Philip: ”I’m not with you, neither am I against you!”
Salaman: “Can he do that?”
Jack Sparrow: “He’s religious. I believe it’s required.”
—Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
*****
I can’t say I was the biggest fan of the fourth Pirates of the Caribbean movie, but I can say that this quote has stuck in my head for the last 9 years (since I first saw the film). Jack Sparrow has an unexpected knack for wisdom sometimes, and I believe this is one of those times.
As I expand, perhaps I should clarify up front that, in this post, I aim to speak to the Church, to my brothers and sisters in Christ. The rest of y’all, I love you—but this message is for those who, like me, have called Christ their Savior and Lord.
You’ve all, I’m sure, seen enough of the news and of social media to agree that the cacophony of voices sounds a lot like that first line quoted above. Everybody’s yelling, “You’re either with us or against us!” Opinions rise like forest fires, and it seems like every day we’re bombarded not just with opinions on one cause but by brand new causes (or old causes that somebody thought needed emphasis now). We started with opinions on COVID-19, then we got opinions about stay-at-home orders and masks and proper ways to clean things and who gets to work and what it all means. And then came the opinions about racism and protests and riots and police and social justice and all number of other things that one person or another has decided relates to any of these topics. Then we got opinions about politicians and voting and...the list goes on.
And I’m sick of it.
Hear me well: It’s not the mass bombardment of opinions that disturbs me. That’s been going on for years—decades, centuries...keep on counting.
What bothers me is this: The bombardment of opinions and the aggressive—even threatening—demand for alliance to cause after cause is coming not just from the world but from Christians.
Guys. We already have a flag. And in our pursuit of other banners to raise in the name of justice or safety or whatever else has become the catchphrase of the day, I believe we have been letting that flag drag in the dirt.
Look, the world is doing its best to advocate for what it thinks is right and good. But it’s lost; it’s screaming for causes because it doesn’t know what else to do.
Why are we listening? Why are we caving to the demands of a world that can’t even see the battle that we wage as Christians every day? Have we lost sight of the fact that the real battle is and always has been one “not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms” (Eph. 6:12, NIV 1984)?
Don’t you see? The enemy is having a hey-day right now. He doesn’t care what cause you pick if it means he can get you to set down the banner of Christ in order to hold another flag. He doesn’t care what you fear as long as you fear something. He knows that every time we give into fear we’ve given him ground.
Every cause that’s being proclaimed right now has some element of good in it. But we know, don’t we, what happens when we make a good thing an ultimate thing? Any banner we choose to hold besides the banner of Christ is idolatry.
And I tell you as strongly as I know how: The banner of Christ doesn’t look like any of the causes that are being thrown around in this global tug-of-war.
What does our banner look like?
It’s a banner that says when we’re slapped in the face, we don’t go out and hold a protest. We turn our other cheek and let ourselves be slapped again.
It’s a banner that says we clothe our enemies with love.
It’s a banner that says we let people steal from us—no, more than that! We give them more than what they were trying to steal.
It’s a banner that never gives an ear to worry and never lets fear or concern for safety be a reason for any action.
It’s a banner that says righteousness is primary and that the humble get heaven.
It’s a banner that blesses the peacemakers and the ones who work out their salvation in their closets while still being lights to the world.
It’s a banner that says we don’t pay any attention when someone says, “Look, here is our salvation!” or, “No, salvation’s over there!” We know where our Messiah is, and we know that it’s the meek who get to see Him.
Ours is a banner that advocates death as the path to life.
Ours is a banner that advocates suffering as the path to virtue.
Ours is a banner that advocates the kind of love that the world will call pathological, self-sabotaging, and absolutely foolish.
Because it is foolish. It’s always been foolish.
But I ask you—in tears—will you let that banner drop because the world says it is foolish? Will you let that banner drop because some other cause is ringing more loudly in your ears than your Master’s voice? Will you let that banner drop because you fear men who might kill or shame your body? Have you lost your fear of the One who holds your soul?
My challenge for you, my brothers and sisters—beloved ones who make up the Body of Christ, the Church—is this: Follow HIM. Please. I beg you. Look into His face. Listen to His voice. I guarantee you that His voice is not going to sound like any of the rampant, raging causes that are demanding your alliance. He is the whisper in the whirlwind. He’s the One who says there’s a lot more going on here than the world realizes, the One who’s asking us to pay attention to what He is up to, not to what the world is proffering on its idolatrous tables.
My call to you is, quite simply, what Peter says in II Peter 3:11-14:
Since everything will be destroyed in this way, what kind of people ought you to be? You ought to live holy and godly lives as you look forward to the day of God and speed its coming. That day will bring about the destruction of the heavens by fire, and the elements will melt in the heat. But in keeping with His promise we are looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth, the home of righteousness. So then, dear friends, since you are looking forward to this, make every effort to be found spotless, blameless and at peace with Him. (NIV 1984, emphasis added)Friends, nothing else matters. Our mission is to point people to Jesus—our existence on this planet is for the sole cause of introducing people to Him, of bringing His Kingdom here, even as He did.
If you find any other flag in your hands, I suggest you drop it. Drop it, and start living in all things the sort of life that our Lord has called us to live: a life of humility, a life focused on righteousness and love, a life that reflects Him.
We’ve been given a Kingdom that heals sickness, casts out demons, dissipates social divides, and throws world systems on their heads through humility and forgiveness, not through uproar. We have nothing to fear. And, on top of that, we’ve got a world before us that is crying out in agony for help.
Let’s help it, then, not by abandoning our flag to take up its causes but by holding our flag up with more courage than we’ve had before. We help the world not by seeking its life but by calling for its death—by calling for repentance and surrender to the King and to the Kingdom that is truly life.
So let us look to Him, lay down all other flags, and hold up His. We are neither for the world nor against it. We are for Christ. And we’re religious, so yes, Jack: that’s required.
