Community
Church Sermons
Fourth Sunday of
Easter – May 2, 2004
“Reinventing the Church
Becoming Followers Who
Follow”
If we could reinvent the Christian Church to be more faithful and effective in the 21st-century, I would want it to become less of an institution and more of a living community with Christ at its center. Mind you, I’m not saying we need to reinvent the Christian Faith. Our Faith is as strong and vibrant and life-giving as ever before. But the institution that embodies and expresses our Faith can become pretty decrepit from time to time – actually impeding the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Last week, we took a look at how – if we reinvented the church in our day to be less of an institution and more of a living community with Christ at it’s center - it could be one that reaches out with Christ’s love to everyone – accepting people for who and what they are, forgiving them for who and what they are not, and loving them over time into a living relationship with God through Jesus Christ. The world needs such an inviting and inclusive Church. How I hope and pray that we will become more and more a community like that.
Today, I want to take up a second dimension in reinventing the Church. We must become a community that is not afraid to think, and ask questions, and explore doubt, and experiment with faithful living. You know, we are living in a time when many people see the Church as an institution with no intellectual integrity. And they’re right. I remember watching on TV the so-called “world famous Bible scholar Dr. So-and-So” who started out his lecture by castigating those who don’t use the King James version of the Bible. He said, “If the King James was good enough for Jesus, it’s good enough for me!” The other day, I spoke with a good friend of mine who is a religion professor at a State university. He used to teach in a seminary, but – along with other faculty members – was purged when a new regime took over in his denomination. “We were told,” he said, “that we were free to teach and write and think whatever our research led us to, so long as our research led us to what they already believe.” And so we have lost a lot of great Christian scholars in our day because the Church is not comfortable with people who THINK.
The Church, in our day, has
become something like the religious version of the Flat Earth Society where we
cling to antiquated ideas and call those who question them “infidels.”
And that’s probably why the little boy who was asked in his Sunday School class
what faith is thought about it for a moment and said, “Faith is believing
things you know ain’t true!”
The Church’s hostility toward people using their brains along with their hearts and souls is one of the reasons why many people reject Christianity out of pocket. And it is one of the reasons the Church has so become so powerless in finding ways to address the great social and personal issues of our day. We are trying to use 18th century ideas to minister to 21st century people. And it doesn’t work..
We need the Church to become the Church again – willing to use it’s brain, and exercise critical judgment, and ask hard questions. We need a Church whose ministry is not to tell people WHAT to think, but to help people LEARN to think faithfully.
Which brings us to our reading from the Gospel of John.
“How long will you keep us in
suspense?” the people of Jerusalem were asking. “If you are the Messiah,
TELL US PLAINLY!”
The people of Jerusalem wanted a “Tell us plainly!” kind of faith. And frankly, so do we all! I know I do. Don’t you?
My atheist and agnostic friends, I know, would find it so much easier to come to grips with the reality of God if God would just rip open the bright blue sky one day, stick his head through the clouds for all to see and say, “Hey! It’s ME! I really DO exist!”
We all want a “Tell us plainly!” kind of faith.
Wouldn’t it be so much easier to work through the complex difficulties of the Middle East if God Himself would just show up in Jerusalem one day and say, “Look, you people live over here, and you people live over there, and if you don’t stop fighting, you can come sit in the front seat with me and your mother!”
Now that would be a “Tell us plainly!” kind of faith.
And we all want faith to be like that – a set of simple propositions that are clear and settled. That’s probably why we love those big black billboard signs with messages from God printed in big white block letters. Do you know the ones I’m talking about? The one in Lenoir City says, “This Sunday, let’s meet at my house before the game!” – God. That’s pretty clever. Some of my other favorites are:
Is this the sign you’ve been
looking for?
Stop bickering!
Right, wrong, choose!
And my personal favorite, “Don’t make me come down there!”
I don’t know if you’re familiar with the history of those billboard signs, but in 1998 an anonymous client gave $150,000 to the Smith Advertising Agency in Ft. Lauderdale to come up with an advertising campaign to reach people who had drifted away from their faith. It was so well received that the Outdoor Advertising Association of America picked it up as its public service campaign of the year, and began showing the messages in two-hundred cities nationwide. And it’s just taken off from there.
And people love the messages! Why? Well, because they’re humorous, sharp, and…plainly obvious.
We all want a “Tell us plainly!” kind of faith.
So it shouldn’t surprise us that one winter, when Jesus went up to Jerusalem for the Feast of Dedication, a lot of people who were curious about him and the faith he was teaching gathered around him one day and said, “Don’t keep us in suspense! If you are the Messiah, tell us plainly!”
What an opportunity for the Lord to convert the people of Jerusalem, and bring them to the truth of Christ! Tell them plainly! Just tell them plainly if you are the Messiah, and they will believe!
But did you hear Jesus’ answer? It may not be plainly obvious at first glance, but the essence of Jesus’ answer to the people’s demand for a “Tell us plainly!” kind of faith…is “No.”
“No! I’m not going to tell you plainly.”
Strange, don’t you think? I mean, if Jesus were to come into our worship service right now, walk down the aisle, offer a familiar wave over to Bob (because he’s known Bob since way back in Old Testament times), and sat down right here on the steps and asked if you have any questions, what would you ask?
“Ah, Jesus, was the world created in six literal 24-hour days or not? Once and for all, set the record straight. Tell us plainly!”
“Lord, when my child died from cancer, the minister said you needed her more than we did. What could you possibly have needed her for that was more important? We’ve been struggling with this since she died. Tell us plainly!”
“Jesus, there seem to be a lot
of people who aren’t Christians, but live better lives than most Christians I
know. Are they going to go to hell just because they don’t subscribe to our
faith? Tell us plainly!”
