or method and write a book to go with it and that’s bound to do something isn’t it?
The problem is, people in robes still screw up, cathedrals start to fall apart, ‘Christian’ cable channels start to taste of pot-noodle spirituality, key-note speakers turn out to be less than squeaky clean and models and methods don’t always work. It’s not always this bad, but by and large, hundreds of years of ‘religion’ means that the world doesn’t expect that much of Christians. They’re certainly not looking to them for a new, more meaningful way of life.
People are tired of Christianity, but maybe that’s because they haven’t met many real Christians, little Christs, actually trying to figure out what being a follower of Jesus means in the world. I think Jesus knows that we live in a world with no more heroes. Two thousand years ago the Jews were expecting a champion, a warrior and Jesus came in washing feet and riding on the back of a donkey.
As followers of Jesus, we can provide the antidote to misanthropy. We could be a band of believers who don’t pretend they’ve got it all sorted but point the way to someone who did. We can show what it means to be committed to community, truly loving our neighbours, helping each other grow in wholeness, seeing people released into freedom and new life.
A life with Jesus is a better way of life, the answer to significance, identity and purpose in this mixed up world. The university years represent an incredible opportunity to figure out and learn to communicate what that ‘way’ means and to proclaim and demonstrate it to everyone around you. No-one ever suspects the butterfly and maybe that’s our greatest opportunity.
