The Albatross Around Our Neck
In Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s poem entitled “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” he tells the story of a man on a ship that is driven south by a storm and eventually reaches the icy waters of the Antarctic. An albatross appears and leads the ship out of the poor situation. The albatross is fed and praised by the ship’s crew, but the mariner shoots the bird. Eventually they get into mist and snow, then rough uncharted waters near the equator. The crew blames the mariner, and they force him to wear the dead albatross around his neck. The ship encounters another ghostly ship, and on board is death (in the form of a skeleton) and a pale woman, they are playing dice for the lives of the crew. Death wins and slowly takes the lives of all the crew except for the mariner. He eventually takes the albatross from his neck and survives but must roam the earth telling his story of redemption.
If you will allow me, I’d like to use this illustration for our modern American church. Our country is in a crisis like never before. Our “ship” if you would, is tossing to and fro. I believe the solution to our problems is a return to the Bible and its values. We need Jesus as Lord, but even short of that (many of our founding fathers did not accept Jesus as Lord, but they valued to principles of the Bible), such a return to biblical values would benefit us beyond measure. True, but let’s pray for more than that.
Let’s allow the Bible to be the albatross. It can lead us to safety. But a problem in our society is that far too many “Christians” want the name, want salvation, but don’t make any real effort to learn what Jesus and his apostles taught, no effort to learn the principles of life from both the Old Testament and the New, and thus shoot the albatross and kill it. Just wearing the name is not enough. The “ship” of church floats into troubled waters. And many give lip service to our need to return to biblical values, yet they don’t really know what those values are (maybe they know the political version of them). They wear this albatross (the Bible, or maybe a cross) around their neck, but it is dead to them. It is just a symbol, nothing more. The crew (the true, faithful members of the church) could help, but we’ve pushed them away, in essence they are dead to us also, so no help comes. We (Americans) are left with what could save us, but we have killed it, it is hanging around our neck, a blatant symbol of our hollow faith.
What do you think? An apt description of what ails the U.S. church, and thus the U.S.? Far too many Christians fail to become disciples of Christ, with the guidance he provides in scripture, our compass for life, and we thus defy the name we wear. The Bible, which should shine the light on the path we are to follow, instead becomes an albatross around our neck. We say we honor it. There it is right in front of us, hanging from our neck (or more literally laying on the table beside our bed), but we have killed it. We refuse to listen to its advice. Our culture stares in unbelief. They can see the hypocrisy of our ways. Meanwhile, they are true to their own standards. Give them credit for that.
A few words from Coleridge’s poem: “At length did come an albatross. Through the fog it came. As if it had been a Christian soul, we hailed it in God’s name.”
Don’t make the Bible an albatross around your neck. Not only hail it in God’s name, read it, absorb it, learn it’s lessons, discover the words of Jesus and his apostles that define the Christian.
Cross Point: “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
If you will allow me, I’d like to use this illustration for our modern American church. Our country is in a crisis like never before. Our “ship” if you would, is tossing to and fro. I believe the solution to our problems is a return to the Bible and its values. We need Jesus as Lord, but even short of that (many of our founding fathers did not accept Jesus as Lord, but they valued to principles of the Bible), such a return to biblical values would benefit us beyond measure. True, but let’s pray for more than that.
Let’s allow the Bible to be the albatross. It can lead us to safety. But a problem in our society is that far too many “Christians” want the name, want salvation, but don’t make any real effort to learn what Jesus and his apostles taught, no effort to learn the principles of life from both the Old Testament and the New, and thus shoot the albatross and kill it. Just wearing the name is not enough. The “ship” of church floats into troubled waters. And many give lip service to our need to return to biblical values, yet they don’t really know what those values are (maybe they know the political version of them). They wear this albatross (the Bible, or maybe a cross) around their neck, but it is dead to them. It is just a symbol, nothing more. The crew (the true, faithful members of the church) could help, but we’ve pushed them away, in essence they are dead to us also, so no help comes. We (Americans) are left with what could save us, but we have killed it, it is hanging around our neck, a blatant symbol of our hollow faith.
What do you think? An apt description of what ails the U.S. church, and thus the U.S.? Far too many Christians fail to become disciples of Christ, with the guidance he provides in scripture, our compass for life, and we thus defy the name we wear. The Bible, which should shine the light on the path we are to follow, instead becomes an albatross around our neck. We say we honor it. There it is right in front of us, hanging from our neck (or more literally laying on the table beside our bed), but we have killed it. We refuse to listen to its advice. Our culture stares in unbelief. They can see the hypocrisy of our ways. Meanwhile, they are true to their own standards. Give them credit for that.
A few words from Coleridge’s poem: “At length did come an albatross. Through the fog it came. As if it had been a Christian soul, we hailed it in God’s name.”
Don’t make the Bible an albatross around your neck. Not only hail it in God’s name, read it, absorb it, learn it’s lessons, discover the words of Jesus and his apostles that define the Christian.
Cross Point: “For the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of the soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart” (Heb. 4:12).
Posted in Cross Points