"An irritable restlessness"

In January I'm preaching again at my church. Which should be interesting as my last sermon didn't go over too well with some. I used the word "crap" and compared spiritual formation to peeing straight in a public bathroom. Some thought this was a bit inappropriate. Oh well... At least it was a different kind of sermon.

In this coming sermon I want to try to describe the Christian's experience in the world. And by "the world" I mean, in light of the most recent series I did, the principalities and powers. The way markets, political structures, nations, and institutions make slaves of us and cause us to dehumanize each other. I want to describe how anonymous marketplace encounters cause me to see the person standing in front of me in a line at WalMart as less than a person. These people in my way are just obstacles. Impediments. Rocks in the path of my life.

I want to talk about how the Christan should feel about all this, all these dehumanizing influences that we rarely pay attention to. I want to describe how many Christans are lulled into a kind of moral stupor, just going with the flow of American culture without ever objecting. Or even noticing that there might be something objectionable in the first place.

Words like "rebellion", "resistance" or "counter-cultural" come to mind. Talk like this also gets people thinking about social justice. But what I'm after is a description of a basic dissatisfaction, a sense of not fitting in with the world. Of being discontented with how the world is functioning, how it grinds people down. Here's the phrase I've been kicking around for a week or so:

An irritable restlessness.

I'm wondering if this phrase--an irritable restlessness--captures the experience of being a Christian in the world. And to be clear, I'm not saying that Christians should be cranky. I'm saying that they don't fit in and they get upset about how the world treats people. The irritability here is with the dehumanizing forces of modern living that turn us all into anonymous ciphers.

I think an irritable restlessness characterized Jesus' ministry. He seemed frequently frustrated by the social and religious arrangements that created forces of dehumanization. So Jesus breaks bread with tax-collectors and sinners. Jesus seemed impatient and restless with the status quo, with how things were going. His entire ministry seemed to crackle with an irritable restlessness. A morally charged dissatisfaction and a refusal to submit to a status quo that dehumanized people.

In a sense, then, I guess I am talking about a kind of crankiness, of being a sticky wicket, a sore spot in the world, someone who mucks up the smooth running machinery of indifference. In short, Christians aren't supposed to make the world run better. Rather, we object--get irritable and restless--when asked to submit to the status quo. We just aren't going to treat people that way. And if that means I'm less efficient, on time, or productive. Well, world, you can go to hell. I'm taking my time to treat people differently. I'm a bit fed up.

This might sound revolutionary. But what I'm talking about is more workaday and private. An intentional refusal in my day to day interactions to treat people as strangers, as obstacles, as blank faces in the crowd. Everything in modern life is forcing me into that pattern of living. But I'm irritably restless with it all. It's not right. It's dehumanizing. So I choose kindness. Patience. Warmth. Humanity. Dignity. Not for myself. For you. To wash your feet. To open the door for you. To listen to you. To offer a word of gratitude. To pause for a moment in a marketplace exchange to connect with you as a person. To recognize you as a sacred miracle, as an Image of the Invisible God.