Frankenstein’s Little Lambs

Frankenstein’s Little Lambs

The creature, which he had hoped would be beautiful, is instead hideous to his eyes, with a withered, translucent, yellowish skin that barely conceals the muscular system and blood vessels. After giving the monster life, Frankenstein is repulsed by his work: "I had desired it with an ardor that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” Frankenstein flees hoping to forget what he has created and attempts to live a normal life. Victor's abandonment of the monster leaves the monster confused, angry and afraid.
-Dr Frankenstein’s words from the novel by Mary Shelley-

The book is a fiction, but all good fiction tends to reveal men’s hearts and bare the soul.

The current trend of “Big Christianity” as in “Big Oil” or “Big Tobacco” seems to be creating an deviant strain of Christian, not much different than Frankenstein’s monster. Emaciated, tasteless, weak and very strange, scaring the bejesus out of most ordinary people, if there are such a thing.

And us who are a part of this huge empire and engine that I choose to call “Big Christianity” are despised, feared and thrown out without a wink by almost everybody that feels like they have been pressured, influenced or used by this big corporate engine.

You don’t have to look far to find the victims of Big Christianity, wounded Christians that love Christ with all their heart, never daring to darken or perhaps actually lighten the doorstep of the church again. The late Dr Martin Luther King once preached a sermon called the “Knock at Midnight” with a main thought that many people were knocking on the door of the church and either getting no answer or becoming utterly confused when they were turned away or left hungry after so many attempts at extracting real life from this huge edifice.

Martin Luther King’s words in his sermon “A Knock at Midnight” still bear a striking resemblance to our current church history.

We must not be tempted to confuse spiritual power and large numbers. Jumboism,(my word was “Big Christianity”) as someone has called it, is an utterly fallacious standard for measuring positive power. An increase in quantity does not automatically bring an increase in quality. A larger membership does not necessarily represent a correspondingly increased commitment to Christ. …But although a numerical growth in church membership does not necessarily reflect a concomitant increase in ethical commitment, millions of people do feel that the church provides an answer to the deep confusion that encompasses their lives. It is still the one familiar landmark where the weary traveler by midnight comes. It is the one house which stands where it has always stood, the house to which the man travelling at midnight either comes or refuses to come. Some decide not to come. But the many who come and knock are desperately seeking a little bread to tide them over…..

At midnight this type of church has neither the vitality nor the relevant gospel to feed hungry souls. ….Many men continue to knock on the door of the church at midnight, even after the church has so bitterly disappointed them, because they know the bread of life is there.

How many of us, like Dr Frankenstein, are horrified to find that our dreams of a beautiful bride, our noble visions of transformed lives and our answer to the great commission have merely produced the Frankenstein Sheep of Big Christianity? Much like a forged painting, or a copy of a copy, it just doesn’t seem to have the true soul of the original dream. In it’s place some deviant strain of rabid consumers of religion, sermons and songs, grow fat on eloquent speakers and the next singing sensation.
Instead of Christ’s disciples, we become more akin to Frankenstein’s monster.

The current trend of Big Christianity, bigger shows, bigger churches, bigger bibles, bigger TV names and preachers all smacks of a monstrous aberration of early church history that is recorded in the Book of Acts and Gospels of Christ. Proving once again that men are sinners, depraved and wicked, and left to ourselves we will turn into some kind of hideous monster. C.S. Lewis said that we are all moving toward one of two destinies: immortal splendor or immortal horror.

I do not mean everyone is living in obvious flagrant sin and perversion, but perhaps a titanic Golden Calf is being created out of the huge engine of Big Christianity.

If you have taken the time and energy to have a profound and deep relationship with God in Christ, and you then take a good long look at the huge structure being built around North American Christianity, you must come to a similar conclusion as I do, that something is very wrong with Big Christianity. I believe it is far from the holiness that Lord called us to. Oh, it looks good, and has produced some stellar people but holiness is more than skin and actions.

Just take a look around most churches and you will see the white-washed gleaming smiles of people afraid to say they had a bad day. Thinking that to do so would be a shame on the God who is perfectly able to defend His own reputation and is in fact so secure in His own Holiness that He needs no defense. People choosing rather to hide their pain and sorrow under a gauze of nice fat study bibles, study programs and assorted other programs smacks of the unholy as assuredly as the next pagan on the street. Their own bible says They will act religious, but they will reject the power that could make them godly. 2 Tim 3:5 (NLT)

Not at all rejecting God, and fully believing the tenets and doctrines that they are taught and hold dear. Hungry for more religion and church, they wander from feeding trough to feeding trough and in true American Style they become obese and unhealthy choosing to fill their lives with whatever they can get at the next buffet. Twisted and broken, many are hearing the glorious promises of God day after day, but never realize a smidgen of what’s said. Beginning to sour and feeling trapped inside, fearing to flee, they stay put and go round and round hoping for a change that never comes. For some there is one last desperate cry for some sermon to fix them, before they run out the door, never to be seen again, morphing at last into little lost lambs.

