Punk Ethos and the Disciple of Jesus

I don’t make any secret of the fact that some of my favorite music is Punk rock. Not the MTV, stuff but the old-school, hardcore, Mohawked, three-chord PUNK RAWK that is guaranteed to get a circle going if more than two people are listening. Some look at the music and musicians from a distance and pass judgment saying that no Christian should be anywhere near this kind of music. In general, I have to say they’re wrong. There might be some overly nihilistic bands that feed the undercurrent of despair among their fans but by and large, the Punk genre has an ethos that fits well with the Lord’s message.

This past week I have been witness to an unprecedented amount of finger pointing that screamed ‘Why don’t you care about this or that situation’. The trouble is, it stops right there. You rarely see people act on the injustices that they criticize you for crossing to the other side of the street to avoid. The punk ethos is different. While it criticizes the social wrongs of this world, the folks of this tribe are also know for acting on the problems as well. Rather than pointing my finger at you and whining because you don’t care about poverty or the homeless or the elderly I going to do something about it and then encourage you to join me.

Jesus could have sat off at a distance pointing to the myriad of brokenness that he surveyed and then implored his disciples to do something about it but that wasn’t His style. He got down in the dirt with the woman about to be stoned, He crossed the racial and gender dividing lines at the well, He touched the lepers and so many other act of mercy and grace. His style is my style and we hope it will be yours as well.

But I’m not going to pull my ‘Hawk out and wonder why you don’t devote yourself to the same concerns as I do. The Spirit works His ministry differently in all of us.