Middle Class Jitters

Often I find myself a paradox. You may query what I mean. Well I am really struggling at the moment with ‘middle’classness’, and yet if I assess my cultural standing then I am certain that I am middle class. If I were not a Christian I do not think there would be any issue. It would be lovely to languish in almost complete comfort but for a number of absurd luxuries. I may have to drink £5 bottles of wine instead of £100 bottles of wine in order to enjoy an evening out with the mates, but red wine apparently it has to be, and half-decent wine to boot. Aside from minimal issues such as that things are not too difficult if you are residing in the middle class camp.
But how much of my life reflects the Kingdom mentality that Christ called me to? When I think about how much conversation with friends and peers is built around a slight lack of quality in a meal or the difficulty one faces when delayed in a queue at an ATM, I am not sure Christ would have been caught up in similar conversation.
Please understand that in my heart I have no desire whatsoever to be hyper-spiritual imposing some 21st century legalism upon myself and others. That is the last thing I would want to be accused of…but I do want to be ‘Christ’ to this South East London suburbia and beyond.
Culture is a very powerful thing (I am not sure if you have heard the story of slowly raising the heat on a frog in water which will eventually boil without jumping out) it permeates you and defines you unless you are willing to challenge it and to constantly assess your heart with the inspectoral brilliance of the divine word of the Lord. And it is the word of the Lord (particularly the beatitudes (Matt 5)) that strikes my mind and heart with clinical brilliance affecting my thoughts about myself and others in this particular area. How much of our faith is actually Western Materialism with a dose of Christ? This is a question that Francis Schaeffer would demand that we repeatedly ask ourselves.
I am Christian before I am ZimboEnglish. I am certainly Christian before I am middle class. I will not be judged for the quality of wine I drunk while here or the speed with which I got myself on the 'Middle Class Mortgage madness bandwagon'; I will be judged for how much I lived out the heart of Christ that now rules my heart to a lost, hopeless world!!