Shrewd & Innocent

So, why do I want to start a blog and why would I want to name it something like “Shrewd & Innocent?” Well, first of all, it’s a reference to Matthew 10:16:

“Behold, I am sending you out as sheep in the midst of wolves, so be wise as serpents and innocent as doves.”

Jesus sends out his disciples to preach among the towns and villages. There’s no guarantee that the locals will be all that happy about their message that the “kingdom of heaven is at hand.” Jesus wants to get the message out, but he doesn’t want it to get out the wrong way. That’s why he chooses the words “shrewd” and “innocent.” Jesus values acting with wisdom and working the system so that God’s word is clearly communicated. Jesus also knows that if such wisdom and cunning results in harming others or is done for selfish gain, it can totally undo the message that would have been communicated.

There is nothing new under the sun. I believe it is the particular challenge of American Christianity to be both shrewd and innocent. We can’t simply rely on people wandering in off the streets into the open doors of our churches and hearing the Gospel any more. We need to reach people where they are, wherever they are and communicate in their language the message of the Gospel of Jesus. This takes a certain amount of strategy, cunning and shrewdness.

We also can’t lose sight that this grace and faith is not from ourselves. It is the gift of God. We didn’t write the Bible. God did. We don’t get to choose what passages we like and the ones that we’ll ignore. There’s nothing innocent about doing surgery on the Bible to “fix” it. We also can’t excuse bad behavior for the sake of the Gospel of Jesus. That ends up communicating the exact opposite of what we thought we said! There’s a certain humility to being a Christian that keeps us from thinking this is all about us or that we can be justified to treat people badly because we’re “right.”

Putting shrewdness together with innocence in the name of Jesus is a powerful thing.

I’m not altogether convinced that the Christian church in America today is all that good at being shrewd or innocent. That’s a big reason why I’m blogging. Now, I’m not blogging to call everyone out and wave my finger at them. There are plenty of other blogs doing that. I would rather tap my keyboard about the things that I see working and ideas about how today’s disciples of Jesus can be both shrewd and innocent in a world that expects the Christian to be a limp-fish hypocrite.

I’m just one disciple of Jesus. I am a forgiven sinner called by Jesus to make disciples for Jesus who make disciples for Jesus. Let’s talk about how that happens and how being both shrewd and innocent in the name of Jesus will allow us to serve him in new and awesome ways.