Frankenstein’s sheep wander into the barn on Sunday, latte in hand, bible under their arm and wander out after hearing a sermon by yet another sheep who has slaved, prayed and sought God; hoping that at least one of these monstrous sheep would grasp the idea of true holiness, true depth of relationship with the Living God. Alas, too many just stare at the preacher and gobble up tidbits, treating it all like junk food and snacks.

No wonder Jesus used sheep as a metaphor for us people. We fill ourselves with the best choice morsels filling our lives with DVDs, concerts and the latest miracle worker, and going out into the world nice polished little lambs really changed but a little. But does the lamb ever become a ram or does it reproduce? Does it seek the injunctions of Christ to be holy for He is holy? Is He the center and the reason for our being? Or is that just a doctrine we’ve learned? Are our wills being bent to breaking to see His will and purpose in our life?

I believe true holiness is a gut wrenching search for the God in Christ. A never-ending quest for a deep-seated holiness in Christ. The scripture says that He dwells in the High and the Holy place “with him” who has a contrite and humble spirit, in order to, revive the spirit and the heart Isaiah 57:15.

How does that square with coffee cups, bumper stickers and the masses of money that are spent on meager reminders that God just barely exists? Those truly must be the sacraments of Big Christianity. Is the High and the Lofty One really pleased with our sacrifices to cash registers and the internet for the latest Christian trinket that proves we are His?

As a Pastor of a gloriously small church and a person who talks to people on the street most everyday, I am confronted with this fact; that many people have come to the church of “Big Christianity” and left either bitterly disappointed or more wounded than when they came, vowing to never knock on that door again. Many, if not most of the people I meet are more than willing to engage in a conversation about Christ and God. many, if not most, feel that Jesus has answers for their problems. But, they have been so tainted by their experience in this or that church, that they can’t even be dragged kicking and screaming into a good local church.

Their experiences are as varied as the unique creations they are. They have not been pretty enough, dressed right, nor had the social correctness and proper behavior to be deemed a welcome addition to the window dressing of the congregation. It is never really said, but the message is loud and clear. The sign outside says all are welcome, but the loudest message is on the faces of the congregants. “You’ll ruin the view”. I have been in churches where it was hard to find a less than beautiful person, and at the very least the members of the worship team were all gorgeous.
I’ve heard it said that there are seemingly more numbers of “beautiful” people in Southern California; and the reason is that in the early days of Hollywood “good-looking” people came to Hollywood seeking their fortune, most failed, but they stayed and met other “good-looking” people and produced “good-looking” kids. Perhaps this is what happens in some churches, a type of natural selection.
What does that say to the weary and beat up traveler looking for some bread and water for their soul?

I think these wounded sheep are perhaps the beautiful ones, and the ones in the “inner circle”, “the beautiful ones”, “the untouchables” are Frankenstein’s Sheep. Intending to build something beautiful with mere cast off parts, much of the church has morphed into something very hideous and distant from what the True Shepherd intended. I fear that looking so polished and gorgeous has given us a sense of rightness, and all the while we are wondering where the new life that we preach about is really at.

Our kids are all home-schooled and kept away from the evil and corrupting influences of the world. We campaign for the right politicians and dream of a Christian State not much different than what radical Islam does, except we know we are right.

All of this looks good, sounds good and sometimes even feels good, but we have turned into Frankenstein’s Sheep instead of Christ’s. Surely Christ’s sheep are battered and bruised, and a quick reading of the New Testament will show that Christ preferred the company of hookers, pimps and thieves, to the polished act of the bible thumpers of the day.

If we could just take a real look at ourselves, as Paul the Apostle said, “if we would judge ourselves we would not be judged 1 Corinthians 11:31”. Let’s put away our nifty bumper stickers, slick DVD’s and gleaming white teeth. Let’s show a little frailty, knowing that we are but frail creatures subject to a fall at any moment. Perhaps then, we could hear the knock of the wounded and disenfranchised, and together we could eat the Bread of Life and drink the Living Water. Perhaps this would be enough to renovate our souls and the sickening ugliness of “Big Christianity” would come tumbling down like a house of cards, and in it’s place would be a truly beautiful bride and not just the bride of Frankenstein.

The creature, which he had hoped would be beautiful, is instead hideous to his eyes, with a withered, translucent, yellowish skin that barely conceals the muscular system and blood vessels. After giving the monster life, Frankenstein is repulsed by his work: "I had desired it with an ardor that far exceeded moderation; but now that I had finished, the beauty of the dream vanished, and breathless horror and disgust filled my heart.” Frankenstein flees hoping to forget what he has created and attempts to live a normal life. Victor's abandonment of the monster leaves the monster confused, angry and afraid. -Dr Frankenstein’s words from the novel by Mary Shelley-