Thanks to my good friends on Twitter, I was alerted to an article in today’s New York Times about churches putting on their own mixed martial arts as an outreach tool. Sketchy, but I get it.
Then comes the problem. The big problem. These aren’t being treated as gateway events to get people to hear a fundamentally different message, they’re being used to connect people to a “Jesus” whose “gospel” is embodied in the fighting of the mixed marshal arts.
The article quotes a pastor as saying: “Compassion and love — we agree with all that stuff, too,” said Brandon Beals, 37, the lead pastor at Canyon Creek Church outside of Seattle. “But what led me to find Christ was that Jesus was a fighter.”
Yes, that’s what led the disciples to follow him too–all the way to Jerusalem. And what they, at the end, had to discover was not what Jesus came for. The battle and warfare imagery is transmogrified as violence and fighting are shunned (Peter, put away that sword!) and salvation is brought not by beating the crap out of the oppressors, but by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on the cross.
Why is narrative theology so important? Because the story tells us that the way of our salvation (self-giving love so that others might live) is the story we’re called not only to assent to but also to embody. “Take up your cross and follow me,” says Jesus. “Those who belong to Christ have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires,” says Paul. Oh, and we might elaborate that these desires include the rage, factionalism and the rest that go into being an ultimate fighter.
The story of the cross suggests to me that the collision of “Feet, Fist, and Faith” is no gospel at all. These ultimate fighting feet are not the feet that don’t kick, but find themselves washed. These fighting fists are not Messianic, but Roman: the fists in Jesus’ story strike the Messiah without retaliation. This faith is not the faith of Jesus Christ that is obedience in death so that others might live.
Yeah, the Story is that important. And yeah, they’re getting the gospel that wrong.
