Vanity vs. Virtue

Living here in Louisville's been an experience thus far. Basically, it's starting all over and having to reassemble a life in a completely new place. One of these areas that is of great importance but I'm finding to be amazingly difficult is finding a church! Now you'd think that being Louisville, the seemingly veritable seat of evangelical conservatism that it would be reasonably easy to find a church to commit to, work within, and rejoice in. For what it's worth, so did I. Maybe I'm either unlucky, too picky, or otherwise inhibited from finding such a place here thus far, but it's been really hard to do so. It begs the question, "why?" Why is it so difficult for me to find a church that just seems to fit? Admittedly it could be that "I'm just too picky," but I don't honestly think that's it. So what then is the problem? Boiled down, I'm becoming increasingly more convinced that it's a problem of vanity and it's conflict with true virtue. Vanity, Vanity... ... and we're great at preaching it. Has it ever occurred to anyone the senseless nature of preaching that focuses on a problem of humanity in a moral context to which those who are His (by the Holy Spirit) are usually already aware? We preach against sin with such a drive - which isn't bad in itself - but we do so in a manner that is completely incomplete. What do I mean incomplete? So many of the sermons I hear - even in the so called "conservative" churches are so man centered and full of vanity its a wonder they grow at all. Here's an example. Last week myself and three other Texan "Theo-Refugees" went to a "conservative" church (that will remain nameless) and watched a man preach what I will call one of the most vain and man-centered sermons I have ever seen. It was loosely based on the an assortment of Scripture, and it's main intent was to get us to "declare our independence from sin and from bad behavior." Again and again throughout the service, the emphasis was on what we needed to do to be free from problems and how we could achieve all we could have in freedom from these things; (in a corporate-model, goal-oriented fashion I might add.) Ick. Where to start... I was so grieved by the end of this tragedy that I could barely speak. So we're to declare independence from sin and that's it? Find what's wrong and make a self-centered, driven, committed effort to change it? Oh Help us Please Lord. During the service a line kept going through my head, "The virtues of Christ are enough!!!" I don't want to stand up in my pew in all my arrogance and say "I CAN!" in unison with equally devastated people. That's not what cleanses me, restores me, or encourages me. If ever there were a more antithetical sentiment to the Gospel express from the pulpit I dunno what it is! And it's rampant - from church to church to church you can go and hear the same thing: "be good, be moral, God will help you but it's up to you to make yourself into what you need to be." Oh what death is this! Effectively this serves as a divorce from God in a pursuit of righteousness - and it makes such a pursuit our own. It doesn't matter how many "by Grace's" or "Through Faith's" you throw into the declaration. The vocabulary matters very little at all when the result is simply telling people to stand up, do it better, try harder, commit more, you can do it, etc... All that does is prop us up on our own and further harden our resolve to fix ourselves. It leads to legalism, self reliance, pride and ultimately death. Moral, righteous, "Godly" acts are of absolutely NO value when pitted against the unsearchable righteousness, untainted Glory, incomparable worth, and unmitigated joy of Christ. And Virtue? Consistently through Scripture we are afforded the idea of human decrease. And as a disclaimer, proof text fans, I will not be doing exegesis during this entry, so if it's not readily apparent that what I am about to say is 1000% biblical teaching, do the digging on your time. You'll have a lot of material, I promise. So where was I? Ah, human decrease... We by nature seem to mess things up. So the skeptic would say to me "then you think we should preach softly?" By no means, but we should preach completely. The call isn't to stiffen your upper lip and forge ahead in your "independence." It's to fall on the floor and admit you can't. It's to die to one's self, to look upon Our beautiful Jesus and be so compelled by His beauty, by His righteousness, by His incomparable value to sell all we own so that we may have Him as treasure. Human virtue is an oxymoron - to to pursue it would be by definition striving after wind- vanity. Some will say this is placating to emotions. To those I would challenge to show me a man who passionately pursues joy in Christ who makes a bad husband. Where is the woman who has dipped her hand in the sweet fountain of living water who settles for meager drinks of sex and selfishness? Where is the teen that would rather submit to popular culture than proclaim the life-bringing Gospel of Grace and Beauty with every fiber of his being? I submit that such people do not exist. They do not exist because any that would haven't tasted the richest of fair. I get tired of saying it, but not so tired that I will cease; We were not "saved" to be moral. We were justified to enjoy Jesus and resonate His Glory. We are not called to forge ahead in our own self-determined independence, but to depend, to hide, and to be transformed by Him. It is arrogance alone that would differ from this assertion. It is understandable that some fear a lazy church - backsliding, morally empty and culturally dictated. Is not the Church Christ's Bride? Were we not secured for Him by Him? Are His virtues not efficient in washing us in the water of His Word? Perhaps He needs us? Arrogance - and leading to frustration, grinding, and death. A hard heart can still do miracles but they still end in Hell. Oh for churches that preach completely! To the objectors who think that morality should be our chief concern and that such talk from me or anyone else from the pulpit would leave us morally bankrupt and un-glorifying to God, on top of what I have already said to you, I leave you with this: Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, who has made us competent to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. Now if the ministry of death, carved in letters on stone, came with such glory that the Israelites could not gaze at Moses' face because of its glory, which was being brought to an end, will not the ministry of the Spirit have even more glory? For if there was glory in the ministry of condemnation, the ministry of righteousness must far exceed it in glory. Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. Since we have such a hope, we are very bold, not like Moses, who would put a veil over his face so that the Israelites might not gaze at the outcome of what was being brought to an end. But their minds were hardened. For to this day, when they read the old covenant, that same veil remains unlifted, because only through Christ is it taken away. Yes, to this day whenever Moses is read a veil lies over their hearts. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.
~2. Corinthians 3:4-18