Everything belongs to God – not just the ‘Christian’ bits

I didn’t expect to hear this particular expression at an online study group, and yet there it was: one of the members uttered that peculiar phrase, ‘Christian things’, and minutes later, another participant repeated it. What exactly, I wondered, are ‘Christian things’? Olive wood crosses? A rosary? An Orthodox icon? A pencil with a Bible verse on it? 

I knew what she meant, of course. Her actual words were something like: “As a teacher, in a school context I can’t talk about Christian things.” I wondered: Has ‘faith’ become such a taboo word that we have to have a euphemism for it? And what bothered me the most was the implication that if there are ‘Christian things’, there must also be ‘non-Christian things’ – things that exist beyond the remit of our faith and are therefore of no interest to God. 

This idea is simply not biblical. Psalm 24:1 says: “The earth is the Lord’s and everything in it.” If that is true, everything that lives and breathes, as well as the lava, rocks, stones, and the buildings made out of them, are within the reach of faith and of interest to God. A beautiful landscape does not become more beautiful, or of more concern to Christians, because Mother Basilea slaps a tablet with an engraved text in front of it. The landscape speaks for itself: as Paul says to the Romans: “Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” (1:19-20)

Has ‘faith’ become such a taboo word that we have to have a euphemism for it?

Equally, the preservation of the earth, the conservation of species, the eradication of poverty and inequality, the promotion of health and prosperity – surely all of these come under the catch-all category of ‘Christian things’, because they are encompassed in Christ’s redeeming death and resurrection: “For God was pleased to have all his fullness dwell in him, and through him to reconcile to himself all things, whether things on earth or things in heaven, by making peace through his blood, shed on the cross.” (Colossians 1:19-20 ).

What part of ‘all things’ do people not understand? 

The sacred vs secular distinction might be useful if you are classifying the poems of John Donne (his holy ones vs his naughty ones) or the music of Bach but, in the end, every creative endeavour comes from God, however twisted it is by sin, and all things in heaven and on earth reflect the God who was involved in each step of their development.

When we talk about and demonstrate our faith, we are not just handling ‘Christian things’. We are encountering life, with all its challenges, joys, sorrows, physicality and frailty. If I swim or do breathing exercises to maintain my God-given ageing body, I am doing ‘Christian things’, just as much as when I read my Bible or pray. There are Christian people and non-Christian people, for sure. But there are no ‘Christian things’.