“And what about the BIG ISSUES of our day? The war in Iraq. Gay marriages. Health care. Education. What’s the Christian position on these things? Tell us plainly!”
And what would you think if, after putting all our questions out there, Jesus paused – scratched his beard a little – and then said, “No.”?
“No. I’m not going to tell you plainly.”
Well, I’ll tell you what the
people of Jerusalem thought of Jesus’ refusal to tell them plainly. They
became so furious they took up stones to kill him for blasphemy. If Jesus were
really God, he’d tell them plainly in a way that everybody could understand,
and set the record straight once and for all.
But Jesus refused to do it.
Why do you suppose he did that?
Let’s take a look at the passage. Jesus answered, “Well, I did tell you, but you didn’t believe. You’ve seen my miracles, and you still don’t believe. And here’s why you don’t believe: you don’t believe because you are not my sheep.”
Now, Jesus was not saying that
these people were spiritual rejects. No, what Jesus was saying is that these
people had chosen a way of seeking after God and Truth and Life that simply
does not work. You see, they wanted to be told WHAT to believe.
Give us the facts. Give us the truth. Make it plain and simple, and we will believe.
And Jesus said, “No you won’t. Been there and done that. I’ve taught you and shown you, and you still do not believe.”
And then Jesus points out the antidote: “The way to true belief is not by someone else telling you WHAT to believe, but about you becoming one of my sheep and learning HOW to believe!!”
You see, sheep are those who FOLLOW THE SHEPHERD. Without knowing in advance where they are going, how they’re going to get there, or what they’re going to encounter along the way, they nonetheless FOLLOW THE SHEPHERD. Without proof beyond a reasonable doubt, or clarity of reasonable understanding, sheep simply follow the Shepherd, trusting Him to be faithful.
It is only when you commit your life to following Jesus the Good Shepherd through the reality of the world as it is that you can possibly discover whether or not he IS the Savior, or just some rank imposter!
You see, faith is not a set of doctrines. Faith is an EXERCISE IN LIFE!
How can you know whether what He teaches about forgiveness really works…UNTIL YOU EXPERIMENT WITH FORGIVENESS and give it as much as a lifetime to work through? How can you know whether what He teaches about the power of love really works…UNTIL YOU TEST IT BY LOVING? How can you possibly come to a place of believing in prayer…UNTIL YOU DARE TO PRAY? How can you have any idea of God’s justice, mercy and peace UNTIL YOU YOURSELF PRACTICE IT?
Sheep follow their Shepherd. And this Shepherd leads us into depths of life we’ve never experienced before.
One of the places Jesus leads us is into learning to think for ourselves once again. It’s okay to ask questions, and express doubt, and probe the unknown. The Shepherd does not tell us WHAT to think, but teaches us HOW to think as faithful members of his flock.
A second place Jesus leads us is into the unique challenges of your personal life. Can you truly build a happy marriage by following the way of the Lord? You’ll never know until you take the step. Can God’s way make a parent or grandparent a source of redemptive love in their kids’ lives that provides a stronger foundation upon which their lives can be built? You’ll only find an answer when you take the risk to do it. And how does the Lord want me to go about my responsibilities as a neighbor? As a church member? As a citizen?
This week I enjoyed reading in The Christian Century Will Willimon’s tribute to his late father-in-law, the Rev. Carl Parker. Rev. Parker was a Methodist pastor for over 50 years, serving a large number of very small churches. He never quite made it politically to the big comfy church. That’s because he was too committed to probing what it means to be a Christian in society.
Once, in his later years, Carl was preaching to his congregation of about 100 people. He read for them the parable of the lost sheep – where Jesus leaves the 99 sheep, in order to go and find the lost sheep. Then he shocked the people by digressing into the news story of the day which was about the upcoming execution of a convicted criminal on death row in Columbia. He went through the details of the terrible things the man had done to deserve this fate. He had killed, raped and maimed five or six people.
“And yet,” Carl Parker said, “according to today’s text, and the beautiful story Jesus told, God Almighty would go to Columbia, to death row, and seek this man, would stand beside him, and plead with him, until he brought him home. And furthermore,” he continued, “when God finally reaches this lost one, Jesus says there is more joy in heaven over this one sheep coming home than over 99 righteous people – like us!”
Then Rev. Parker turned to the deacon and said, “Joe, how many people would you say we have here today?”
“Oh, about 99,” Joe said.
“Think about that,” said Carl Parker, “99 of us all hunkered down safe in the fold. More joy in heaven over Jesus’ embrace of that murderer for the kingdom than over all of us good ones here today! What a great God we’ve got!”
Will Willimon says, “After that sermon, the people in that little church seemed much more willing for preacher Parker to go ahead and retire!”
You see, most people want a plain and simple kind of faith where everything is black and white and the choices are very clear. But that’s not what Jesus gives us. He gives us things like the parable of the lost sheep, and then leads us to people like prisoners, abused children, poor people, gay people, single parents, lonely folks, families without health insurance, people who’ve lost loved ones, those with whom we disagree – and then Jesus asks us to THINK about what it will mean to be faithful to the one lost sheep.
Faith is not about finding the plain and simple truth about God and life. It is about learning to THINK FAITHFULLY, and to PROBE MYSTERY, and to SEEK THE TRUTH. We need a Church that does not tell us WHAT to believe, but shows us HOW to believe.
“Tell us plainly, Jesus!” the crowd demanded.
But Jesus wouldn’t bite.
He had not come to teach people WHAT to think, but HOW to think…not ABOUT life, but HOW to live!
There is nothing plain and simple about living on this earth. There is nothing plain and simple about being a Christian. But there IS a Good Shepherd who has conquered life, and who comes among us today – atheists, agnostics, seekers, novices, and advanced disciples alike – and Jesus says,
“Follow me – and bring your brain with you!”